Ernst & Young US announces Hala Ballouz of EPE as an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2025 Gulf South Award winner

AUSTIN, Texas <June 16, 2025> – Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) today announced that Hala Ballouz, Co-Founder, Board Chair, and Chief Vision Officer of Electric Power Engineers, was named an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 Gulf South Award winner. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the preeminent competitive awards program for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. For 40 years, EY US has celebrated ambitious entrepreneurs who are transforming industries, impacting communities and creating long-term value.

Ballouz was chosen by an independent panel of past winners, top CEOs and business leaders. Judges assessed candidates on long-term value creation, entrepreneurial spirit, purpose-driven commitment and significant growth and impact.

“It’s an incredible honor to be named a Gulf South winner of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award, and it’s a testament to the vision and grit of the entire EPE team,” said Ballouz, who served as President and CEO of Electric Power Engineers for 18 years. “It’s inspiring to be recognized alongside such extraordinary leaders, and I’m grateful to EY for championing entrepreneurship and celebrating the power of bold ideas to drive real-world impact.”

Headquartered in Austin, TX, Electric Power Engineers (EPE) is a global advisory firm providing world-class consulting, engineering services, and software innovations that shape the grid of the future. With expertise in renewables generation, energy storage, transmission, distribution, grid modernization and digital transformation, EPE provides full-spectrum consulting and proprietary software intelligence solutions that help stakeholders ensure electricity remains reliable, resilient, flexible, sustainable, and affordable in the U.S. and globally.

As a Gulf South award winner, Ballouz is now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 National Awards. The National Award winners, including the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner, will be announced in November at the Strategic Growth Forum®, one of the nation’s most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in June 2026.  

Entrepreneur Of The Year recognizes many different types of business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. The program celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or who raised outside capital to grow their company; transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory; and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh McLennan Agency, and SAP. In the Gulf South, sponsors also include Platinum sponsors ADP, DFIN, DLA Piper and vcfo and Silver sponsors Big Picture and Pierpont Communications.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year                                                                                                                      

Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 60 countries globally.

The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November where National finalists and award winners are announced. The overall National winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About EY

EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets.

 Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow.

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 All in to shape the future with confidence.

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About Electric Power Engineers

A leader in grid reliability and resilience, Electric Power Engineers (EPE) is a global advisory firm providing world-class consulting, engineering services and software innovations shaping the grid of the future. With the mission to harness world-class expertise and innovative power systems technology to engineer a successful energy transition, EPE delivers solutions to support the integration of renewable energy resources and shape a more affordable, reliable, resilient electricity system. Since its founding, EPE has empowered clients to address comprehensive engineering and grid modeling challenges, delivering solutions to evolving energy systems demands. With expertise in renewables generation, energy storage, transmission, distribution, grid modernization and digital transformation, EPE provides full-spectrum consulting and proprietary software solutions. EPE's clients comprise world-leading energy developers, utilities, data center operators, and cross-sector enterprise partners. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA with offices in Canada, Panama, and Lebanon, EPE's global operations span North America, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa. For more information, visit www.epeconsulting.com.

Media Contact
Todd Frank
tfrank@epeconsulting.com