Billy Hennessey
Oxford Beach

I have known Billy since we were young. We grew up playing ball hockey in the streets of Charlottetown together. Billy is a very hard worker and is driven to succeed. He puts a lot of time and effort into ensuring success of his businesses and his events. if I remember correctly, Billy's first business was selling t-shirts, and sweatpants at our high school. Even then you knew he had the drive to be successful. Very deserving of this award.

I am pleased to vote for Billy Hennessey. I don’t know him in person but attended couple of his events. His team has great vision and knows how to incorporate it within each events and its great fun.

Bill is a determined entrepreneur and has the respect of his partners, peers and team. This, along with his determination and creativity provide to FuEL qualities that are appropriate for this award.

I've know Billy since 2006 when I heard about a guy that was throwing some cool parties at Western and reached out via this new tool called Facebook. Billy has taken his passion for bringing people together and creating fun experiences into a thriving business connecting brands and consumers.

I always envy people whose passion lies exclusively in building successful businesses regardless of what that business does. I would fizzle out quickly if I didn't have a driving passion for type of business itself - even if the margins were incredible. But Billy can find an opportunity and run with it zero hesitation fueled by the passion of building something successful. I've seen Billy start companies that do everything from selling Lobsters from the maritimes, to hauling trash, to manufacturing cleaning products (or acquiring that last one anyway).

What other type of person does that if not an entrepreneur?

I've only known Billy personally for a few months, but have known him by reputation for years. What I heard by reputation during my time at Western and beyond, was that he was a driven, and creative entrepreneur who had a unique ability to find opportunity where others couldn't. These things are all true. But having known him personally, I've learned some other things about Billy that set him apart from other entrepreneurs.

Billy defines what an entrepreneur is. He is not a specialist in any single business, he is simply a specialist at business. Few people could succeed in both the events, and manufacturing businesses. There is very little overlap or shared expertise in those sectors. Yet Billy has been able to excel in both.

Billy believes in his team and has empowered them to take control over their work. Few entrepreneurs ever fully understand how to do this in principal, let alone build the systems required to make it work in practice. This has provided Billy the capacity to take on new ventures and build, which is what he does best.

Finally, and most important, despite having two highly successful businesses, Billy remains humble about his success. I believe this is a key reason for his sustained motivation in a situation where others would coast.

For these reasons, nobody is more deserving of this award than Billy.