Ethiopian Person of the Year is an annual issue of the Ethiopian news portal Jimma Times, formerly Yeroo private newspaper, which names and profiles person(s) who was (were) the most influential on events and had the most impact on Ethiopian people during the previous Ethiopian calendar year.
History
Jimma Times's tradition of selecting the "Ethiopian Person of the Year" honor began during the new Ethiopian millennium (year 2000) when the multi-Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele was selected. It established the multi-language (Afaan Oromo, Amharic &English) private newspaper Yeroo the following year. The word Yeroo means "Time" or "Times" in the Oromo language of Ethiopia and its style was to mirror the American TIME news magazine which also publishes its annual "Person of the Year" selections. Yeroo newspaper has stopped publication in Ethiopia after only a few months but its website version "Jimma Times" continues to operate online.
Though many other Ethiopian media outlets make their own annual selections, Jimma Times's independent selection is the only one that often features interviews of the nominees and special report articles on the work of the winner(s). The winner for the award during Ethiopian calendar year 2001 was the peace activist, founder of the first private bank Awash and leading politician Bulcha Demeksa while the CEO and founder of Ethiopia Commodity Exchange Dr. Eleni Gebre-Medhin won the honor in 2002.
* Ethiopian calendar year 2000 refers to western calendar years of 2007 and 2008.