August 29 is the entry deadline for the 2012 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's premier business awards for women executives, entrepreneurs, and the organizations they run.

If you haven't already done so, you can request your entry kit here. The entry kit contains all of the information you'll need to be able to prepare and submit entries to this year's awards.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business feature over 80 categories including Best Entrepreneur, Best Young Entrepreneur, Best Executive, Mentor or Coach of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Employee of the Year, Best Overall Company of the Year, and Most Innovative Company of the Year, among others. 

All female entrepreneurs, executives, and the organizations they run, worldwide, are eligible to be nominated. Winners of the 2010 Stevie Awards for Women in Business included, among others: Teach for America’s Rebecca Fishman Lipsey (Best Executive), Nu Skin Enterprises’ Melissa Tantoco-Quijano (Best Asian Executive), International Financial Data Services’ Debralee L. Goldberg (Best Canadian Executive), Métier, Ltd.’s Sandra Richardson (Mentor of the Year), and Australia’s WildlyWealthy.com (Best Overall Company of the Year). A complete list of 2010 honorees is available at www.stevieawards.com/women.

The 2012 results will be announced at an awards dinner at Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on November 9.

Not sure which categories are right for your organization? Contact us at help@stevieawards.com and we'll direct you to categories that are right for your organization.

Business Awards Program to Celebrate Excellence Worldwide at Seoul Event

Fairfax, VA U.S.A. – August 15, 2012 – Organizations and individuals in more than 40 nations have been announced as Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie® Award winners in The Ninth Annual International Business Awards, the world’s only international, all-encompassing business awards program.

Nicknamed the Stevies from the Greek word “crowned,” the awards will be presented at a gala event on Monday, 15 October at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Seoul, South Korea. Tickets for the event are on sale now at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.    

Winning 69 Gold Stevie Awards this year, organizations and individuals in the United States made the best showing.  Host nation South Korea came in second place with 59 Golds, while Turkey earned an impressive 19 Gold Stevies.  The United Kingdom earned 16 Gold followed by the United Arab Emirates with 11, Canada with 10 and India with eight.

Some notable Gold Stevie winners include Accenture (India and USA, four Gold), Advanced Bionics (USA, three Gold), AKBANK TAS (Turkey, three), Etisalat Group (United Arab Emirates, four), Kanyon (Turkey, four), iolo technologies (USA, three), Jack Morton Worldwide (USA, three), HANAROADCOM (South Korea, three), eWIDEPLUS (South Korea, four), LifeLock (USA, five), Quality Systems (USA, five), Shinhan Card (South Korea, four), and Slack and Company (USA, four).

A complete list of all 2012 Gold, Silver and Bronze International Stevie Award winners by category is available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.   

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners were selected from more than 3,200 entries received from organizations and individuals in more than 50 nations.  All organizations worldwide are eligible to compete in The International Business Awards, and can nominate in a wide range of categories, including management awards, company/organization awards, marketing awards, public relations awards, customer service awards, human resources awards, new product awards, IT awards, web site awards, and more.  

Business professionals around the world participated in preliminary judging in May-July.  Their average scores determined the entries that were eligible to be considered in final judging, which was performed earlier this month by the members of 10 specialized committees.  In total, nearly 300 executives around the world participated in the judging process. 

For high-resolution photos of the Stevie Award or International Business Awards logo, visit http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/iba/press/172_701_3120.cfm. Other information and resources for press are available at http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/iba/press/172_701_3121.cfm. 

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  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.   

The following professionals participated in the final judging of The 2012 International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition. Final judging is now over and 2012 winners will be announced tomorrow, August 15. The 9th Annual International Business Awards will be celebrated in Seoul, South Korea at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Monday, 15 October. We thank our judges for their time, insights, and support.

Hj Abdillah Suffian Bin Abdul Rahim, Vice President, AEU, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysa
Toshihisa Adachi, CEO, ITOCHU Technology Ventures, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Syed Ahmed, General Manager - Marketing, Nissan Middle East, Dubai, UAE
Daniel Ahn, Professor, Hansei University, Seoul, South Korea
Ali Al Ahmed, Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Etisalat, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mohamed  Al Hosani, Manager Administration, Bahrain National Gas Company, Manama, Bahrain
Mohammed Alkhozai, Director, Bahrain Management Society, Manama, Bahrein
Brent Almond, Creative Director, Design Nut, LLC, Washington, DC, USA
David  Armstrong, Director, Willis Group, England UK
Hala Badri, EVP, Brand & Communication, EITC-du, Dubai, UAE
Nagabhushan  Balaji, Head Internal Control, Legal & Compliance, Dubai First, Dubai, UAE
Bill Bates, Managing Director, Bates Consultancy, London, UK
Donald Batting, Senior Design Consultant, Northeast Geography BSC | Enterprise Support Services , Ernst & Young LLP, New York, NY, USA
Shaun Battleman, CEO, African Access Holdings (PtY) Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa
Monika Biedrzycka, Managing Director, Momentum Worldwide, Warszawa, Poland
Suhail Bin Tarraf, CEO, Tanfeeth, LLC, Dubai, UAE
Gabriela Bobrowska, CMPA Leader and M&A, 3M Poland, Nadarzyn, Poland
Ghassan  Boujacli, Managing Director, Memac Ogilvy & Mather W.L.L., Manama, Bahrain
Howard Boville, Managing Director, Global Financial Services, BT, London, UK
Tim Bright, Partner, OneWorld Consulting, Istanbul, Turkey
Hugh Brown, Director, Monbro, London, UK
Jean Manuel Canga Valles, Executive Group Marketing Director, ME & Africa, Beiersdorf Brands(Nivea), Hamburg, Germany
Mike Carlin, CEO, Map Group, Cleveland, UK
CM Chan, Director, Sapptech, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Colin Chapman, Partner, CC&A Consulting LLP, London, UK
Bidhan Chaudhuri, CCO, Tanfeeth, LLC, Dubai, UAE
Steve Cheshire, Asst Director, TYS Managed Services, London, UK
Jin Mu Cho, Vice President, Korea Business Communicators Association, Seoul, South Korea
Chick Ciccarelli, CEO, Chick Ciccarelli, Inc / WebWizardsª, Valley Village, CA, USA
Nadine Cino, CEO, Tyga-Box Systems,Inc, New York, NY, USA
Tore Claesson, Director, Tio Agency, New York, NY, USA
Rene Co, General Manager, Greater China External Relations, Procter and Gamble Asia, Guangzhou, China
Jean-Marc  Codsi, VP Global Customer Experience Europe, eBay Inc, London, UK
Ross Collins, Director, James Ross Consulting, London, UK
Francesco  Comi, Operations Director, Nectar Italia, Milan, Italy
Hannah Cornick, Community Plans Manager, Tesco Plc, Cheshunt, UK
Kate Darcy-Hohenthal, Founder, The Birthday Club, Manchester, CT, USA
Eslam Darwish, Head of Marketing - Middle East & Africa, MasterCard Worldwide, Dubai, UAE
Robbie Dinglasan, New Media Director, Bullet Manila, Manila, Philippines
Richard Du Toit, CFO, Self Employed, Matsapa, South Africa
Jim Ducharme, Community Manager, GetResponse Email Marketing, Toronto, Canada
Eaton  Fallows, Program Director , British Telecom, Manchester, UK
Graeme Fenwick, Head of Customer Services, SKY, Newcastle, UK
Alan Gilleo, Chief Creative Officer, leapfroginteractive, Louisville, KY, USA
David  Gilman, President, Gilman Performance Systems, Brookfield, CT, USA
Natalya Gladkikh, General Director, Advertising Research Center Grand Prix, Mosco, Russia
Malgorzata Greszta, Managing Partner, CSR Consulting, Warszawa, Poland
Kim Haley Small, General Manager, Pepsico, Purchase, NY, USA
Adel  Hamad Abul Rahman Hamad, CEO, Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Company (GARMCO), Manama, Bahrain
Stacey Han, Senior Corporate Communications Specialist , FedEx, Seoul, South Korea
Josh Hardie, Head of UK Corporate Responsibility, Tesco Plc, Cheshunt, UK
Niena Etsuko Hino, CEO, Real Cosmopolitan, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
JongHee  Hong, Corporate Communications Director, LÕOreal Korea, Seoul, South Korea
Richard Hu, Senior Editor, China Advertising, Beijing, China
Karen Ingham, Director of Quality, Service, Virgin Media, London, UK
Toshiaki Ito, Independent Producer, Tokyo, Japan
Aleks Ivanovic, CEO & Founder, Webcom, Inc, Milwaukee, WI, USA
Faisal Janahi, Senior Manager, Independent Consultant, Riffa, Bahrain
Ineta Januyte, HR Manager, UAB Irdaiva, Vilnius, Lithuania
Monika Jasowska, Senior Head of  Brand Public Relations Department, Polpharma, Warsaw, Poland
Katarzyna Jedrzejewska, Journalist, Brief, Warszawa, Poland
Vicky Jewell, Corporate Communications, Everything Everywhere, London, UK
Sunil John, CEO, ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller, Dubai, UAE
Magdalena Juwko, Operating Director, Fundacja Amber, Warszawa, Poland
Yasuyo Kaneko, President, C'BON Cosmetics Co.,Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Joe Kay, Senior Business Transformation Consultant, London, UK
Jin Woo Keum, Professor, College of Design, Kosin University, Busan, South Korea
Steve Keum, Creative Chairman, UK-Kiss, Seoul, South Korea
Mazin  Khoury, CEO, Middle East, AMEX, Manama, Bahrain
Taka Kimura, Designer, Kimono Designer, Tokyo, Japan
Albert Kong, Chairman/CEO, Asiawide Franchise Consultants Pte Ltd, North Bridge Centre, Singapore
Vikram Krishna, Head of Group Marketing, Emirates NBD, Dubai, UAE
Sunil  Kulwal, CEO & Managing Director, Aditya Birla Minerals Limited, Perth, Australia
Raje Kumar, Professor, Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Young Sul Kwon, Managing Director, Office of Future Strategy Editorial Bureau, The Korea Economic Daily, Seoul, South Korea
Phil Lander, Director, Research In Motion, Slough, UK
Liesl Leary, Director of Marketing, SDL Language Technologies, Flatiron, CO, USA
Woo Hak Lee, Professor, Konkuk University, Seoul, South Korea
Ong Chee  Leong, Manager, Bukit Bintang Branch, Malayan Banking Berhad, Bukit Bintang, Malaysia
Kelly  Leong, Hotel Manager, Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Waldemar Leszczynski, Managing Partner, Weber Shandwick, Warszawa, Poland
David Lim, Owner/Founder, Denise Wines Group, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Anne Lochoff, Executive Director, McCann, New York, NY, USA
Monwabisi Ludonga, Executive Director, AAICT, Johannesburg, South Africa
Joanna MacLeod, VP/GM EMEA Service Delivery, American Express Global Business Travel, London, UK
Abdul Malek, Chairman, Malaysian Franchise Association, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
John Martin, Executive Director, Original Boats, Cape Town, South Africa
Andrew McClure, CMO, ME GI, Zurich Insurance, Dubai, UAE
Alain Meric, SVP, Customer Experience Management, Etisalat, Dubai, UAE
Liam Monaghan, Managing Director, Luxury Country Cottages, Geneva, Switzerland
Guillermo Montano, President, Transactel, powered by TELUS, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Keith Morris, Executive Director, L'Agulhas Links, Johannesburg, South Africa
Mateli Mpuntsha, Managing Director, Edusolutions, Johannesburg, South Africa
Daria Murawska, Communications and Corporate Responsibility Senior Specialist, Tchibo Warszawa, Warszawa, Poland
Motomasa Murayama, Professor, Tokiwa University, Tokyo, Japan
Manabu Muta, President, Japan Management Consultants Assn., Tokyo, Japan
Tamara Nall, President & CEO, The Leading Niche, New York, NY, USA
Ovais Naqvi, Senior Vice President, Abraaj Capital Limited, Dubai, UAE
Craig Nelson, Cofounder, President & CEO, iCentera, Burnsville , MN, USA
Tung Nguyen-Khac, Managing Director, Vertigo Capital Consult GmbH & nexxter interactive GmbH, Munich, Germany
Rajiv Noronha, Head-Organizational Effectiveness (BPO), Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore, India
Yasunori Okajima, Director, I.W. Technology Firm, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Makiko Omokawa, President, Platinum Marketing Management Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
Richard Ong, CEO, Smart Reader, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Mirella Panek-Owsianska, CEO, Responsible Business Forum, Warszawa, Poland
ChanJu Park, Marketing Director, Dupont Korea, Seoul, South Korea
Katarzyna Pawlikowska, Managing Partner, Garden of Words, Warszawa, Poland
Stefan Pertz, Group Managing Director, Launchpad Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysa
Irena Pichola, Director, PwC Polska Sp. z o.o., Warszawa, Poland
Katarzyna Pilat, International Marketing Manger, InPost, Krakow, Poland
Aleksandra Piszczorowicz, Head of Marketing, Totalizator Sportowy Sp. z o.o., Warszawa, Poland
Roger Poulin, President, Malaysia Canada Business Council, Selangor, Malaysia
Markus Pounder, Senior Consultant, F & H Public Relations, Munich, Germany
Katarzyna Radecka, SD Manager, Kompania Piwowarska SA, Poznan, Poland
Mohamed Rashed, Director of Human Resources, Ahlia University, Manama, Bahrain
Amanda Rogaly, CEO, Kadoro Events & Communications, Gauteng, South Africa
Gavin Rogaly, Managing Director, Develop Office Auto, Johannesburg, South Africa
Beata Rozek, Head of CSR, Tesco Poland, Krakow, Poland
Sasan Saeidi, Managing Director, FP7, Dubai, UAE
Chino Saito, CEO, MOON CAKE LIMITED, Tokyo, Japan
Sabina Salamon, Head of Communications, Deutsche Bank Group Poland, Warszawa, Poland
Ian Semple, Head of Customer Excellence, Everything Everywhere, Darlington, County Durham, UK
Gautam  Sen Gupta, Managing Director, Brand Finance Middle East, Dubai, UAE
Naoya Shimizu, President, IFNet, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Manjit Singh, Consultant, Manjit Singh Sachdev, Mohammad Radzi & Partners, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Gordon Smith, Chief Executive, The Bahrain Petroleum Company BSC (c), Sitra, Bahrain
Agata Stafiej-Bartosik, Manager, PwC Polska Sp. z o.o., Warszawa, Poland
Werner Steinoble, Managing Director, ARM, Randburg, South Africa
Gavin Storrier, Executive Director, Safezone, Johannesburg, South Africa
Leslie Stretch, President & CEO, CallidusClourd, Pleasanton, CA, USA
Julian Stubbs, Senior Lecturer, Marketing - Business School, The University of Greenwich, London, UK
Shawn Sullivan, Director of Marketing, BCBS of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Alan Tait, Managing Director, Pragma, Halfway House, South Africa
Masakazu Taniguchi, CEO, Japan Life Design Systems, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
Wim Torfs, Partner, McKinsey and Company International, Dubai, UAE
Tessa  Troubridge, Managing Director, Service Desk Institute, London, UK
Akihito Tsukioka, President, Digitized Information Ltd, Tokyo, Japan
Anyck Turgeon, EVP of Talent Promotion & Board Member, CADF, Austin, TX, USA
Rieko Ueda, President, Mothernet Inc., Osaka, Japan
Marten  van Pelt, President, Y&R Korea, Seoul, South Korea
Helmut von Fircks, CEO, F & H Public Relations, Munich, Germany
Fabian von Loewenfeld, CEO, First Class & More, Dubai, UAE
Ewelina Wasilewska, Communications and Corporate Responsibility Manager, Tchibo Warszawa, Warszawa, Poland
Scott Weeth, VP, Account Management & Business Solutions, Transactel, powered by TELUS, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Gerard Whelan, Managing Director, Nectar Italia, Milan, Italy
Gwn Wight, Director Client Service, ServiceSource Europe Limited, Sandyford, Dublin, Ireland
Katarzyna Wilczewska, Public Affairs Manager, Kompania Piwowarska SA, Poznan, Poland
Sakae Yoshii, CEO, Aozora Securities Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan

Honor Recognizes LinkedIn Co-founder’s Entrepreneurial Leadership

The Stevie® Awards today announced that Reid Hoffman, Executive Chairman of LinkedIn Corporation and a Partner at Greylock Partners, will be honored with its 2012 Difference Maker award at The 10th Annual American Business Awards new product and tech awards banquet on September 17 at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco.

Hoffman will be just the second recipient of this honorary Stevie Award, which will be presented in recognition of his role in shaping social networking and entrepreneurship in the U.S.A.  DefJam Recordings founder and entertainment industry leader Russell Simmons received the ABA’s Difference Maker award in 2011.

“Reid Hoffman embodies the entrepreneurial spirit in America,” said Stevie Awards President Michael Gallagher.  “In addition to being an influential entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Reid devotes his energies to philanthropic and educational initiatives that work to inspire a new generation of startups in the U.S.A. and worldwide.  We’re honored to be able to recognize his achievements with an honorary Stevie Award.”

In 2003, Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking service, in his living room.  LinkedIn has more than 175 million members in 200 countries and territories around the world.  He led LinkedIn through its first four years and to profitability as CEO and Chairman. 

Hoffman joined Greylock Partners in 2009 and currently serves on the boards of Airbnb, Edmodo, Mozilla (Firefox), Shopkick, Swipely, Wrapp, and Zynga and has co-led investments in Coupons.com, Groupon, and Viki.  He also leads the Greylock Discovery Fund, which invests in seed stage entrepreneurs and companies. 

He believes strongly in the ability for entrepreneurship and technology to improve the world.  Hoffman serves on the boards of Kiva.org, Endeavor.org, DoSomething.org, and StartupAmericaPartnership.org.  He also co-authored the best-selling book The Startup of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career. 

Widely recognized as the premier business awards program in the U.S.A, The American Business Awards honor organizations and individuals in a wide variety of categories -- from management and public relations to technology, human resources, new products and more.

The ABA’s September 17 banquet in San Francisco will feature the announcement of 2012 Stevie Award winners in categories for new products and services and achievements in technology industries.  Awards in other categories were announced in New York on June 18.

For more information about The American Business Awards or for press credentials to cover the September 17 ceremony, please contact Liz Dean at 703-547-8389 or by email at liz@thestevies.com.

About The Stevie® Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  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. 

Sponsors and partners of The 2012 American Business Awards include American Support, Business TalkRadio Network, CallidusCloud, Citrix Online, Dynamic Research Corporation, iolo technologies, John Hancock Funds, LifeLock, PetRays, Primus Telecommunications Group, SoftPro, and VerticalResponse.

The Stevie® Awards have announced the schedules for the 2013 editions of The American Business Awards, the USA’s premier business awards program, and The International Business Awards, the world's top business awards competition.

The 11th Annual American Business Awards will open to all organizations and individuals in the U.S.A. on October 10, 2012. The first early bird entry deadline will be November 14, and the second early-bird deadline will be December 12. The final deadline will be March 27, 2013. See the full 2013 ABA calendar here.

The 10th Annual International Business Awards will open to all organizations and individuals worldwide in January. The early-bird deadline will be April 10, and the final deadline will be May 15. See the full 2013 IBA calendar here.  

Want to be the first to receive the 2013 entry kits? Join the ABA mailing list and the IBA mailing list and we'll send you the entry kits as soon as they become available.

Entry Deadline Is August 29, 2012; All Female Entrepreneurs, Executives and Employees Worldwide Are Eligible to Be Nominated 

The Stevie® Awards for Women in Business today issued the Call for Entries for its ninth annual competition.  Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business feature over 80 categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Mentor or Coach of the Year, Employee of the Year, Best Overall Company of the Year, PR Campaign of the Year, Website of the Year, and New Product or Service of the Year, among others.  The awards are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards and International Business Awards. 

All female entrepreneurs, executives, and the organizations they run, worldwide, are eligible to be nominated.   The 2012 awards will recognize achievements since the beginning of July 2011.

The entry deadline is August 29.  Late entries will be accepted through September 28 with payment of a late fee.  Winners of the ninth annual competition will be announced at a gala awards dinner in New York on November 9.  

New this year, Stevie Awards will be conferred in three levels of distinction: Gold, Silver and Bronze.  To date, only overall category winners have been recognized as Stevie winners.

Winners of the 2011 Stevie Awards for Women in Business included, among others: Charly Leetham of Ask Charly Leetham, Canberra, Australia (Entrepreneur of the Year), Sarah Yansura of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR (Employee of the Year), Melissa Burton of FTF Sweets Ltd, Heysham, United Kingdom (Entrepreneur of the Year in EMEA), Ann Kaplan of iFinance Canada (Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year), Lynn Agnello of the Phoenix Suns NBA team (Executive of the Year), The University of Southern Mississippi (Community Relations Campaign of the Year), and Wipro Limited, Bangalore, India (Women Helping Women Award).  A complete list of 2011 honorees is available at www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business are judged by many leading women entrepreneurs, executives and luminaries in business.  More than 200 professionals worldwide will participate in the judging process this year.

“2012 marks the tenth anniversary of the start of the Stevie Awards movement, and we’re looking forward to finishing the year with our honors for women of achievement worldwide,” said Michael Gallagher, Stevie Awards founder and president.

About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  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.   

Kimberly Webb is the founder of Rockin' Green in San Antonio, Texas, and winner of a Stevie® Award for Best Entrepreneur of the Year in a Non-Services Business with up to 100 Employees in the 2011 Stevie Awards for Women in Business. (The entry deadline for the 2012 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's premier business awards for women executives, entrepreneurs, and the organizations they run, is August 29. Request your entry kit today.) Here we get Kimberly's advice on running a business and a family simultaneously.

What are your top tips on combining running a business and being a working mother of a young family?

1. Be efficient. With little ones around, you have to make the most of each and every nap and use any free moment to work!
2. Streamline your processes as much as possible.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask! Seek out help when you need it. 

What was the most helpful piece of advice you received on starting your own company?
Just do it!

What other areas of the environment would you like to see cleaned up?
Our food chain is in dire straits right now, and I worry about what my grandchildren will be eating in the future.

Do you have a favorite app?
I love Instagram and Facebook.

What quality or qualities do you most value in your business associates?
I really respect entrepreneurs who start from very humble beginnings and have grown their own businesses through hard work and dedication.

About Kimberly Webb:
Kimberly Webb started her career in marketing, but she had always had a dream of becoming an entrepreneur. When her first son was born, she began cloth-diapering him, and instantly became a cloth-diapering fanatic. However, when Kimberly initially used cloth diapers, she had trouble keeping them stink- and residue-free because the hard water in her area caused mineral buildup, rendering the diapers useless. As a creative and determined person, Kimberly developed eco-friendly detergent formulas of her own, and in 2009 she officially started Rockin’ Green. In 2010, Kimberly helped found The Great Cloth Diaper Change, a worldwide initiative dedicated to promoting the environmental benefits of cloth diapering. Kim works for Rockin’ Green full-time. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, and has two sons.

About Rockin’ Green:
Rockin’ Green manufactures award-winning, clean-rinsing laundry detergents formulated for use on all fabrics. Rockin’ Green detergents come in several natural scents and are designed for hard, soft, and normal water conditions—the products are known as Hard, Soft and Classic Rock.  Rockin’ Green products are available at more than 1,000 retailers worldwide, and are used by hundreds of thousands of customers around the globe. To learn more about Rockin’ Green, visit http://rockingreensoap.com.

The following professionals have been named committee chairs for the final judging of The 2012 International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition.

Final judging is now underway and 2012 winners will be announced on August 15. The 9th Annual International Business Awards will be celebrated in Seoul, South Korea at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Monday, 15 October.

In total, more than 100 judges will participate in this year's final judging for the IBAs. Thank you to all of our judges for their participation.

• Company / Organization Awards Categories: Dr. Adel Hamad, CEO, Gulf Aluminium Rolling Mill Company (GARMCO), Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain
• Corporate Communications, Investor Relations & Public Relations Awards Categories: Beata Rozek, Head of CSR, Tesco Poland, Krakow, Poland
• Creative Media Awards Categories: Akihito Tsukioka, President, Digitized Information Ltd., Tokyo, Japan
• Customer Service Awards Categories: Alain Meric, Senior Vice President, Customer Experience Management, Etisalat, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Human Resources Awards Categories: Dr. Richard Ong, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Smart Reader® Worldwide Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Information Technology Awards Categories: Leslie Stretch, President & CEO, CallidusCloud, Pleasanton, CA, USA
• Management Awards Categories: Shaun Battleman, CEO, African Access Holdings (PTY) Ltd, Johannesburg, South Africa
• Marketing Awards Categories: Vikram Krishna, Head of Group Marketing, Emirates NBD, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• New Products & Product Management Awards Categories: Jin Mu Cho, Vice President, Korea Business Communicators Association, Seoul, South Korea
• Support Awards Categories: Ian Semple, Head of Customer Experience, Everything Everywhere, London, United Kingdom

We will publish the names of our committee members shortly.

Entries for the 2013 (7th annual) Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service will open on July 30.  These are the world's top honors for call center, customer service, sales, and business development professionals.

We're getting ready to launch the competition and are finalizing the sales awards and customer service awards categories, and were wondering, which categories do you think we should add to the competition for 2013?

You'll find a list of the 2012 categories here.  Which categories do you think we should add to this list?

Please let us know your thoughts by July 25.

 Results of Public Poll to Be Announced on September 17 in San Francisco

Fairfax, VA – July 12, 2012 – Voting is now open for the fourth annual edition of the People’s Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite New Products, a feature of The American Business Awards.  Anyone may vote for their favorite new products and services in any of 30 categories at PeoplesChoice.StevieAwards.com.

Among the categories are Favorite New Smartphone, Favorite New Tablet, Favorite Consumer Product, and Favorite Media or Entertainment Product.  Voting will close on August 29.

All new products and services that were nominated in the new product awards categories of The 2012 American Business Awards are automatically included in people’s choice voting. Organizations will have the opportunity to win two awards: a Gold, Silver, or Bronze Stevie Award, as determined by professionals in the ABAs’ peer-review judging, and a crystal People's Choice Stevie Award, as determined by the public vote.

Winners of the crystal People's Choice Stevie Awards will be announced at The American Business Awards' new product and tech awards banquet at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco on September 17.

Past winners of the People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products include Apple, Boost Mobile, Dow Jones, and Samsung.

The American Business Awards are the U.S.A.’s top business awards program, honoring achievement in every facet of the American workplace.  For information about the ABAs visit www.StevieAwards.com/ABA. 

About the Stevie® Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  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 Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. 

Sponsors and partners of The 2012 American Business Awards include American Support, Business TalkRadio Network, CallidusCloud, Citrix Online, Dynamic Research Corporation, iolo technologies, John Hancock Funds, LifeLock, PetRays, Primus Telecommunications Group, SoftPro, and VerticalResponse.