Jimma Times's tradition of selecting the "Ethiopian Person of the Year" honor began during the new Ethiopian millennium (year 2000,
Western calendar 2007/2008) when the multi-Olympic champion
Kenenisa Bekele was selected. It established the multi-language (
Afaan Oromo,
Amharic and English) private newspaper
Yeroo the following year. The word
yeroo means "time" or times" in the
Oromo language and its style was to mirror the American
Time news magazine which also publishes its annual
Person of the Year selections.
Yeroo newspaper stopped publication in Ethiopia after only a few months but Jimma Times website continues to operate. 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 Gabre-Madhin won the honor in 2002. ==Persons of the Year list==