Did you know The 2016 American Business Awards extended the final entry deadline through Tuesday, April 19? There is still plenty of time to submit your nominations. Learn a bit more about who is judging the Company / Organization submissions in The ABA's this year.
The American Business Awards are widely considered to be the premier business awards program in the U.S.A. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations -- public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. The 2016 awards honor achievements since the beginning of 2015. Entry details are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.
Judging Chair:
Robert Frost, Vice President, Customer Care
Carbonite, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Rob Frost is Vice President, Customer Care for Carbonite, a leading provider of hybrid backup (cloud and local) and recovery solutions for home users and businesses. Rob is hyper-focused on customer satisfaction and sets the highest standards for customer service. As VP of Customer Care, Rob and his award-winning, global customer care team continually strive to make sure every customer interaction is a positive experience.
Prior to joining Carbonite, Rob was Director of Client Services and Technical Support at Intronis. Rob also served as Senior Director of Support and Global Client Relations at Acronis, where he spent three years in Moscow, Russia, delivering global support in nine languages.
Committee:
Ilene Adler, CEO
Vantage Communications, San Francisco, California, USA
As an executive in the tech world since the 80s, Im always learning. My experience ranges from international marketing director to president of RAD Data Communications in the US; founding Vantage PR in 1990 to acquisition by PAN Communications in 2015. The best part is connecting with amazing people.
Jennifer Cherry Foster, Senior Vice President
Marx Layne, Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA
Cherry Foster is Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer. She oversees media and social relations for clients in a broad range of industry sectors including retail, restaurant, real estate and emerging technologies, and directs the agencys social media practice. With extensive experience in the retail sector, Cherry Foster also counsels clients on retail theory as well as sales and communications strategies.
Dave Craig, Vice President, Human Resources
Fazoli’s Restaurants System Management, LLC, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
Dave Craig is Vice President, Human Resources for the 220-unit, Lexington, KY-based Fazoli's Restaurant chain. A native of Akron, Ohio and graduate of Ohio University, Dave has been in the restaurant industry for over 30 years, including 20 years with Fazoli's as the Company's senior HR leader and 10 years in various HR roles with the Long John Silver's Seafood chain. Dave and family reside in Lexington, KY.
Dennis Gallagher, Director of Customer Service and Payments
Golden Nugget’s Online Gaming, New York, New York, USA|
Dennis Gallagher is a Customer Service professional with 20 years of experience managing Customer Service based organizations in the Telecom, E-Commerce, Media, and Hotel / Casino industries. Dennis feels that customer satisfaction is directly proportional to his employees' satisfaction, and so he has approached his Management positions with this in mind. His strategy of taking care of the folks who take care of customers has proven invaluable in building world class service organizations. Dennis focuses on creating enjoyable working environments to build loyal, hard-working and successful teams.
Eric Halvorson, Senior Vice President, National Services Group
Wells Fargo, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Eric Halvorson is a Senior Vice President in the Treasury Management Group. Based in Minneapolis, he is responsible for Operations, Implementation and Client Support for the newly created, enterprise-wide Banking as a Service Channel. Eric has a wide range of experience in consumer finance, treasury/cash management, mortgage and banking spanning more than 20 years. Prior to moving to Treasury Management, Eric managed operations for Wells Fargos Joint Venture mortgage companies.
Fatih Hidirligil, President
It's Always Christmas in NY, Inc., New York, New York, USA
Fatih Hidirligil, born in Turkey 1977, has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Economics and Business Administration, with expertise in import and export. He is CFO running his wife’s Christmas businesses with acclaimed success, and they have a precious son. He serves on the board of a non-profit organization.
Neslihan Hidirligil, Founder
N&F Global Corp, New York, New York, USA
Born in Turkey in 1978, Neslihan came to U.S. in 2002. In 2004, she found that her passion is to spread Christmas spirit year-round, and her ornaments now hang worldwide. She is the largest Christmas retailer on the East Coast, and designs the ornaments and displays at her stores.
Jaimon Jacob, Associate Director - Customer Service & Business Excellence
UAE Exchange Centre LLC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Jaimon Jacob, a Master of International Business, has over a decade of experience in addressing operations management and organisational excellence. He has been instrumental at work on designing, developing and establishing systems for critical elements of Business Excellence such as Strategy Deployment, Performance Management, Continual Improvement, Break-through and Daily Work Management, among others.
Anila Kalleshi, President
Kalleshi Centre, Tirane, Albania
My name is Anila Kalleshi. I'm 44 years old and I am from Albania. I am a nutrionist and I run the most successful Weight loss center in Tirana. I've written 5 books: "How to loose weight", " Diet?! Not only", "Challenges Diet", "28 Day Diet" and "Live Healthy".
Jennifer Maldonado, Senior Business Analyst
Activision Blizzard, Santa Monica, California, USA
Jennifer has served in customer advocacy roles for over 20 years. She was recently one of six customer experience practitioners globally to be recognized with the 2015 Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) Impact Award. Jennifer currently runs Activisions Voice of the Gamer program and manages its Customer Service Analytics team.
Greg Merril, CEO
YOST Labs, Inc., Portsmouth, Ohio, USA
Greg Merril served as CEO for four VC-backed companies. He led HTMedical through a $42M merger with Immersion Corp. He delivered fifty+ lectures/keynotes covering VR, medical, and consumer electronics. An inventor with nineteen patents, he is recognized as a TEDMED Innovation Scholar. Greg Merril is a regional Ernst&Young Entrepreneur-of-the-Year winner.
Vaughn Mootoo, Global Category Analyst
Chevron, Houston, Texas, USA
Vaughn Mootoo is the Production Operations Category Manager for the Chevron San Joaquin Valley Business Unit. He is responsible for developing contracting strategies, leading strategic sourcing events, managing supplier relationships, and leading category management initiatives that lower the total cost of ownership while maintaining operational excellence. Previous roles at Chevron include global category business analyst and supplier diversity coordinator.
Don Pearce, Owner
Pearce Advisory Services, Dallas, Texas, USA
Don Pearce is currently the Owner of Pearce Advisory Services, a Company specializing in helping companies increase sales. Before then he served as Vice President for the Texas division of Alliance Technology Group and before then he held Executive Sales Management positions with Sun Microsystems, STK, Amdahl, and IBM. He has serves the Advisory Board for the Computer Science Engineering Department at Southern Methodist University and holds a B.S. in mathematics from SMU. He earned a M.S. in mathematics from Louisiana State University, where he also taught Mathematics for two years. Mr. Pearce is also a recognized leader in business management with a significant track record of success including 32 years achieving over 100% of his team's revenue quotas.
Churchill Dass Prince, Founder & CEO
Sales Intellect Company, Chennai, India
Churchill Dass Prince is a well-known Research person and an Industry Thought Leader, in multiple industries. He founded a Sales Intelligence Company named "Sales Intelligence Services, Inc" and "Sales Intellect Company" with his trademark "Sales Intelligence(tm)", based on his award winning software innovation during 2003. Churchill Dass Prince has presented 100+ research papers in International and national conferences and honoured as "Chief Guest" in 100+ International and National Conferences.
Noah Rowles, CEO
Rowles Holdings, LLC, Pasadena, California, USA
Noah Rowles is the founder of iolo technologies, a worldwide leader in the performance optimization software market. As CEO he led the business through 15 years of autonomous growth, profitability, and market leadership that ultimately culminated in a successful acquisition. As a self-taught technology architect, inventor, strategist, and multiple patent-holder, Mr. Rowles enjoys fostering high-growth business environments that produce game-changing results though a contagious spirit of innovation, quality of design, and collaborative efficiency.
The Company / Organization categories are one of the largest award category groups in The ABAs, with more than 34 categories for Company of the Year, including:
Company of the Year (may be for-profit or non-profit, public or private, large or small)
B01. Accounting
B02. Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations
B03. Aerospace & Defense
B04. Automotive & Transport Equipment
B05. Banking
B06. Business Services
B07. Chemicals
B08. Computer Hardware
B09. Computer Software
...and many more.
There are no entry fees in the Startup of the Year categories:
B35. Startup of the Year (for companies that began operations since January 1 2014).
a. Business Product Industries
b. Business Service Industries
c. Consumer Product Industries
d. Consumer Service Industries
B36. Tech Startup of the Year (for companies that began operations since January 1 2014).
New categories for 2016 include:
B45. Minority-Owned Business of the Year: A new category for 2016. This category will recognize the achievements since January 1 2015 of businesses in the U.S.A. that are majority owned by members of an ethnic minority
B46. Veteran-Owned Business of the Year: A new category for 2016. This category will recognize the achievements since January 1 2015 of businesses in the U.S.A. that are owned by veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.
See all of the Company / Organization categories here.
Staci Johnson
Jarie Bolander
Marc Charles
Erin Farrell Talbot
Katherine Goldman
Gerald Huesch
Philip Larson
GET THE ENTRY KIT HERE.
Rob Frost is Vice President, Customer Care for Carbonite, a leading provider of hybrid backup (cloud and local) and recovery solutions for home users and businesses. Rob is hyper-focused on customer satisfaction and sets the highest standards for customer service. As VP of Customer Care, Rob and his award-winning, global customer care team continually strive to make sure every customer interaction is a positive experience.
n 2011, after more than two decades marked by substantial achievement within and outside the Professional Employer Organization (PEO) industry, Jay set out to build a new kind of PEO where quality service would be the driving focus of everything. That PEO is Engage. Today, Engage is one of the fastest-growing companies in the country.
Gina Ellis-Strother has been Director of Marketing for Charleston County Park & Recreation Commission since 2013. She has had more than 20 years of experience in travel and technology marketing, and previous employers included American Airlines, SABRE, Worldspan,
Prior to TriNet, Jock spearheaded global public relations, customer references, and social media for Dell SonicWALL in 17 countries. He drove positioning and communications when the previously public company went private with Thoma Bravo in 2010 and during SonicWALL’s acquisition by Dell in 2012. Before that, he was global head of corporate communications and web marketing at CallidusCloud, a provider of cloud-based sales and marketing solutions. Before that, Jock worked at The Hoffman Agency, Edelman Worldwide, and
Narasimhan Srinivasan (Narsi) is the Vice President and Head of Human Resources for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in North America. He has been with TCS for the last 22 years. Narsi’s career spans 27 years, and during that time, he has played multiple roles in Delivery, Business Development and Human Resources areas in the IT Industry. He has been working in Human Resources for the last 9 years. His key roles at TCS include Global Head of Learning and Development, Head of Organizational Effectiveness, HR Director– 
Steve Fulmer is the Senior Vice President of Government Guaranteed Lending at First GREEN Bank, a “local bank with a global mission” that endeavors to do the right thing for the environment, and the company’s people, community, and shareholders. Steve oversees all Small Business Administration and US Department of Agriculture Business Lending in Florida for the bank.
Derek Gerry is Director, Strategic Accounts at C-4 Analytics, a provider of customizable full service digital marketing solutions in Boston. A skilled content and search optimization strategist with a deep appreciation for Saul Bass, Ken Nordine, and the fundamentals of marketing communication, Derek has been part of the team at C-4 Analytics since 2010. In his capacity as Director of Strategic Accounts, Derek has developed and implemented campaigns in the health care, consumer retail, energy, and automotive sectors.
ustin Bell is an experienced marketing executive and brand strategist residing in Miami, Florida. Justin is CEO of Lion Agency, a multinational digital agency with offices in Buenos Aires, Miami and São Paulo. Lion Agency is an award-winning agency (earning five American Business Awards in 2015), and works with leading brands including American Express, Celebrity Cruises, Elizabeth Arden, FANIA Records, Tío Gazpacho, and the University of Miami.
Staci was the recipient of the 2015 Gold Stevie Award for Marketing Executive of the Year. With her help, Roth Staffing Companies has been honored by Fortune as a 100 Best Workplaces for Women and 50 Best Small & Medium Workplaces, as well as Best Staffing Firms to Work For by Staffing Industry Analysts, and Best of Staffing for both Client and Talent Satisfaction by Inavero and CareerBuilder. 
Eric Farr is a Principal at BrainStorm, Inc., a leading provider of end-user adoption and change management solutions. BrainStorm’s mission is to change the way the world works. On top of changing the way the world works, BrainStorm is known for being one of the best places to work in the country. BrainStorm was named to Outside’s Best Places to Work for the fourth consecutive year, three time Utah Business Best Companies, and was featured twice on 
Jody Brown is Executive Vice President of Public Relations, Corporate Communications, and Congressional Relations at CACI International Inc., a provider of information solutions and services in support of national security missions and government transformation for Intelligence, Defense, and Federal Civilian customers. Jody initiates and directs the company's internal and external communications, public relations, congressional relations, marketing communications, corporate branding and strategies, philanthropy and community relations, and employee communications. She leads the coordination of strategic leadership events, provides critical direction for change management activities, and is a member of the company's Mergers & Acquisitions Executive Team. Jody provides strategic input and direction to the company's investor relations and has led or made major contributions to a wide range of projects and initiatives that have spurred and supported CACI's growth. Her contributions have been essential in enabling CACI to sharpen client focus, increase awareness of the company's solutions and capabilities, expand into new markets, enhance recruitment communications, and enhance shareholder value.
This year’s people’s choice winners, who will each receive the coveted crystal People’s Choice Stevie Award, are:
REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE
We know, you're still busy. Your calendar this week is still chock full. But surely you can find some time during your lunch break to prepare your submission. Because in 10 minutes you can prepare and submit an entry to the ABAs and potentially win a Stevie®, one of the most coveted trophies on the planet.
We think this is the most useful new feature for many reasons. All of the main tools you need for learning about and submitting entries to the Stevie Awards competitions are now available to you at all times, no matter which webpage you are on. On the left-hand side of the page, you will notice a collapsed menu labeled “What Do You Want To Do?” When you expand the menu the following options are always available:
The competition calendars, labeled "Current and Forthcoming Award Cycle", with entry deadlines, finalist and winner announcements, and event dates are now available in a large chart at the bottom of each Stevie Awards homepage. You are also able to keep track of important dates by scheduling text message reminders.
