Ernst & Young has awarded its prestigious Ernst & Young 2007 London Region Entrepreneur of The Year Technology and Communication award to Sean Phelan, founder of Multimap. Phelan picked up the trophy at the awards ceremony at the London Hilton Metropole, in recognition of his success as a leading internet entrepreneur and innovator.
Multimap provides mapping and location-based services, delivering more online maps, point to point driving directions and geo-spatial (‘where’s my nearest?’) searches to more companies than any other supplier in Europe. Under Sean’s leadership, Multimap has grown from a back-room start-up to a £10 million global company with over eight million unique users and 115 employees based in the UK, US and Australia.

Multimap was the first company to put maps on the web in Great Britain, and its activity has contributed enormously to the staggering growth that the online mapping and location-based services market overall has seen over the last decade. Multimap continues to innovate with new business services, new features on www.multimap.com, and its internal business processes.
Richard Hall, Ernst & Young’s Leader of UK Entrepreneur of The Year, comments, “Sean is a technology visionary who has changed the landscape of mapping and location-based services over the last decade. He developed his own business concept and showed real determination in growing a strong brand that has become a household name. He has built a strong team at all levels of the organization and demonstrated strong financial performance; all combine to make him worthy of this award.
Despite being the founder of a multi-million-pound enterprise, Sean doesn’t rest on his laurels. He encourages his team to continue to be internal entrepreneurs - to practice ‘intrapreneurship’. This focus on innovation is key to success of his company, Multimap, because Sean knows that each new product has its own limited lifecycle and therefore what’s needed is a rolling product portfolio,” he continued.
Sean Phelan, founder of Multimap, said, “It is an honor to receive this highly-coveted and widely-respected award. I have to emphasize that my success and that of Multimap is entirely due to my 100-plus colleagues who have made the company what it is today. Multimap has seen consistent growth, based on solid, scaleable foundations and consistent excellence of customer service, for more than a decade. And, thanks to the combination of innovation and good business sense that underpins all our activities, we remain, on track to be a leader on the global stage. So, on behalf of all Multimappers across the globe, I am delighted to accept this award. Thank you!”
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