Dr Telensky finally received the award in the House of Lords of the British Parliament 7 April 2022 and became the second Czech entrepreneur after Tomas Bata, to receive this prestigious award.
The Lord Dahrendorf Award for Responsible Capitalism was founded in 2000 and is awarded as recognition of successful business leaders who apply the principles of moral and social responsibility in managing their business, combining social engagement with business transparency and innovation and create a coherent philosophy of the success of their companies. Laureates are long-term evaluated by criteria that include sustainability, moral justice and also standard financial scales.
Born in Prague, Dr Jan Telensky emigrated to the UK in 1969 without any knowledge of English and with only £2 in his pocket. However, he managed to meet a very successful businessman and passionate ecologist. His activities in the UK include a range of areas including affordable housing, the use of virtual reality in education and creating new construction jobs. He also has a number of business interests in Central Europe, where, among other things, he participates in the development of sports, recreational industry, tourism and the construction of new real estate. In the UK he is committed to providing affordable housing as well as using the properties that are built and renovated to allow apprentices to become fully qualified to work in the construction industry. At each building site Jan provides places for apprentices to work alongside his highly qualified trades-people to carry out the on-site elements of their NVQ (National Vocational Qualification). His scheme has produced over 26,000 fully qualified people to work in the construction industry.
Dr Jan Telensky is a long-standing CBCC member and sponsor. In 2020 he gave an interview to CBCC that can be accessed here.