Baybars Altuntas, Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF), has been named Europe’s ‘Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaging with the Early-Stage Investment Market of the World’ at a gathering of more than 300 high-net-worth individuals from across Europe and the US. Altuntas is a five-time recipient of the coveted EBAN award – in Dublin, Eindhoven, Porto and Malaga before.
(Sofia) Altuntas was recognised at the Annual Awards Ceremony at the 18th Annual Congress of the European Business Angel Network (EBAN). The conference brought more than 300 elite business angels and investors to Sofia from across Europe, Africa, Asia and the North America. A part of the EBAN Annual Congress, the highly anticipated EBAN Awards Ceremony took place on the evening of 25 June 2018. This event celebrates individuals and organisations that have made a successful and significant contribution to the early-stage investment market in Europe in the past year. The best in Europe are honoured every year by EBAN.
The EBAN Annual Congress is one of Europe’s largest and most encompassing international business angel events, held every year in cooperation with EBAN’s outstanding affiliates. Recent editions have been hosted in Malaga, Porto, and Eindhoven. This year, the 18th edition was held in Sofia on 25–26 June 2018 at the Central Military Club, one of Sofia’s cultural icons.
Altuntas is a five-time recipient of the coveted EBAN award. He was recognised as the Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaged Within the World’s Entrepreneurship Ecosystem in 2014 (Dublin), 2015 (Eindhoven), 2016 (Porto) and 2017 (Malaga). This year, the award went once again to Altuntas, who is Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF), Co-chair of the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN), Vice President of the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN) and President of the Business Angels Association of Turkey (TBAA).
About the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF)
An affiliated partner of the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI), the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF) is an international organisation aiming to ease access to finance for businesses from start-up to scale-up, with the ultimate goal of generating more jobs and more social justice worldwide. It is committed to collaborating globally to empower world economic development by creating innovative financial instruments for innovators, start-ups, and SMEs. The Forum interacts with leaders in all areas of society, first and foremost in business and political spheres, to help assess needs and establish goals, bearing in mind that the public interest is of paramount importance. WBAF engages a wide range of institutions, both public and private, local and international, commercial and academic to help shape the global agenda.
About GPFI
The Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) is an inclusive platform for all G20 countries, interested non-G20 countries, and relevant stakeholders to carry forward work on financial inclusion, including implementation of the G20 Financial Inclusion Action Plan endorsed at the G20 Summit in Seoul. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is the Honorary Patron of the GPFI.
About Baybars Altuntas
Former Senior Advisor of the Elite Programme of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), star of the Turkish version of the television show Dragons’ Den / Sharks Tank, Chairman of the World Business Angels Investment Forum (WBAF), Co-chair of the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN), Vice President of the European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds, and Early Stage Market Players (EBAN), President of the Business Angels Association of Turkey (TBAA), the World Entrepreneurship Forum Ambassador to Turkey and the Balkan countries, and President of Deulcom International. One of the top global speakers on entrepreneurship, innovation and angel investment invited by former US President Obama to speak at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Recipient of the European Trade Association of Business Angels (EBAN) award for the Best Individual in Europe Globally Engaging with the Global Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in 2014 (Ireland), 2015 (Netherlands), 2016 (Portugal) and 2017 (Spain). The only entrepreneur to be granted a personal audience with former President Obama at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, DC. Developer of the world-renowned entrepreneurship theory, the Altuntas Start-up Compass Theory, researched by Sheffield University and used in numerous MBA programmes. Advisory board member of the South East Europe Research Council in Greece. Appointed as JCI Ambassador, following Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary General of the United Nations. Profiled regularly by leading international media such as CNN International and Bloomberg. A co-author of Planet Entrepreneur: The World Entrepreneurship Forum’s Guide to Business Success Around the World, published by Wiley (2013). Author of Off the Bus, Into a Supercar! How I Became a Top TV Star and Celebrated Investor, published by Balboa Press (2014) and translated into Chinese, Croatian, Albanian, and Macedonian.
WBAF Press Team Head
Jenna Owen
+44(0)1603 743 363
jenna@mediajems.co.uk
