Does your organization do a great job of addressing customers concerns in a timely manner, but doesn’t have a formal customer service department? The 2016 (10th Annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service has created a category group just for you – Customer Service Success.

These new categories have been designed to complement the longstanding Customer Service Department of the Year categories. Rather than focus on the performance of a named customer service department, the customer service success categories recognize customer service-related achievements across your entire company or organization. You choose the successes you wish to highlight.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the top awards for customer service, contact center, business development, teams and professionals worldwide. All organizations are eligible to be nominated, in addition to the new products and services used by those professionals.

Complete details are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCCESS CATEGORIES

If your organization doesn't have a formal customer service function - if "everyone here works in customer service" is your motto - then these are the categories for you. If your organization has a formal customer service function, don't enter these categories - enter the Customer Service Department categories instead.

Information required for entries in these categories include:

(a) An essay of up to 650 words describing your organization's customer service-related accomplishments since July 1, 2014.

(b) Optional (but highly recommended), a collection of supporting files and web addresses that you may upload to our server to support your entry and provide more background information to the judges. At the very least you should provide a link to the organization's website.

140. Customer Service Success - Business Service Industries
141. Customer Service Success - Financial Service Industries
142. Customer Service Success - Other Service Industries
143. Customer Service Success - Technology Industries
144. Customer Service Success - All Other Industries

TORII HALL in Osaka, Japan, won the Silver Stevie Award for Services Company of the Year–Japan in the Company/Organization Awards categories of the 2014 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

The 2016 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards is now open for entries.  Find out more here.

We talked with Torii Kosho, the Founder of Torii Hall, about winning a Silver Stevie, his views on the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards; and what plans the management of Torii Hall had for improving awareness of Japan’s traditional culture in 2016.

As Torii Kosho explained to us: “Our ‘Kamigata Culture Revitalization Forum,’ which received the 2014 Stevie Award, has been promoting traditional Japanese cultures of the Osaka region, both domestically and internationally, for some time, and will continue to delve deeply into this culture until the end of this year.”

Editor’s Note: Kamigata is a region of Japan including the cities of Kyoto and Osaka; it is also the term used to describe a prolific period of urban culture in that region from the 17th-19th centuries.

Kosho further explained: “The Forum is a cooperation between enterprises, the government, and the people of Osaka; and includes Waseda University in Tokyo, which has the largest theater museum in the East. The aim is to revitalize and preserve the cultural power of Kamigata, which in the past has originated several forms of traditional Japanese entertainment, such as kabuki theater.”

Introducing Traditional Japanese Culture to Paris

We asked Kosho what benefits his organization had experienced through its efforts to heighten international awareness of these traditional cultures.

Kosho explained that members of Torii Hall were invited to a jazz concert in Paris, France, in March 2014, shortly before the Asian-Pacific Stevie Awards ceremony the following month in Seoul, South Korea. “I have been thinking since then that Montmartre in Paris and Minami in Osaka have a lot in common: they are both downtown areas and cradles of culture and art,” he explained. Following the trip to Paris, an exchange of video letters started between elementary school children in Paris and Minami, Osaka. Consequently, Kosho told us, “We are planning a special performance of Bunraku (a traditional form of Japanese puppet theater, which also originated in Osaka) for the schoolchildren in Paris in 2016 to commemorate this interaction.” This gesture takes on even more significance in light of recent events.

Kosho feels that the Kamigata Culture Revitalization Forum has been successful in raising awareness of such art forms as Bunraku and Kabuki theater, both of which are now registered as a cultural heritage by UNESCO.

Editor’s Note: UNESCO established its lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage with the aim of ensuring the better protection of important intangible cultural heritages worldwide and the awareness of their significance.

International Friendship

Osaka Minami, which is where Torii Hall is located, is an international area, and 42% of students at the South Elementary School nearby are foreign, coming from 15 different countries. The country with the largest number of students is the Philippines, with more than 30 students.   2016 marks the 60th anniversary of friendship between Japan and the Philippines. On March 30, 2016, in cooperation with the consulate of the Philippines, the children will travel to an elementary school on the Philippines’ Bataan Peninsula.

“I met some people from the Philippines who were attending the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards ceremony in Seoul, and when I mentioned to them that I support Filipinos, especially single mothers, in Osaka, I received a lot of praise,” said Kosho. “The feeling that this gave me at the time made me realize the value that this friendship event in March 2016 will have for our two countries. I would now like to plan a Bunraku performance in Manila to commemorate the anniversary.”

Continued Kosho: “The people who live or work in Osaka are largely unaware of the fact that the popular tourist destination of Dotonbori is the place where Kabuki and Bunraku first started. I think that winning our Stevie Award has been effective in letting those people know that.”

Another Anniversary

2015 is also the 400th anniversary of one of the main attractions for visitors to Osaka, the Dotonbori Canal, that was completed in November 1615. This November, Torii Hall held a special multi-religious memorial service to commemorate the event.

“We forget the differences between Shinto, Buddhism, and Christianity,” Kosho commented. “We ride together on a boat and pray for those who sacrificed their lives during open-cut construction of the Dotonbori canal, yet some of them might have been workers who had apostatized Christianity. I believe that we stand today upon foundations that were built by those who lived here during the past 400 years, including both Japanese and Europeans, and upon the traditional cultures such as Bunraku and Kabuki that flourished here. We should give thanks for that.”

Heightening Awareness of a Rare Disease

“Torii Hall will continue its role as a traditional cultural platform in 2016,” Kosho concluded. “At the same time, we also have plans to reach out to the community. We will launch a Kansai Branch of the Sakura Association to support the patients and families of an incurable form of porphyria that has recently been discovered. There is, as yet, no known treatment for this rare disease, but we can express our deep compassion for those who suffer from it–and help them avoid becoming isolated–by encouraging people with this disease to come and talk about their experiences.”

About Torii Kosho:

Torii Kosho was born in Osaka. He grew up as an heir to the traditional ryokan hotel Kamigata in Sennichimae, Osaka. After graduating from Konan University, he worked for a department store before starting work on the Torii building in 1989. With the completion of the Kamigata building in 1991, he opened TORII HALL, of which he is now the director. Kosho entered the Buddhist priesthood in 1994. He founded the Sennichizan Kosho temple of the Shingon Yamashina group in 2012 and became a chief priest.

About TORII HALL:

TORII HALL is a theater with 100 seats on the fourth floor of the Kamigata building. It retains the atmosphere of yose (a Japanese style of comedy theater), and is designed like a traditional storyteller's house so that microphones aren’t needed during performances. ‘TORII yose’ is a showcase held on the first day of every month. It provides a place to train young rakugo (a traditional Japanese sit-down comedy) artists. It is also used as a venue for seminars, plays, and music events. To find out more, go to www.toriihall.com/.

Shining a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations run by women, the Stevie® Awards for Women in Business announced the results of its 2015 competition on Friday, November 13.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an international competition produced by the creators of the prestigious International Business Awards and American Business Awards. The Stevie is widely considered to be the world’s premier business award.

With more than 400 businesswomen and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Nations represented at the event include Afghanistan, Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Croatia, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the U.S.A. and Venezuela. The presentations were broadcast via Livestream.

Find the event photos here.

More than 1,300 nominations from organizations and individuals in 26 nations were submitted to the awards this year for consideration in categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Startup of the Year, among others. More than 160 professionals around the world participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and then the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements.

Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented to the five organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition, in their own names or in the names of one or more clients. Winners were determined by the number of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards won in the competition. The Grand Stevie Award winners are:

•             DP DHL, Worldwide (#1)
•             Digital Risk, Orlando, FL U.S.A. (#2)
•             iFinance Canada, Toronto, ON Canada (#3)
•             Accenture, New York, NY U.S.A. (#4)
•             Pink Elephant, Burlington, ON Canada (#5)

Notable Gold Stevie Award winners from this year’s competition include:

•     Virtual Legal Pty Ltd, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, Startup of the Year - Consumer Services    
•     Sunshine Farzan, Head of Marketing and Communications, MetLife Hong Kong, Female Executive of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand    
•     Stephanie Mitelman, President, Founder and Inventor, Senseez Pillows, Montreal, QC, Canada, Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Products
•     Kate Barton, Vice Chair EY, New York, NY U.S.A., Woman of the Year - Business Services    
•     Axonify, Waterloo, ON Canada, Management Team of the Year – Business Services    
•     I Change Her Life, Lahore, Pakistan & Istanbul, Turkey, Community Involvement Program of the Year
•     Pivot Point Marketing, Larkspur, CA U.S.A., Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Marketing - Consumer Services
•     Ooredoo, Doha, Qatar    , Smartphone or Tablet App of the Year
•     Kanchan Naikawadi, Director, Indus Health Plus Pvt Ltd., Pune, Maharashtra, India, Female Executive of the Year – Health Products and Services
•     Owl's Brew, New York, NY USA, Company of the Year – Consumer Products

The 2015 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the globe. Organizations that won more than one Gold Stevie Award include AMN Healthcare Services, Inc., AT&T, Cisco Systems, ClearPeople, Collectively, Creative Lodging Solutions, DHL Express, Digital Risk, Just for Pets Pty Ltd, Kim Flynn Consulting, Luvo, Inc., Lynn University, Roshan, Stride, and Synchrony Financial. For a complete list of Stevie Award winners and more information, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Entries for the 2016 edition of the awards will open next May.

About the Stevie Awards
The Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: The American Business Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards.

More than 400 finalists and their guests from around the world will gather this Friday, November 13 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City for the 12th annual Stevie Awards fror Women in Business. These are the world’s top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run.

Grand, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced. More than 1,400 nominations from organizations and individuals in 26 nations were submitted to the awards this year for consideration in categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Startup of the Year, among others. More than 160 professionals around the world participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and then the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements.

The awards will be broadcast via Livestream at 7:30 pm ET via the Stevie Awards’ Facebook page. 

On your mobile device, watch the awards presentations on the Stevie Awards for Women in Business website.

Here is the list of organizations that will be represented at the event this Friday:

11mark

24Notion

6SensorLabs

97th Floor

Absolute Assistance - Virtual Assistant

Academic Achievers

Acorn: An Influence Company

Adello

Advanced Care Australia Pty Ltd

AECOM

Aflac

Allconnect

ALOM

Amadeus North America Inc.

AMN Healthcare Services Inc.

Amobee  

AT&T  

Autoscribe Corporation

Behringer

Beta Soft Systems

Blanks Boutique Inc

BMC Software

BrightPoint Security

Çalik Enerji

Cast & Crew

CBIZ Inc.

Center for Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership, Babson College

Cisco Systems

Classloom

Collectively

Company

Consultants 2 Go

Cree-Con Construction Inc.

Crocon d.o.o.

DemandLab LLC

Dental Assisting National Board Inc.

DHL Express

Digital Air Strike

Digital Risk

Dignity Health

Dr. Kate Siner Inc.

Dream it. Code it. Win it.

EMC

Enterprise Community Partners

EY

Fabric Innovations

Family Development Foundation

FIS

FocusVision

Goodwin Group PR

Hemsworth Communications

HGS

Hillstone Networks

Hy-Performance Fluid Power Pty Ltd

I Change Her Life

iFinance Canada Inc.

Improving Enterprises

Indigo Interactive

InMoment

Irving Levin Associates Inc.

iTalent Corporation

Ixia

Jacobson Strategic Communications

Jones Publishing (Citywealth)

Just For Pets Pty Ltd

Karrikins Group North Sydney

KC Projects

KeenAlignment

Kim Flynn Consulting

Level 3 Communications

Lightwave Inc

LimBionics of Durham

LiquidPlanner Inc.

LLORENTE & CUENCA

Lynn University

Lyons Consulting Group

MalikCo

ManpowerGroup

Mcor Technologies

MELILEA Internatioanl (Taiwan) Limited

Métier

New Family Organization

NF Global Corp

NuCompass Mobility Services Inc.

NurseWise

PharmaLogics Recruiting

Phenomenal PR & Events

Pink Elephant

Pivot Point Marketing

PMFTC Inc

Precision Marketing Group

Proforma SI

radius financial group inc

Rapid Allweiler Group

Red Hat

ReneSola America

REP Interactive

Resilient Systems

Resolute Forest Products

Restoration of Appearance and Function Trust

RevenueWire Inc

Rita Trehan LLC

Roshan

SABIC

Selling Energy

Senseez Pillows

Silverlink Communications

Simple Mills

SOPHIYA Corporation

Source Intelligence

SpeakerBox Communications

SpendWell Health

SPLICE Software

Strategic Medical

Stratus Interactive

Stride

Sungard Availability Services

Swiss Post Solutions

Synchrony Financial

Thai Island

The Art and Craft Gallery

The Luminations Group LLC

Tourism New Zealand

UPMC Health Plan

US Embassy Connect to Success Program

Valerie Herskowitz Palm Beach Gardens

Wells Fargo & Company

Women on Top Business Coaching

Word & Brown General Agency

Working Solutions

World Financial Group

Your Architect

YWoman

ZippedMe

ZON

Zuora Inc.

ZYTO Corporation

Photos and videos from the event will be available next week.

 

The 12^th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world’s top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run, will be presented on Friday, November 13 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. More than 400 nominated women and their guests from around the world will attend.

The awards will be broadcast live via Livestream at 7:30 pm ET via the Stevie Awards’ Facebook page. 

On your mobile device, watch the awards presentations on the Stevie Awards for Women in Business website.

The pre-show from the red carpet will air live from 6:00 – 6:30 pm ET on the Stevie Awards’ Periscope. Follow “TheStevieAwards” on Periscope to tune in. The pre-show will feature interviews with Stevie Award Finalists from around the world.

More than 1,400 entries were submitted to the Stevie Awards for Women in Business this year by organizations and individuals around the world in more than 90 categories including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Startup of the Year, Women Helping Women, and Women-Run Workplace of the Year.

Among the leading contenders this year with five or more Finalists are Accenture, Chicago, IL; AT&T, Dallas, TX; Collectively, San Francisco, CA; DHL Express Worldwide; Digital Air Strike, Scottsdale, AZ; Digital Risk, Orlando, FL; iFinance Canada Inc., Toronto, Canada; Jacobson Strategic Communications, Philadelphia, PA; LLORENTE & CUENCA, Madrid, Spain; Ooredoo, Doha, Qatar; Pink Elephant, Burlington, ON, Canada; Red Hat, Raleigh, NC; Roshan, Kabul, Afghanistan; and Synchrony Financial, Stamford, CT.

For a complete list of Finalists by category, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: The American Business Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com, and follow the Stevie Awards on Twitter @TheStevieAwards. 

The Stevie Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued the call for entries for The 2016 (14th Annual) American Business Awards. All organizations and individuals in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations to the ABAs. More than 3,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted in 2015 for consideration in a wide range of categories.

Nominations are accepted in various category groups including management awards, public relations awards, marketing awards, new product awards, HR awards, IT awards, web site awards, and more. New categories for 2016 include Minority-Owned Business of the Year and Veteran-Owned Business of the Year.

There are two early-bird entry deadlines this fall, November 19 and December 16. The final entry deadline is February 18, 2016, but late entries will be accepted through March 16 with payment of a late fee. The entry kit brochure is now available.

For the first time, Stevie Award winners in The American Business Awards will be announced before the gala awards banquet. (To date, Finalists were announced about a month before the banquet, and they could attend the event knowing they had won Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevies, but not which, until the presentations.) In 2016, all Stevie Award placements will be announced six weeks in advance of the event, and winners can choose to come with full knowledge of what they’ve already won.

Because of the change of format, the schedule for the ABAs has been compressed for 2016. In the past entries were accepted as late as the end of April, but in 2016 the last day for the submission of entries will be March 16. Judging will be conducted by more than 200 professionals worldwide in February – April. Stevie winners will be announced on May 2, and the awards presented on Monday, June 20 in New York. As in all Stevie Awards competitions, attendance of the event will not be required to win.

The People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products will return in 2016 as a feature of the ABAs. All new products and services nominated in the competition will automatically be included in the worldwide public vote that will open on May 3. Nominated products and services will thus have the opportunity to win two Stevie Awards: one determined by professionals in peer-adjudicated judging, the other in a popular vote by the customers, employees, fans and followers of nominees.

About the Stevie® Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com.

The Stevie® Awards has issued a call for entries for the 2016 (third annual) Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the only business awards program to recognize achievement in business throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. 

The early-bird entry deadline is December 3.  The final entry deadline is January 27, 2016, but late entries will be accepted through March 23 with the payment of a late fee. Complete entry details are available at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are open to all organizations in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. The categories have been redesigned to focus on recognizing innovation in all its forms, wherever and however it is achieved in the workplace. Nominations will be accepted and judged in seven languages – Chinese, English, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay and Thai - in the following category groups:

• Customer Service Awards
• Company/Organization Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Management Awards
• Marketing Awards Categories
• New Product Awards
• Corporate Communications, IR, and PR Awards
• Annual Report Awards & Other Publication Awards
• Website Awards
• Smartphone and Tablet App Awards
• Live Event Awards
  …and more

Judging of nominations will be conducted from February to April by more than 100 executives around the world. Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced on April 20. The winners will be celebrated during a gala banquet on May 27 in Sydney, Australia. Some of the Asia-Pacific region’s most distinguished companies have won Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards in the past two years including Cisco Systems, Crocs Singapore, Delta Airlines, DHL Express, Ford China, Globe Telecom, MetLife Asia Ltd., Sony, and SYSPRO Software, among others.

Judging committees for the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are now being formed. Those interested in participating in the judging process may also apply at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com.

Finalists were announced today in the 12th Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world’s top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards and International Business Awards. The Stevies are widely considered to be the world’s premier business awards.

This year’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced at an awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on Friday, November 13. Tickets are now on sale.

More than 400 women and their guests from around the world are expected to attend. The event will be broadcast on Livestream via the Stevie Awards’ Facebook page from 7:30 pm ET, and the red carpet pre-show will air on the Stevie Awards’ Periscope from 6:00 pm ET.

More than 1,400 entries were submitted this year by organizations and individuals around the world for consideration in more than 90 categories including Executive of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Startup of the Year, Women Helping Women, and Women-Run Workplace of the Year.

Among the leading contenders with five or more Finalists are Accenture, Chicago, IL; AT&T, Dallas, TX; Collectively, San Francisco, CA; DHL Express Worldwide; Digital Air Strike, Scottsdale, AZ; Digital Risk, Orlando, FL; iFinance Canada Inc., Toronto, Canada; Jacobson Strategic Communications, Philadelphia, PA; LLORENTE & CUENCA, Madrid, Spain; Ooredoo, Doha, Qatar; Pink Elephant, Burlington, ON, Canada; Red Hat, Raleigh, NC; Roshan, Kabul, Afghanistan; and Synchrony Financial, Stamford, CT.

For a complete list of Finalists by category, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Finalists were chosen by more than 120 business professionals worldwide during preliminary judging. Members of five specialized judging committees will determine the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists during final judging that begins on October 19.

The following professionals participated in preliminary judging of the 2015 Stevie Awards for Women in Business in September and October.  Their average scores determined the 2015 Finalists.  We thank them for their time, insights and support.

Husam Mahmoud Abdallah, Sr. Specialist Strategy & Business Excellence, Dubai Airport Free Zone, Dubai, United Arab Emirates             

Lisa Abeyta, Founder/CEO, APPCityLife, Inc., Albuquerque, NM USA                                                                                                                           
Lara Abrams, Managing Partner, Lara Abrams Communications, LLC, San Ramon, CA USA                                                                                                                     

Nicole Y. Adams, Marketing, PR and Corporate Communications Translator, NYA Communications, Bellbird Park, QLD Australia             

Megan Alarid, Chief Digital Officer, Cenergy, Houston, TX USA   

Maryam Al Hashmi, Deputy Representative of Quality, Fujairah Police G.H.Q, Fujairah, AlFujairah, United Arab Emirates

Huda Al-Husaini, Associate Engineer, Jordan Engineers Association, Shmisani, Amman, Jordan   

Karen Appleton, Founder, Box, Inc, Los Altos, CA USA

Elycia Arendt, Digital Strategist, Horizontal Integration, Minnetonka, MN USA    

Ani Atanasova, CEO, Pixelhunters, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Victoria Barnett, Senior Marketing Director, Royal College of Nursing, Epping, Essex, United Kingdom

Janet Beale, Managing Director, Sytor Enterprises Pty Ltd, East Lindfield, NSW Australia               

Dea Benson, Chief Accounting Officer, Realogy, Parsippany, NJ USA       

Denise Blasevick, CEO, The S3 Agency, Boonton, NJ USA              

Tya Bolton, CEO / Business and Event Strategist, Exceptional Business Solutions, LLC, Columbia, MD USA              

Jane Bryant, Director, Spire Communications, Potomac Falls, VA USA     

Carolin Buchardt, CEO and founder, CB Praxisberatung, Germany            

Cheryl Budd, Chief Communications Officer, National Council on Compensation Insurance, Boca Raton, FL USA 

Roman Bukary, VP Account Management, NetSuite, Denver, CO USA    

Beverly Butler, Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo, Treasury Management, San Francisco, CA USA  

Mj Callaway, Author, Coach, Speaker, Rock More Sales, Delmont, USA United States     

Etta Cohen, Founder, Forward Ladies, Leeds, United Kingdom  

Lebin Ebru, Cokisler, Head of Corporate Communication, Anadolu Group, Istanbul, Umraniye, Turkey    

Dr. Kate Darcy Hohenthal, Founder, The Birthday Club, Manchester, CT USA

Adriena Daunt, Public Relations, The Americas Tourism New Zealand | Manaakitanga Aotearoa, Santa Monica, CA, USA               

Robyn Davis, Owner, When I Need Help, Columbia, SC USA        

Danielle Di-Masi, Business Etiquette Expert, The Interactions Lab, Australia         

Teresa Dos Santos, Director, Business Interiors, Pensacola, FL, USA         

Eve Dumovich, Editor, Boeing/Snowline Publishing, USA              

Denette Dunn, S.W. Area Municipal Services Manager, Republic Services, Phoenix, AZ USA        

Tereson Dupuy, CEO, Fuzzibunz, LLC, Lafayette, LA USA

Lori Ericson, Product Planning and Development, Epicor Software, Littleton, CO USA      

Kharma Finley-Wallace, Principal, Hoverfly Media, Public Relations, Washington                DC, USA              

Dr. Hüsniye Firat, The Ministry of Customs and Trade, Turkey    

Patricia Garcia, User Experience Professional, Vixlet, Culver City, CA USA             

Lorretta Gasper , Owner/Principal, Wind Rose Communications, Atlanta, GA USA             

Linda Ginac, CEO, TalentGuard, Austin, TX USA

Barb Girson, President, My Sales Tactics, LLC, New Albany, OH USA

Marilyn Glazier, Social Media Director, Helen Doron Educational Group, Misgav, Israel    

Rashmi Gopinath, Sr. Director, Business Development, Couchbase, USA              

Danita Harn, COO, Harn and Associates Back Office Solutions, Ops, Woodstock, GA USA               

Charity  Herb, Online Content Administrator, American Greetings, Associate Communications, Cleveland, OH USA          

Deborah Herman, President, Fabric Innovations, Coral Gables, FL USA   

Joann Hizon, Vice President - Human Resources, SM Investments Corp, Pasay City, Philippines

Rosalie  Hopkins, President, Bianco Hopkins & Assoc., Inc., Peachtree Corners, GA, USA

Kimberly Howard, Vice President, Creative Director, The Thomas Collective, New York, NY USA

Craig Jacobsen, Founder, Open Spaces Marketing, Encinitas, CA USA     

Julie Jakopic, President/CEO, iLead Strategies, Alexandria, VA USA          

Anne Jefferies, Vendor Compliance Manager, AT&T Global Vendor Management, Biggar, United Kingdom         

Graham Jenkins, Chair - TEC 31 and KEY 112, The Executive Connection, Sydney, NSW Australia 

Zsofia Juhasz, Executive coach, Coaching Team - Australasia, The Gap, Qld Australia        

Rose Jurczewski, Owner, Funxion Fuzion, Roselle, IL USA

Peter Justen, CEO, Five Plus, Middleburg, VA USA           

Tsvetta Kaleynska, President, Girls Leading Our World, New York, NY USA           

Umut KEÇECIOGLU, DenizBank, Istanbul, Turkey              

Tammy Kronawitter, Executive Assistant, Clear Decisions, Sheidow Park, SA Australia    

Iwona Kubicz, President of the Board, Procontent, Global Reach PR, Warsaw, Poland     

Yamini Kurup, Vice President, Aditya Birla Financial Services, Mumbai, India        

Sharon Lachow-Blumberg, CEO, I'm Not Done Yet LLC, Charlotte, NC USA            

Joanne Lang, CEO, AboutOne CEO, Malvern, PA USA     

Susan LaPlante-Dube, Principal, Precision Marketing Group, Framingham, MA USA         

Jill Liberman, Founder, Videoglobetrotter, Inc., Boca Raton, FL USA        

Vanessa Lindeberg, Client Services Manager, OnStrategy, Reno, NV USA                                                                                                                            

Ivo Lukas, CEO/Founder, 24Notion, USA              

Lindsey Lux, Vice President of Operations, MDwise Inc., Operations/HR/Customer Service, Indianapolis, IN USA

Melissa Macaulay Federico, President/CEO, The B2B Branding Co., Medfield, MA USA

Anil Machado, Managing Director, T Nell, Sieradz, Poland             

Theresa Mack, Owner, PowerUp Partners, Torrance, CA USA      

Vanessa Maddox, CEO, TheGirlfriendGroup, Leesburg, VA USA

Jan Mano, Creative Director, Elf, Burlington, VT USA

Carol Marx, Past President, American Agri-Women, Rickreall, OR USA    

Renie McClay, Project Manager, Caveo Learning, Ozark, MI USA              

Robin McCoy-Ramirez, Owner, SoothEaze, USA

Colin McKillop, Vice President, WECAN, Windsor, Ontario, Canada           

Catherine McQuaid, Principal, Big Game Hunting, Toronto, Canada          

Debbie Moore, COO, Other Creative Ltd, LONDON, London, United Kingdom    

Rajendran Nair, VP, Marketing, Estuate, USA

Crystal  O'Connor, Founder | CEO, Moxie Entrepreneur, West Des Moines, IA USA         

Julie Pond, CEO, Sage Environmental Services, Inc., Seattle, WA USA

Toni Potter, Director, AMERICAN SYSTEMS, Chantilly, VA USA

Fabi Preslar, President, SPARK Publications, Matthew, NC USA

Lisa Preuss, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Epicor Software Corp., Irvine, CA USA   

Jesintha Rajaratnam, Managing Partner, Money Garden, Bangalore, Karnataka, India    

Janelle  Raney, Principal Product Marketing Manager, Citrix, SaaS Division, USA

Julia Reid, New Business Consultant, 1000heads Inc, New York, NY USA

Dennis Reno, Corporate Vice President, Customer Success, Proofpoint, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA USA

Ritzi Ronquillo, Chairman, IABC Phillipines, Philippines   

Anupama Rosa, Marketing Executive, Lycatel Switchware Ltd, London, United Kingdom               

Catalina Rousseau, President & CEO, BDR Associates, Hill + Knolwton Strategies Associate, Bucharest, Romania

Liz Rowell, Managing Director, Red Ark, St Leonards NSW, NSW Australia             

Pearl Saadi, Client Strategy Director, Other Creative Ltd, London United Kingdom            

Amy Scarlino, President & CEO, Catchpole Corporation, Boston, MA United States          

Susan Schauer John, Head Honcho, SpiderWeb Connections, Easton, MD USA

Nora Senior, Executive Chair UK Regions and Ireland, Weber Shandwick, Edinburgh United Kingdom      

Ron Sereg, Assistant Professor, Louisiana State University at Shreveport, Shreveport, LA

Keira Shein, Partner, Shein Strategies, Owings Mills, MD USA

Kyle Sheldon-Chandler, Virtual Assistant, KSC Virtual Assistant Services, Grand Junction, CO USA

Tony Roland Silitonga, Board of Trustees, Indonesian Institute for Corporate Directorship, (IICD), Jakarta, Indonesia       

Aline Stanworth, Communications Leader Europe, SABIC, Corporate Communications, Bergen op Zoom, NB, The Netherlands      

Vickie Sullivan, Founder and President, Sullivan and Associates, TEMPE, AZ USA              

Letty Swank, Founder, Giftwrapperz, Los Gatos, CA USA            

Mahiette Tarrago, Creative Director, Tycoon Advertising Group, The Woodlands, TX USA            

Veronique Topping, Owner and Web Developer, I-NetUniq Technologies, Rockville Centre, NY USA

Aia Tulepbergenova, Business Analyst, Morgan Stanley, New York, NY USA        

Sarah Tumm, Owner / CEO, DimTec 3D, Fort Myers, FL USA        

Linda Varrell, President, Broadreach Public Relations, Portland, ME USA               

Sharon Vaz, CEO, Internet Marketing Angel LLC, Hendersonville, TN USA

Anne Walker, Founder & CEO, International Dance Supplies Ltd, Newton Abbot, Devon, United Kingdom            

Teresa Waller, Director of Business Development, Sanplicity, Bakersfield, CA USA  

Stacy Weil, Executive Director, PPD, Inc., Austin, TX USA

Joyce Weiland, President, SoftPro, Raleigh, NC USA       

Antonie  Whittier, Founder, Whittier Legal Consulting, Dallas, TX USA      

Marie Wiese, President, Marketing CoPilot Inc., Toronto, ON Canada     

Heather Wilde, CTO, ROCeteer, Las Vegas, NV USA

Leah Wilkinson, Partner, Wilkinson Shein Communications, Arlington, VA USA   

Becky Wilson, Chief Visibility Officer, WDS Marketing & PR, Overland Park, KS USA          

Young Kuk, Won, CEO/ECD, Solcom, Seoul, South Korea               

Dr. Brenda Wrigley, Associate Professor, Emerson College, Dept. of Marketing Communications, Boston, MA    

Yvonne Wu, Author Assistant and Publicist, The YP Publishing, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada     

Darya Yegorina, Founder, Skills2Fund, Dublin, Ireland    

Kathy Zwickert, Chief People Officer, NetSuite, San Mateo, CA USA      

 

Interested in becoming a judge for the 2016 Stevie Awards for Women in Business? Apply here.

The Stevie Awards are delighted to announce the  five distinguished women who will chair the final judging committees of the 2015 (12th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business competition.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are the world's top honors for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run.

Finalists in this year's Stevie Awards for Women in Business will be announced on
October 7.  Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie placements from among the Finalists will be determined in final judging, to begin in late October.  Results will be announced at the 12th annual awards dinner in New York on November 13.  Tickets will go on sale October 7.

The five committee chair selections are based on the categories that will be judged. Final judging chairs helped to form their committees, each of which will be comprised of 10-20 other executives.  Here are this year's final judging committee chairs.

INDIVIDUAL/EXECUTIVE

Elizabeth Schillo, Senior Vice President, Sales
Dice, New York, New York, USA

Elizabeth Schillo serves as Senior Vice President for Dice and Clearance Jobs, leading all North American sales channels. She oversees account management, new business sales, customer-centric sales communication, sales training, new product sales, and strategic partnerships for business development to generate annual results of over $130M.

Prior to Dice, she held sales leadership roles with CareerBuilder, Ann Taylor, and McKesson Information Systems. Over the past thirteen years, Elizabeth has demonstrated her ability to lead multi-channel sales teams and to drive results. Her passion for training, leadership, and serving customers has enabled her teams to develop strong customer relationships.

Elizabeth holds an MA from Wheaton College and a BA in Communication and Psychology from Lee University.

INDIVIDUAL/ENTREPRENEUR AND MARKETING

Amber Olson Rourke, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer
Nerium International, Addison, Texas, USA

Amber Olson Rourke leads a team that is responsible for all of Nerium International’s™ branding, creative services, communications, public relations, events, digital marketing, and social media. As a member of the core executive team, Amber helped set and execute the strategy that led Nerium to be the youngest company ever to earn a place on the Direct Selling News Global 100 List in 2013, as well as receiving the prestigious Bravo Growth Award from Direct Selling News for hitting $100 million in sales during its first full year of business. In 2014, Amber was recognized as a 40 Under 40 by Direct Marketing News, and has also been profiled alongside Nerium International’s other top executives in both Direct Selling News and SUCCESS from Home magazines.

Amber also plays a key role in Nerium International’s culture and helps drive the company vision of “Making People Better.” She assisted in developing Nerium’s core values and leads a corporate culture committee which ensures that the core values are represented throughout the company. She launched a partnership between Nerium International™ and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, spearheading a fundraising effort that yielded over $500,000 in one year. She has also established a partnership with the Success Foundation to host teen workshops across the country. These workshops teach kids the skills needed to achieve their dreams. To date, thousands of teens have attended these free workshops.

Amber is enthusiastic about helping people achieve their dreams—especially women. A frequent keynote speaker at Nerium events, which draw audiences of 10,000 people or more, Amber encourages women to put their “calling before their comfort.” She has hosted women’s workshops and teen workshops across the country and is on the Advisory Board for Live Happy Magazine and the National Acts of Happiness campaign.

COMPANY/ORGANIZATION

Ann Kaplan, CEO & President
iFinance Canada Inc., Toronto, Canada

Ann Kaplan is the CEO and President of iFinance Canada, the parent company to iFinance Home Improvement, Medicard, Petcard, Dentalcard, and Earlybird Pay Day Loans–a national consumer finance Company. She is also the founder of Brix Exchange, Canada’s first Real Estate Crowd Funding Portal, regulated under the Securities Acts.

An award winning business woman, Ms Kaplan is the recipient of the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award 200 and is currently the winner of the central region for the Award of Excellence, CWEYA award and a finalist for the CWEYA Canada (November 2015); the Peak Award of Excellence in Finance, as well as nine times on the Canada’s Profit 100 list for growth and 9X placement on the Canadian W100 list; she was also recognized as one of Canada’s most inspirational women in 2007 and more recently as one of Canada’s top three Female Business Leaders. Ann has also been named in the WXN Canada’s Most Powerful Women Hall of Fame 3X and was inducted into the WXN Hall of Fame in 2014 and Recognized with highest honor as Rotman School of Business Top Women in Management/Entrepreneurship, 2015. Internationally, Ann is the recipient of numerous entrepreneurship awards, most recently for Woman of the Year in The 2015 International Business Awards.

Ms. Kaplan has an MBA, MSc, and a Corporate Governance Designation (ICD.d); and she is currently completing her Doctoral Thesis in finance at Henley Business School, University of Reading. Ann sits on three academic boards and committees; she is an eleven delegate with the Ontario Economic Summit; and in 2014 she was a co-chair in finance at the G-20Y summit in Geneva. Ann has hosted three televisions shows, written four books (If You Don’t Laugh, You’ll Cry”, “Best Practices”, “The InterNet,” and “Fashion Cares”), and is often profiled or quoted in the media. She is the mother of eight and resides in Toronto, Canada.

COMMUNICATIONS & MEDIA

María Cura, Partner and Managing Director/Barcelona Office
LLORENTE & CUENCA, Madrid, Spain 

María Cura joined LLORENTE & CUENCA in April 2010 as Managing Director of the Barcelona office, and has been a Partner in the company since 2012. She has more than 20 years of experience in communications consulting, and has a broad knowledge of managing corporate and marketing communications for leading companies in sectors such as technology, tourism, finance, and pharmaceuticals.

Before joining LL&C, María worked for USP Hospitals as Corporate Director of Marketing and Communications, going on to be made a partner and member of the Executive Committee, and where she set up the CSR Department and the Alex Foundation. Prior to that, she spent five years at communications consultancy Gené & Asociados in Barcelona, representing institutional clients such as the Regional Government of Catalonia, the Government of Andorra, and F.C. Barcelona, amongst others.

María has a law degree from the University of Barcelona.

NEW PRODUCT & SERVICE

Katrinka McCallum, Vice President of Products & Technologies Operations
Red Hat, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Katrinka McCallum is the vice president of Products & Technologies Operations at Red Hat, a Fortune 500 company with close to $1.8 billion in revenue. Her team provides the operational backbone for Red Hat's product and technology operations, enhancing the development, commercialization, and lifecycle management of the company’s offerings. In addition to ensuring the business units are able to make data driven decisions, she is responsible for engineering operations that ensure development teams have the infrastructure & tools needed to deliver products. She is also responsible for the site management of Red Hat’s R&D facilities in Australia, China, Czech Republic, India, and Israel.

Katrinka describes her career path like a mosaic: up close it may not be clear, yet stepping back it’s a beautiful piece of art. Katrinka has led operations for publicly-traded companies where she has had a variety of responsibilities, including sales, marketing, technical support, product development, IT, HR, finance, operations, and the running of entire business units. She leverages her Wellesley and Duke education, as well as her CPA, as foundational elements for a solid footing in how to ask the types of questions that lead teams in the right direction.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business will continue to accept entries through Friday, October 2. No additional late fees will be charged, and late entries will not be penalized in any way in the judging process. Contact help@stevieawards.com with any questions