Mahmoud Mansi is the Founder of HR Revolution Middle East Magazine – the media partner for the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards. As a professional, Mahmoud has worked in management consulting, auditing, education, training and development, project management, community development and sustainability, arts and culture, event management, business journalism, and media management.

Mahmoud is a global public speaker. He has traveled and spoken at conferences in Nigeria, Sudan, India, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt. He has spoken eight times at TEDx, in addition to speaking at global human resources conferences such as SHRM TECH, ATD Middle East & HRSE.

He is the author of “Sustaining a 360° Agile Workplace: A Millennial Perspective” in addition to eight other books in entrepreneurship, social sciences, literature, gender, and culture dialogue.

As an activist, Mahmoud Mansi has won several awards such as the “Sea of Words Literary Award 2010” from the Anna Lindh Foundation in Spain, the “Culture Shift Award 2013” from Egypt’s British Council, and the “Brand Ambassador Award 2018” from His Excellency Dr. Rashid Al Leem, Alleem Knowledge Center in UAE.

Besides participating as a Stevie Awards judge, Mahmoud Mansi has been acting as a brand ambassador to encourage more organizations and professionals to join the Stevie Awards either as nominees or jury members. He has published more than 30 articles in HR Revolution Middle East Magazine, in addition to being featured in Dostor Newspaper in Egypt, received an honorable mention at the university he works at; The Arab Academy, for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, and was interviewed on Egypt’s National T.V. speaking about the award, judging process and sharing case studies from award-winning entries.

Connect with Mahmoud Mansi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahmoud-mansi-hr-philosopher-014b0a121/?originalSubdomain=ae

The Stevie Awards asked Mahmoud a few questions about his judging experience:

The Stevie Awards: Mahmoud, as someone who has various experiences in judging, what makes The Stevie® Awards distinctive?

Mahmoud Mansi: I believe the Stevie® Awards is simply a pioneer for various reasons and I am enthusiastic to share in-depth details.

1-Geographic & Demographic Outreach: The Stevie® Awards embraces, promotes, and welcomes diversity, business innovation, and excellence with a wide range of geographic and demographic outreach through its various awards: Middle East & North Africa Stevie® Awards, Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards, German Stevie® Awards, The American Business Awards®, International Business Awards®, Stevie® Awards for Great Employers, Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and Stevie® Awards for Women in Business.

2-Diversity in Categories: The Stevie® Awards has a group of specialized categories for corporate, NGOs, governments, start-ups, and individuals, which encourages all different market segments to apply in what they think is their competitive advantage from products and projects to best practices in management. Also, the categories are annually updated according to new trends and market development.

3-Easy Entry Access: Interested individuals fill out the “Request an Entry Kit” form from the website, and will receive an email which contains all details regarding the categories, eligibility, and entry process. Also, unlike most trending awards, there is no entry fee to the Middle East & North Africa Stevie® Awards which encourages the business community in all its sectors to participate.

4-Great Customer Support & Guidance: There is a Stevie® Awards professional team dedicated to guiding nominees towards applying in the category that best suits their points of strength and this team provides support throughout the process if needed.

5-Accurate Judging Process: Nominees should feel secure as they are in good hands. The Stevie® Awards assure that the jury members are experts and professionals in their industry, in addition to having the judging process monitored and audited to assure quality and resilience. Another important point is that nominees can attach extra files to their main submission to emphasize on their application with further evidence and supporting documents.

The Stevie Awards: You have been judging the Stevie® Awards for three years now in a row, why do you find interesting in the experience?

Mahmoud Mansi: With each round, I feel enthusiasm and passion for discovering something new. I am always curious about the evolution of humanity and it is well reflected in innovation contests and awards. It is like reading the news to know what’s new in the business, only that these news updates are explicit to the Stevie® Awards Jury. Although each judge can review a minimum of 20 entries I always enjoy challenging myself to go the extra mile. I am looking forward to participating as a jury member in the upcoming years and discovering what further the evolution of humanity would bring to us.

The Stevie Awards: Why is it important for organizations to apply for business awards?

Mahmoud Mansi: Innovative organizations deserve to be well-recognized. It is the right of its customers and employees to know that their provider or their employer is unique in the market. However, contests and awards provide other advantages besides recognition and branding, such as healthy competition, benchmarking, promoting innovation and teamwork within the organization, and receiving constructive feedback from the judges who are experts in the industry in order to develop further.

The Stevie Awards: Can you share with us some tips for those who want to enter the Stevie Awards?

Mahmoud Mansi: I believe organizations and individuals need to consider several points as they apply for the Stevie® Awards. As a judge, I have noticed that sometimes there is a gap between innovative ideas and well-written proposals. Some entries are exceptionally innovative but are not well written and well presented, and other entries might have less innovative ideas however they are well organized and neat. As jury members, we focus on both. Indeed the Stevie® Awards promote innovation, yet as professionals and experts, we need to witness how this innovation has turned into a tangible outcome.

Here are some points that have to be considered when preparing for the award: innovative initiative, clear business case and objectives, impact on community and stakeholders, teamwork and engagement throughout the project implementation, change management, proposal writing style, project timeline, and efficiency, the return on investments, and the journey itself preferably documented with testimonials, pictures, and videos. Another important angle to consider throughout the proposal is the usage and reliability of data analytics tools including statistics, illustrations, and ratios in revealing results, in addition to having the proposal reviewed and edited by all relevant project leaders and stakeholders before submitting the final version to the Stevie Awards.

The Stevie Awards: What are the benefits of being a judge, and how do you apply to become one?

Mahmoud Mansi: Being selected or nominated to become a jury committee member is an honorable and distinctive position. It does not only reflect one’s expertise in a certain profession, but it also reflects that this person has high ethical standards and is well-recognized and trusted among his/her community.

Here are some benefits of being a judge at the Stevie® Awards:-

• Self-Development & Awareness; learning about best practices in the industry and learning the new market trends and direction.
• Recognition; during the judging process, the jury members get recognized on the Stevie® Awards website and by receiving a hardcopy judge certificate.
• Profile; judging is a unique experience and it is added to one’s professional profile as an achievement.
• Award Ceremony; all jury members are welcomed to attend the award ceremony, enjoy a spectacular night, socialize with award winners and other judges, and see the outcome of their work.
• Win the Judges’ Lottery! $500 is randomly offered to two judges, from all those who score 30+ entries, plus two additional prizes of $1,000 to two judges, from all those who rate at least 60 nominations. The prizes change from year to year and between Stevie Awards competitions.
• Receiving invitations for future judging opportunities.

For those who are having plans to judge at the Stevie® Awards, the following link has the details: https://stevieawards.com/you-be-judge , and make sure your LinkedIn profile is updated and it reflects your experience and competitive edge. Writing and publishing some articles on your profile is recommended.

The Stevie Awards: How can you develop yourself in order to remain a competent judge?

Mahmoud Mansi: I always try to become a competent judge by keeping pace with the new market trends and best practices by continuously working on consulting projects, reading books from iconic figures in the industry, watching TED Talks, getting enrolled in certification programs and workshops, attending conferences, in addition to reading opinion articles in blogs, interviews with industry leaders and academic papers. Besides working on developing my knowledge and experience, a judge is also an auditor, project manager, and business coach.

The Stevie Awards: What would you like to say to those who are not shortlisted or selected as award winners?

Mahmoud Mansi: Every organization that seeks development and works towards providing better services and quality products to its customers and smarter management systems to its employees, with a sustainable and environmentally friendly approach, is indeed a winner in the eyes of all its stakeholders. the Stevie® Awards will either grant an organization the chance to be recognized or provide tips that support the organization to further develop, and these are actually two different types of awards; recognition and development!

Another point to keep in mind is that many organizations can win the award title “today”, but true winners are the agile organizations that are able to sustain their initiatives and assure that they remain impactful on the business, employees, customers and the community.

The Stevie® Awards, organizers of the world’s premier business awards programs, today announced the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners in The 20th American Business Awards®.

All organizations operating in the U.S.A. – large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit - are eligible to submit nominations to the ABAs in a wide range of categories, honoring achievement in every aspect of work life, from customer service and management to public relations and product development. More than 3,700 nominations were considered in the judging process this year by more than 240 professionals worldwide, whose average scores determined the winners.

Winners of three or more Gold Stevie Awards include:

5WPR (New York, NY), Adobe (San Jose, CA), Age of Learning (Glendale, CA), Ansys (Canonsburg, PA), Aspen Publishing (Frederick, MD), AT&T Business Multimedia Solutions (Huntington Beach, CA), Boost Payment Solutions (New York, NY), BRG Communications (Alexandria, VA), Bursali (Bursa, Turkey), Cisco (San Jose, CA), Delta Dental of Kansas (Wichita, KS), Evisort (San Mateo, CA), Experience Kissimmee (Kissimmee, FL), Forbes (Jersey City, NJ), Hearts & Science (New York, NY), Home Depot (Atlanta, GA), IBM (Armonk, NY), Jeunesse Global (Orlando, FL), MachineGenius (Holliston, MA), Denny Cherry and Associates (Oceanside, CA), Merkle (Columbia, MD), New American Funding (Tustin, CA), Pink Energy (Mooresville, NC), Qualcomm Technologies Inc. (San Diego, NC), Soleo Health (Centennial, CO), TAWANI Enterprises (Chicago, IL), Tinuiti (New York, NY), TopSpot (Houston, TX), and Wolters Kluwer (Minneapolis, MN).

Among other winners, organizations with five or more Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie wins include:

1903 Public Relations (Clovis, CA), ADP (Roseland, NJ), Applied Systems (University Park, IL), AutoLeap (Upton, MA), Cloudastructure, Inc. (Miami, FL), Explorium (San Francisco, CA), Fannie Mae (Washington D.C.), CarSaver (Franklin, TN), Convey Communications (Phoenix, AZ), John Hancock (Boston, MA), N-able Inc (Boston, MA), TaskUs (New Braunfels, TX), Tek Leaders Inc (Frisco, TX), The Harbinger Group (Chicago, IL), Openforce (Phoenix AZ), Syntellis Performance Solutions (New York, NY), Tata Consultancy Services (Mumbai, India), SoftPro (Raleigh, NC), and TTEC Holdings, Inc. (Englewood, CO)

For a complete list of the Stevie Award winners announced today, visit www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

Winners of six best-of-show prizes will be awarded Grand Stevie Award trophies, to be announced the week of May 9.

2022 Stevie winners will be celebrated during an awards banquet on Monday, June 13 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. Tickets for the event are now on sale.

The categories that recognize outstanding new products and services introduced in the USA are among the most heavily subscribed in the ABAs, and every new product or service nominated in The 2022 American Business Awards is included in voting for the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, a worldwide public vote. Voting opened today at http://peopleschoice.stevieawards.com and will conclude on May 27. People’s Choice Stevie winners will be announced the week of May 30 and will be honored during the June 13 awards presentations.

“We are thrilled to be able to recognize such a wide array of American organizations in The 2022 The American Business Awards. American companies have thrived in the face of hardship and have adapted to the needs of their workforce,” said Stevie Awards President, Maggie Miller. This year’s Stevie-winning nominations in The American Business Awards are testament to the commitment, passion, adaptability, and creativity of the American people. We look forward to seeing Stevie Award winners and their guests at the first in-person awards ceremony since 2019.”  

Jaime Gill is a freelance communications consultant in Cambodia, splitting his time between paid work with UN agencies, using communications to respond to COVID-19, and pro-bono support to small non-profits struggling to survive the crisis.

In the last twelve months, Jaime has worked on Cambodia’s national COVID-19 vaccine communications program, invented a new safety-promoting sport, ‘Social Distance Football’, and helped a struggling arts non-profit survive by breaking a world record. The unifying factor? All were fueled by hard-hitting media coverage, his favorite method for creating a big impact with small budgets.

It’s all a long way from his first admin job, gluing photo slides onto press releases in a London PR agency in 1998. Along the way, Jaime has worked across most PR roles, becoming Head of Creativity in that PR agency, then moving in-house as Press & Public Affairs Manager for a large disability charity. He launched media campaigns that doubled the numbers of disabled people voting in the UK and created the world’s first ‘easy-read’ newspaper for people with learning disabilities, before moving to Cambodia where he’s spent six years advising commercial and non-profit clients.

Past clients include Microsoft, UNICEF, the BBC, the Olympics, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Fujitsu, UN, and Yahoo.

Jaime began 2019 working at non-profit TLC, developing its first campaigns. In November 2019, “Be An Honourable Warrior” confronted the 30% of Cambodian men who admit to using violence against women. The use of influencers and PR techniques led to a public reckoning across social media and national newspapers. TLC campaigns won nine international awards in 2019 and 2020, but most importantly led to 13,000 women learning domestic violence laws and 25,000 men pledging to end violence.

Despite these successes, Jaime took the difficult decision to leave his secure job in early 2020, knowing he’d mentored two talented young Cambodians and left behind a campaigning blueprint TLC could replicate.

Freelancing allowed Jaime to support organizations at the COVID-19 coalface. He rapidly established paid consultancies with overseas clients including Microsoft enabled him to work pro-bono for independent non-profits unable to pay. In May 2020, he invented ‘Social Distance Football’ with ISF Cambodia. This safety-promoting game was learned by 50,000 young Cambodians online and generated media coverage across four continents, as well as a Platinum Hermes Creative Award.

He also worked with arts/education non-profit, Phare. Having lost 60% of its income when public circus performances were canceled, it faced closure. Jaime proposed a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest circus show to generate media hype and drive people to online fundraisers. The 24-hour show in March 2021 doubled its fundraising target, was viewed by 450,000 online, and generated massive media attention in Cambodia and overseas, winning Gold at the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

Jaime’s track record is strong, but he rose to the COVID-19 challenge with the best work of his career. Having fallen in love with Cambodia and worked with several non-profits educating the disadvantaged, he was distressed when school closures began erasing those gains. He wanted to help reduce the damage and declined British Embassy advice to return home.

He immediately offered pro-bono support to education non-profits he knew were effective but struggling. From being a communications manager, he frequently found himself acting as entire communications team - proposing strategy, developing creative ideas, and writing and selling-in press releases.

This work led to UNICEF’s offer to consult on their campaign to re-open schools safely, which led to other COVID-related communications for the UN. As well as campaigns, he wrote and placed a series of thought-leadership articles in national newspapers, championing creativity, education, and children’s needs during/after COVID.

Between January 2019 and now, he created four award-winning communications campaigns with four different organizations, something no other communicator in Cambodia can claim:

• Led hard-hitting, media-driven anti-violence campaign (TLC)
• Collaborated on multimedia storytelling campaign (UNICEF)
• Invented and publicized new safety-promoting sport (ISF)
• Created record-breaking events driven by PR buzz (Phare).

Over six years, Jaime has developed a network of young Cambodian photographers, filmmakers, influencers, activists, journalists and communicators he collaborates with on projects. The awards won have put Cambodia and these remarkable individuals on the global map for creative communications, something which can only help the country’s creative industries in the challenging years ahead.

Since Jaime entered The 2021 International Business Awards®, he continued working as part of a large team of Government ministries and development agencies on the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines in Cambodia, as a consultant with UNICEF. He provides advice on how to combat misinformation and increase demand for vaccines - Cambodia is now one of the most vaccinated countries in the whole of the Asian region.

He also worked on the successful launch of Generation Future, a new program to find ten talented young Cambodians with ideas on how to change the world. UNICEF will match them with mentors and financial support to turn their dreams into realities.

He assisted with an artistic collaboration between UNICEF and Phare, celebrating the resilience of Cambodian families during the pandemic. This has become a viral hit on social media.

Jaime won the Silver Stevie Awards in 2021 for Communications Professional of the Year. Interested in Communications Awards for 2022?

Verdigris is an AI-powered smart building management platform that optimizes energy consumption for organizations with data, insights, and automation. Through artificial intelligence and IoT-enabled sensors, Verdigris has reduced energy spending for customers by 20-50%. This not only helps organizations save money but also reduces their carbon footprint. Some of the world’s most recognized companies including T-Mobile, Verizon, and Nvidia use Verdigris to combat wasteful energy usage and spending. The company was founded in 2011 by Mark Chung, Jonathan Chu, and Thomas Chung with a mission to sustain and enrich human life through responsive energy intelligence.

Verdigris has thrived over the past two years, seeing strong demand in terms of customer acquisition and expansions with its latest IoT energy meter. It shipped a record number of systems, won significant deals with industry leaders including T-Mobile and ARM, and announced a global partnership for ABB to use its AI. Verdigris received testimonials from more than two dozen tier one customers, including JLL, Verizon, T-Mobile, E&J Gallo, ARM, and Nvidia.
In 2019, Verdigris introduced Adaptive Automation, an adaptive and autonomous building controls product. Adaptive Automation integrates with building management systems to provide continuous optimization of energy consumption without human intervention while adapting to changing building conditions autonomously. Adaptive Automation takes advantage of technological advances in IoT sensors, pervasive wireless communications networks, and AI to continuously learn and predict building patterns. These capabilities make it possible to deliver optimally efficient building performance.

In the first half of 2020, Verdigris released the EV2 energy gateway, the next generation of the company’s superior IoT energy monitoring hardware. The technology enables a set of highly scalable low-cost energy management capabilities not found in other energy meter solutions at scale, since Verdigris samples each circuit at nearly 8,000 times per second. All at the lowest cost per metered endpoint in the industry.

Verdigris was created to help solve the global problem of energy waste. In just the US alone, 97B sqft of commercial and industrial buildings throw away more than $120B each year in unneeded energy costs. Some estimates suggest that more than $600B is lost each year in these verticals. This energy waste takes a tremendous toll on the planet, amounting to about 15% of carbon pollution globally. The Verdigris smart energy management system aims to improve building efficiency, reduce energy waste, and decrease carbon pollution. Verdigris has helped customers and the marketplace lower operational expenses by optimizing energy spending and automating load shedding during peak times using situationally aware and connected AI to reduce demand charges. Verdigris helps customers make smart decisions about energy, meet mandates for energy reduction and achieve carbon reduction goals.

Verdigris won the Silver Stevie Award in The 2021 International Business Awards® for Achievement in Product Innovation.

Interested in The 2022 International Business Awards?

Ideon Technologies Inc. is a spin-off from TRIUMF (Canada’s national particle accelerator laboratory) and a world pioneer in the application of cosmic-ray muon tomography. Ideon has developed a discovery platform that integrates proprietary detectors, imaging systems, inversion technologies, and artificial intelligence to provide x-ray-like visibility up to 1 km beneath the Earth’s surface. 

By detecting sub-surface muons and transforming the data into reliable geophysical surveys and 3D density maps, Ideon helps exploration geologists identify new mineral and metal deposits with precision and confidence. They drill less and discover more with Ideon – reducing cost and risk, saving time, and minimizing environmental impact while meeting the increased demand for critical minerals that power the clean energy transition. Ideon is also expanding the application of muon tomography to use cases in oil and gas, critical infrastructure, and national security. 

Ideon has spent years in research and development and conducting field trials with customers to prove the science behind muon tomography for subsurface exploration. What they have done since the beginning of 2019 is complete a 50x miniaturization of the hardware they use to detect muon flux -- from the size of a kitchen table to a slim rod that is deployable down industry-standard drill holes. 

This sensor offers unprecedented straight-line imaging capability with high-resolution (5 m) and a new form-factor enabling deployment down industry-standard boreholes (<10 cm diameter) with low power (<10 W continuous power consumption).  They combine this new data source with our proprietary multi-physics inversions and data analysis algorithms to bring diverse datasets together into a cohesive understanding of the subsurface, up to 1 km deep. For our customers, this results in reduced costs of exploration (10x), reduced environmental impact in the exploration phase (x10), increased ability to meet ESG targets, increased certainty and confidence of subsurface understanding (95%+), and increased instances of resource discovery critical to the clean energy transition.

The world's first deployment of this new borehole muon detector was slated for early May 2021. Muon tomography is the only straight-line imaging technology available in the geophysics toolkit today, delivering high resolution and precise location information. 

The COVID-19 pandemic reduced worldwide CO2 emissions by approximately 4%. Even with a massive shift in human behavior, this falls short of the 7.6% annual reduction that the UN says is needed every year for the next decade to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. A dramatic increase in demand for critical minerals is required to meet the world’s carbon reduction commitments. 

The drive to clean energy highlights how broken the mineral exploration process is. In the last 10 years, the industry has been forced to search deeper underground to find new deposits, without any new tools to facilitate exploration. Discoveries are down 75%, meters drilled/discovery is up 187%, and cost/discovery is up 380%. 

They are competing against the status quo -- the industry relies heavily on drilling, often hundreds of holes sunk in a hit-and-miss approach targeting poorly constrained geophysical and geological anomalies. Drilling is the primary cost driver in exploration today, representing 55% (US$6B) of the annual global spend, with drilling volume currently ~40M meters per year. A shift in approach is required to disrupt drilling and realize substantial increases in the sustainable production of critical mineral resources.

Ideon’s unique integrated subsurface intelligence solution for the global mining industry directly reduces the cost, time, risk, and environmental impact involved in the exploration process, while dramatically increasing outcome certainty. Enabling mineral resource companies to confidently extract key insights from vast quantities of data will help them target high-recovery, low-waste deposits, developing the supply chains needed to fuel the energy transition.

Ideon won the Silver Stevie Award for Energy Innovation of the Year in The 2021 International Business Awards. 

Winners of the 2022 People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Customer Service, a worldwide public vote, were announced today. Voting was conducted from March 1 through April 1, with the highest number of votes deciding the winners in 11 industry categories. More than 32,000 votes were cast this year.

All organizations honored in the Customer Service Department of the Year categories of this year’s Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service were eligible to be included in voting for the people’s choice awards. The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, now in their 16^th year, are the world’s top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals.

More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes, in virtually every industry, in 51 nations were evaluated in this year’s competition. Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide in eight specialized judging committees and were announced last month.

This year’s people’s choice winners, who will each receive the coveted crystal People’s Choice Stevie Award, are:

• Airlines, Distribution & Transportation: DHL Express Bangladesh
• All Other Industries: Element Electronics
• Computer Hardware & Services: Linode
• Computer Software < 100 Employees: Nerdio
• Computer Software > 100 Employees: Heavy Construction Systems Specialists (HCSS)
• Consumer Products & Services: Delta Faucet Company
• Financial Services > 100 Employees: John Hancock Signature Services
• Healthcare & Pharma: RxBenefits, Inc.
• Public Services & Education: Curriculum Associates
• Retail:  CarrefourSA
• Telecommunications: PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk

Nicknamed the Stevie® from the Greek word “crowned,” Stevie Award winners will be celebrated at a virtual awards ceremony on May 11. Tickets for the event are now on sale. More than 500 Stevie Award winners and their guests from around the world are expected to attend.

Their Mission: Stevie Award winner New Heights Educational Group, Inc. promotes literacy for children and adults by offering a range of educational support services. Such services include assisting families in the selection of schools, organization of educational activities, and acquisition of materials. They promote a healthy learning environment and enrichment programs for families of preschool and school-age children, including children with special needs.

Award-winning organization New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) was formed in 2006 by Mrs. Pamela Clark. Mrs. Clark discovered that families needed to cooperate, especially in educating children with learning difficulties such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, and neurological disorders. NHEG has served over 350,000 students via online services and courses. Mrs. Clark leads a team of 92 volunteers who research advancements and provide training to teachers and tutors exploring different learning styles.

NHEG provides fill-in-the-gap tutoring to reach students who have been left behind by traditional schools. It offers classes, an educational magazine that has been viewed more than 75,000 times, and a comic book. The organization has published two books: Unraveling Reading and Unraveling Science. Both books are part of the Unraveling series, which provides strategies to parents, teachers, and tutors to support children’s learning processes. The series will include a book for each subject. One Nonprofit’s Journey to Success, written by an NHEG volunteer, was released worldwide in March 2015 and tells the organization’s story. NHEG’s internet radio show, New Heights Show on Education, has over 327,000 listeners. All of this is in despite Pamela Clark's health challenges and overcoming severe malnutrition and 82 surgeries.

NHEG offers over 145 free and 19 low-cost and high-quality courses on its website. It has also made available an international student leadership council, which helps 9th- through 12th-graders develop their leadership skills and an international student advisory group.

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) grew its reach by over 90,000 people in 2020. Pamela Clark’s leadership of a team of volunteers who are experienced in online learning enabled NHEG to reach families in need of quality remote learning during the pandemic. The organization reduced its tutoring service fees, which include one-on-one learning for three one-hour sessions, from $45 a week to $45 a month. NHEG’s online courses, informational services, and tutoring now reach 351,077 students, and all courses offered can be seen in the learning annex.

NHEG serves the majority of its students through free courses, which are one of the organization’s main expenses. NHEG has expanded its online reading ambassador program in partnership with The 2nd & 7 Foundation, where athletes read stories
to students online.

Partners, affiliates, and New Heights Educational Group offer over 1,280 free and discounted courses. Some families implement their internet radio show into their daily studies, as well.

NHEG has also made available an international student leadership council, which helps 9th- through 12th-graders develop their leadership skills and an international student advisory group.

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) grew its reach by over 90,000 people in 2020. Pamela Clark’s leadership of a team of volunteers who are experienced in online learning enabled NHEG to reach families in need of quality remote learning during the pandemic. The organization reduced its tutoring service fees, which include one-on-one learning for three one-hour sessions, from $45 a week to $45 a month. NHEG’s online courses, informational services, and tutoring now reach 351,077 students.

NHEG serves the majority of its students through free courses, which are one of the organization’s main expenses. NHEG has expanded its online reading ambassador program in partnership with The 2nd & 7 Foundation, where athletes read stories to students online. Student groups were opened to international students this year, with great success, to meet demand. And started a 2nd reading program titled, "Reading Time with Rishaan”, where 5-year-old Rishaan reads to other children every Friday. They recently launched the third tier of this program and are now offering a book club, “Reading for a Purpose”.

New Heights Educational Group won three Stevie Awards in The 2021 International Business Awards®. They won the Gold Stevie for Company of the Year - Diversified Services, the Gold Stevie for Education Hero of the Year, and the Silver Stevie for Company of the Year - Business or Professional Services.

Interested in entering The 2022 International Business Awards?

 

Sales Partnerships recognizes organizations demonstrating the highest ethical standards in sales

Winners of the 2022 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service were announced in February, but winners of one special category, sponsored by longtime Stevie Awards sponsor Sales Partnerships, were announced today.

The Sales Partnerships Ethics in Sales Award recognizes organizations for best practices and achievements in demonstrating the highest ethical standards in sales. Nominees submitted specific examples, case studies, practices, etc., illustrating why their organization should be considered an excellent practitioner of both successful and ethical sales. This year’s award looked at accomplishments since the beginning of 2020.

A review panel assembled by Sales Partnerships assessed the nominations in this category and chose the following winners for 2022:

GOLD STEVIE WINNER:

• Blackbaud, Charleston, SC USA

SILVER STEVIE WINNER:

• ATR International, Santa Clara, CA USA

BRONZE STEVIE WINNERS:

• Ace Office, Houston, TX USA
• AMOpportunities, Chicago, IL USA
• Augusta Precious Metals, Casper, WY USA
• Desiderate, Thirroul, NSW, Australia
• Groove, San Francisco, CA USA
• Inside Out Training, Brisbane, QLD Australia
• Raken, Carlsbad, CA USA
• The Speech Academy, Easton, CT and Somers, CT USA
• VMWare, Palo Alto, CA USA
  

Sales Partnerships, Inc., which provides turnkey, outsourced selling solutions, is a sponsor of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service program for the sixth consecutive year.

Maggie Miller, president of the Stevie Awards, said she is looking forward to having the longtime Stevie Awards sponsor present these awards during the May 11 virtual awards ceremony of the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service: “We are gratified that Sales Partnerships has decided to recognize those who not only succeed in sales at their organizations but who do so in a particularly ethical manner. The judges were especially impressed with those organizations that increased their ethical practices while others were facing the hardships of COVID-19. We congratulate all the 2022 Stevie winners.”

In 2020 alone, Identity Fraud in the US cost almost $56 billion. As digitization and automation are becoming the new norm, personal data is increasingly becoming a hot target for hackers. This is where Identity Verification (IDV) companies like Shufti Pro Limited (SP) come into play.

SP provides a wide range of IDV services, ranging from simple Know Your Customer (KYC) services to Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks, for people and organizations. Their services enable clients to meet even the strictest data regulatory standard of any industry or region and ensure that they are secure from ID thieves and fraudsters. The company was created in 2017 with basic KYC features. By 2018, they added AML checks, 2-Factor Authentication, Address Verification, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), and Consent Verification Services.

What Separates Shufti Pro from The Identity Verification Competition

In 2019, Shufi Pro began to provide Know Your Business (KYB) services and between 2020-21, they became one of the few IDV companies that offered Artificial-Intelligence and Human-Intelligence based Video-KYC services, and verification through NFC technology, along with a wide range of ‘on and off premises’ IDV services. Headquartered in London, UK, they are a GDPR compliant global services provider, with offices in Cyprus, Sweden, and Dubai.

Although comparatively young in the IDV community, SP’s proactive approach to incorporate regulatory and global data protection guidelines in the delivery of services, and integrate multi-jurisdiction cybersecurity practices, makes them stand apart from competitors.

SP’s OCR services support 150 different Latin and Non-Latin languages, including Arabic and Japanese, which none of their competitors do. 

They also provide on-premises services, and cater to the demands of all clients, regardless of their order size. They offer a 14-day free trial with $50 credits for proof of concept.

They are also among the very few companies that provide payment authentication and Identity Verification through NFC technology which eliminates the need for manual data entries and hence, saves time and operational costs for all clients.

Germany’s Commission for media, Kommission für Jugendmedienschutz (KJM), has approved Shufti Pro’s age verification solution for the protection of minors. Now, the German Media can utilize Shufti Pro’s age verification solution to prevent minors from accessing content that is not suitable for their age.

They are the only IDV company that provides such a wide range of IDV services, all from a single platform, and that too with extreme ease of integration. By using SP's Restful API, Android / iOS SDK, and Hosted Verification page services, clients can integrate the services with their existing system within 30 minutes.

What Shufti Pro Has Accomplished Since their Stevie Award Win

Since their Stevie Award win, Shufti Pro has been approved by Jumpsec, and has won two more awards in the “Business Technology” and “Banking and Finance Technology” category of the Global Banking and Finance Awards 2021. Victor Fredung, the CEO of Shufti Pro, was invited to give his testimony at the hearing hosted by the US Financial Services Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and examining key points related to digital privacy and emphasized how Shufti Pro is making the financial structure secure through the use of AI technology for identity verification. Owing to the entrepreneurial spirit of Shufti Pro, the company has been nominated yet again for an award – the Nordic Startups Award Season 2021. Shufti Pro has successfully made its way into the World’s 100 Most Innovative CyberTech Companies For Financial Services in 2021. As part of its plan for global expansion, Shufti Pro has opened a new office in Kyiv, Maidan Plaza, Maidan Nezalezhnosti, 2. Kyiv, 02000, Ukraine. Shufti Pro has launched its global identity verification services on Salesforce AppExchange, empowering Salesforce customers to seamlessly integrate identity verification solutions and accelerate their business operations. Shufti Pro has introduced an auto-capture feature to its ID document and selfie biometric technology to enhance its face verification and document screening solutions.

Shufti Pro won the Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year - Computer Services and the  Bronze for Company of the Year - Financial Services in The 2021 International Business Awards®. 

Interested in entering The 2022 International Business Awards?

The Stevie® Awards have announced the winners of Grand Stevie Award trophies in the 16^th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, recognized as the world's top honors for achievement in business development, customer service, and sales.

Nominees in the 2022 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service were not able to apply for Grand Stevie awards directly. Winners were determined by a points system based on the total number of awards won in the program, with a Gold Stevie win counting for three points, a Silver Stevie win for two points, and a Bronze Stevie win for 1.5 points. 

This year’s Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners in the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service were announced on February 28. All winners will be celebrated during a virtual ceremony on May 11.

Winners of the “Top 10 Awards” for 2022 – recipients of Grand Stevie Awards trophies - are:

1. DP DHL, with 92.5 points earned through winning nominations submitted by 26 DHL affiliates around the world. This is the tenth year in a row in which the multinational package delivery and supply chain management company, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, has won a Grand Stevie in the program, and the eighth year of the 10 in which they placed first on the list of most honored organizations.
2. IBM, Armonk, NY USA (61). IBM has won a Grand Stevie Award in the program for the sixth consecutive year.
3. Sales Partnerships, Inc., Broomfield, CO USA (41). Sales Partnerships has won a Grand Stevie Award for the fifth consecutive year as well as in 2016.
4. UPMC Health Plan, Pittsburgh, PA USA (26.5). UMPC also won a Grand in 2021.
5. Allianz SE – Allianz Services India, Kerala and Allianz Global Assistance, Richmond, VA USA (21.5). Allianz SE also won a Grand Stevie in 2020.
6. ValueSelling Associates, Rancho Santa Fe, CA USA (19.5). ValueSelling also won a Grand Stevie in 2021 and 2019.
7. Support Services Group, worldwide (19). Support Services Group also won a Grand in 2021.
8. TransPerfect, New York, NY USA (18.5). TransPerfect also won a Grand in 2021.
9. SAP, Newtown Square, PA USA and Walldorf, Germany (17.5)
10. HP, Inc., Boise, ID USA (16)

More than 2,300 nominations from organizations in 51 nations were considered in this year’s competition. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals on eight specialized judging committees.

Sponsors of the 16th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service include Sales Partnerships, Inc., Thought Leadership Leverage, and ValueSelling Associates, Inc.