Joe Mann, Founder and CEO of Arete, Named EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 Florida Award Winner

The award recognizes original founders and transformational CEOs who are creating long-term value through entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth, and impact.

BOCA RATON, FL, UNITED STATES, June 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Joe Mann, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Arete, was named an EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year^® 2026 Florida Award winner. Mann was selected among nearly 35 program participants that included 592 finalists across 17 regions competing for the title.

Joe Mann built his career in telecommunications at the intersection of technology, government, and critical infrastructure. As ransomware and financially motivated cybercrime escalated, he recognized a critical gap: while nations defend physical borders, there was little structure for protecting the digital infrastructure that underpins the economy. Driven by a mission to protect livelihoods and preserve business continuity, he founded Arete. What began as a small team of fewer than ten has grown into an organization of over 400 professionals that supports companies, insurers, financial institutions, and governments worldwide. Today, Arete empowers organizations to make confident, compliant, and defensible decisions across response, remediation, recovery, and payment.

“I am deeply honored to be named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year^® 2026 Florida Award winner. This recognition belongs to the remarkable team at Arete, whose dedication, innovation, and perseverance have helped transform how organizations respond to cyber extortion and financial crime,” said Joe Mann, founder and CEO of Arete. “We started Arete with a vision to protect the digital infrastructure that underpins modern economies and to ensure organizations can make confident, defensible decisions during moments of crisis. Today, that mission is more important than ever. As technology, finance, and cybersecurity continue to converge, we remain committed to helping organizations protect livelihoods, preserve trust, and strengthen resilience across the global economy.”

Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage, and entrepreneurial spirit. It celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or 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.

Regional winners were 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.

As a Florida award winner, Mann will now be considered by the national judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 National Awards, which will be presented in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum^®, where high-growth CEOs, Fortune 1000 executives, and investors converge to shape the future of business. The National Overall Award winner will move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in May 2027.  

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program has recognized the leadership of entrepreneurs such as:
- Jason McGowan, Crumbl Cookies
- Reid Hoffman | Jeff Weiner, LinkedIn Corp.
- Saeju Jeong, Noom
- Allison Ellsworth | Stephen Ellsworth, Poppi
- Jitendra Mohan | Sanjay Gajendra | Casey Morrison, Astera Labs
- Shelly Ibach, Sleep Number
- Howard Schultz, Starbucks Coffee Company
- Holly Thaggard | Amanda Baldwin, Supergoop!
- Jodi L. Berg, Vita-Mix Corporation
- Michael Happe, Winnebago Industries
- Arthur Blank, Atlanta Falcons, The Home Depot, Georgia Force

Sponsors
Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh Risk, SAP and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In Florida, sponsors also include regional Gold sponsor, Selective Insight and regional Silver sponsor, ADP.

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 and territories 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 national overall winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

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This material has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax, legal or professional advice. Please refer to your advisors for specific advice.

Annemarie Cyboron
Arete
marketing@areteir.com
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