Ernst & Young has named Enzen Chairman Satheesh Kumar a 2017 Entrepreneur of the Year in the 'Services' category.
With a passion to make water and energy accessible, affordable and sustainable, Satheesh founded Enzen in 2006. His idea was simple – do whatever it takes to reduce the inefficient use of energy and water by leveraging passion, empathy and knowledge to provide people with access to these life-essentials.
In the past 11 years, Enzen has already touched the lives of over 80 million people and saved the equivalent of over INR48 billion (US$730 million) by removing inefficiencies in the water, gas and power sectors. During the last five years alone, Enzen has provided access to electricity to over 300,000 previously deprived households in rural India besides implementing 75 water and wastewater projects in 5,175 villages.
Under Satheesh’s leadership, Enzen has not only developed an effective model for cross-pollinating best practices across the water, gas and power value chains, but also enabled its Knowledge Practitioners (Enzen’s consultants, engineers and technology experts) to leverage learnings from both developed and developing economies. The key to the company’s success is the outcome-based approach that Enzen adopts in every project. Enzen has become the partner of choice for over 156 utilities across 12 countries and operates through a portfolio of over 12 group companies and subsidiaries.
Enzen has also been recognized for its innovative approach by several prestigious platforms including Platts Global, which has acknowledged the organization for its social innovation projects. In addition, Enzen has won the India Power Award several times on account of its constant innovation within the Indian power distribution section. Amongst its other recognitions is that from the Society of British Gas Industry, which has awarded Enzen the Utility Leadership Award.
A postgraduate in computer science and a first-generation entrepreneur, Satheesh exemplifies the mind-set of today’s entrepreneurs. He has demonstrated that the passion to drive social change can seed innovative business ideas that can not only create a successful businesses but also drive social change for a sustainable future and better tomorrow.