Beach Buddies has been nominated for a major international award made annually by a Sweden-based foundation which recognises global innovation, optimism and new ideas in tackling issues affecting the world.

The Tällberg Foundation, based in Stockholm, has contacted Beach Buddies to announce the nomination as a potential recipient of the 2019 Tällberg / Eliasson Global Leadership Prize.

The award is given annually to outstanding leaders from any country and any discipline whose work is global in application, based on universal values, innovation, optimism and courage.

Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale said: ’Just to be nominated for this award is an enormous honour for Beach Buddies and everyone who has supported our efforts to make some remarkable changes in the Isle of Man and to spread the word around the world.

’It’s a fantastic reflection on the people of the Isle of Man and another significant recognition for our island as the only entire nation to be a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.’

He added: ’It’s another example of how the rest of the world is watching what is happening in the Isle of Man, and it’s a privilege and an honour for Beach Buddies to be nominated for such a prestigious and respectable international award.’

The foundation said: ’You have been nominated through an open, online process.

’An international jury will review the nominations in mid-August and select the people who, in their judgment, best exemplify the types of leaders needed today.’ Each prize winner receives $50,000 (£38,500).

The candidates on the shortlist will be notified by the end of August and the winners will be revealed in October. The prize ceremony will take place in Nairobi, Kenya in November.

The Tällberg Foundation exists to explore the issues that are challenging â??and changingâ?? our societies.

It says those challenges are profound: the world that we have known since the mid 20th century, which produced unprecedented peace as well as human advance, is changing at a pace and in directions that threaten to evolve towards Orwellian dystopia.

The foundation said: ’Tällberg’s work program focuses on understanding how to re-inject ethics into leadership; re-establish the legitimacy of governance; and manage, instead of being managed by, disruptive technologies, climate change, mass migration and other phenomena.

’We aim to contribute to the new thinking â??and new actingâ?? required by this moment in history."

â?¢ Beach Buddies is sponsored by FIM Capital and receives annual support from DEFA.