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Saad will represent South Africa at the global awards ceremony, which will be held in Monte Carlo in May 2005 vying with 35 other country finalists for the title of World Entrepreneur of the Year.
Past winners of this competition - termed "Business Oscars" - in other states include Michael Dell of Dell Computers and Jeff Bezos of amazon.com.
Saad received his award in Johannesburg on Thursday night from the CEOs of Ernst & Young and Rand Merchant Bank. E&Y and RMB are the sponsors and organisers of the local leg of the global competition.
He was credited with growing Aspen, from humble beginnings as a small wholesale medical company with operations in Gauteng and Durban, to being the principal manufacturer and supplier of anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) to the SA government.
Today, Aspen supplies one out of every four tablets or capsules consumed by the public healthcare system in the country.
Aspen is one of the top twenty generic pharmaceutical companies in the world and is also one of only three approved US Food and Drug Administration suppliers of generic ARVs.
Saad led Aspen's acquisition of SA Druggists for R2.4bn. Shrugging off advice that he discount the shares, Saad refused to relent and was saddled with a R1bn debt that he repaid in full within five years of the deal.
Saad bested five other short-listed candidates whose business achievements have become legendary.
These candidates are Pick 'n Pay group chairperson Raymond Ackerman, founder of M-Net and Naspers CEO Koos Bekker, Pam Golding Property Group chairperson Pam Golding, founder and executive chairperson of PD Naidoo & Associates Dempsey Naidoo, and Avis Southern Africa chairperson Glenn van Heerden.
Saad was selected by a high-level panel of judges representing some of South Africa's best business and academic talent including Bidvest's Brian Joffe and the empowerment council's Danisa Baloyi.
The previous winners of the South African edition of the awards are Joffe, mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, Massmart's Mark Lamberti, Master Currency's Zitulele KK Combi, Softline's Ivan Epstein and Discovery Holdings' Adrian Gore.
Ernst & Young CEO Phillip Hourquebie said: "We believe this World Entrepreneur of the Year Award serves as encouragement to other entrepreneurs to carve a sustainable imprint on the local and international socio-economic landscape."
Rand Merchant Bank CEO Michael Pfaff said the finalists epitomise all that is great about South Africa's entrepreneurial spirit and their vision and dynamism lays the foundations for the country's future prosperity.
