F&H Porter Novelli in Munich Germany won a Silver Stevie® Award and two Bronze Stevie® Awards in the Communications Awards, IR Awards, and Public Relations Awards categories of The 2014 International Business Awards.

Freiherr Helmut von Fircks, CEO of F&H Porter Novelli, is a regular judge for the International Business Awards. We talked to him about what winning a Stevie® Award means to him, and for his view on the upcoming German Stevie Awards.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

On winning a Stevie® Award, Helmut von Fircks had this to say: “Winning an award is a big honor both for the client and for the account team. And it not only motivates the dedicated team, the whole agency also benefits from a real boost to morale.”

Raising Awareness
We asked Helmut for his thoughts on the new German Stevie® Awards.  “Having a German Stevie Awards program will attract even more German businesses to attend and be part of this wonderful awards program,” he commented. “Having a German Stevie Awards is recognition of the importance of the German market and its role in the communications world. It will raise the awareness of the Stevie Awards tremendously.”

Think Global-Act Local
For companies already operating, or considering expanding into the German market, Helmut offers the following advice: “We suggest companies adopt the rule: Think global–act local. Even though we are part of the EU, Germans expect a tailor-made personal approach. So a campaign that might work in the U.K. does not necessarily work here in Germany.”

A Bright Future
Helmut is optimistic about the future. “Communications is an evolving industry, always at the heart of future trends and innovation,” he told us. “Learning something new every day keeps us excited and motivated for future challenges.”

About Freiherr Helmut von Fircks:
Helmut von Fircks founded the F & H agency whilst studying economics. Even though he started his career in advertising, he soon discovered the power of public relations within the communications mix. He has built a team of creative strategists who love consulting for large global organizations as well as medium-sized businesses. His heart beats communications, especially in challenging situations, and he is a proven crisis-communications specialist.

In his private life this father of four enjoys long walks with his Labrador Lady Mercey.

About F&H Porter Novelli:
F&H Porter Novelli was founded in 1980 and currently employs 60 people in its Munich office. The agency is exclusive German brand partner of Porter Novelli. F&H is amongst the top 20 PR agencies in Germany. The full service agency offers all parameters within a modern communication mix from PR to advertising. F&H Porter Novelli is a strategic communications consultancy supporting com- panies, organizations, institutions, and people in a variety of communications needs. Areas of expertise include traditional and social media public relations, crisis, special situations and long-term stakeholder communications. F&H offers international communications consulting from creative strategists. Bold and pas- sionate, the F&H team develops successful high quality solutions. More information via http://www.fundh.de/

The Stevie Awards, the world's premier business awards programs, have just published a brochure about 2015 sponsorship opportunities.

READ THE BROCHURE HERE

The brochure outlines the opportunities associated with our six awards programs in 2015, including the newest program - the German Stevie Awards.

Among the benefits that are available through Stevie Awards sponsorships are:

• The ability to submit an unlimited number of entries to the sponsored program without having to pay entry fees. This benefit can be extended to sponsors’ clients as well

• The right to name and confer one or more honorary Stevie Awards upon your customers

• A full-page ad in the official program of the event

• Up to 100,000 banner ad impressions on the sponsored program’s web site and in the weekly Stevie Awards Update e-newsletter

• Tickets for the sponsored awards banquet

• At least 10 minutes of stage time to present awards at the sponsored event

• Logo identification in all photographs and video clips of the sponsored event

• Hospitality and display privileges, before, during, and/or after the sponsored event

• Editorial coverage, in the form of an interview or profile, in the Stevie Awards blog and e-newsletter

We welcome the opportunity to customize sponsorship benefits to suit your needs.  Contact Stevie Awards president Michael Gallagher for details.

Winners of Stevie Awards in The 11th Annual International Business Awards, the world's top honors for achievement in the workplace, will be celebrated and presented their prizes during a glittering banquet on Friday, October 10 at the Westin Paris – Vendôme Hotel in France.  Close to 400 executives from over 30 nations will attend.

The event will sell out.  Only 50 tickets remain, and by this time next week they will be sold.  Purchase your tickets now by first logging into your IBA entry submission account.

Here is a list of the organizations that have already purchased their tickets for the October 10 banquet.

ABS-CBN Corporation Quezon City Philippines
ADCO
Agency for Defense Development
Akbati Shopping Mall Istanbul Turkey
American Medical Response
Anadolu Efes Istanbul Turkey
ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller Dubai United Arab Emirates
ASTRO MALAYSIA HOLDINGS BERHAD
Azercell Telecom LLC Baku Azerbaijan
boogy the event company
Çalik Enerji Ankara Turkey
Cathay Century Insurance
Cisco Systems Inc. San Jose CA U.S.A.
City Health Care Partnership CIC Hull United Kingdom
DenizBank A.S. Istanbul Turkey
Designated Editor Newport RI USA
DHL Express Egypt Cairo
Diamantis Masoutis S.A. Thessaloniki Greece
Doha Bank
Domino's Pizza Istanbul Turkey
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority Dubai United Arab Emirates
ECOPAINT ANGOLA LDA Angola
Egyptian Steel
Entrepreneurial Business School
Eriksen Translations Inc.
FeatureCraft (FC Bilisim Iletisim LTD) Istanbul Turkey
Flytxt Dubai United Arab Emirates
Foresight Corporate Communications Inc. Toronto ON Canada
Freelancer.com
Garanti Pension and Life Istanbul Turkey
GetResponse Wilmington DE USA
Good Relations London United Kingdom
Graebel Companies Inc.
Grupo Máquina PR São Paulo Brazil
GSD® United Kingdom
HANAROADCOM
Hanwoo Board
HAVELSAN INC. Ankara Turkey
HomeAway Inc; Austin TX USA
Hooper Consulting
HR.com Aurora Ontario Canada
HRsmart Paris France
Hyundai Steel
iFinance Canada Canada
inVNT
iPai Shanghai China
ITOPF Limited London England
Jo Su Hee Photo Exhibition
Josiethomson.com Brisbane Australia
Kanyon/Istanbul Turkey
KEPCO KDN
KEPCO Nuclear Fuel Company(KNF)
Kim Hung Ki Mentor Team
Korea Student Aid Foundation
Korea Energy Management Corporation
Korea Gas Safety Corporation
Kosovo Energy Distribution and Supply Company
Land Department of Dubai Dubai United Arab Emirates
Lotte Department Store
Maras Group Adelaide SA Australia
Market Edge Limited Dhaka Bangladesh
MetaMoJi Corporation Tokyo Japan
Millward Brown London United Kingdom
MindZet Kolding Denmark
Ministry of Interiors Dubai United Arab Emirates
Movitel, SA
NATEL EMS Los Angeles CA USA
NNG LLC. Budapest Hungary
Nongshim Communications
Nord Stream AG Zug Switzerland
NU SKIN KOREA
Octavian Security Nottingham United Kingdom
Odea Bank A.S. Istanbul Turkey
Office of the Police Attaché United Arab Emirates Embassy London United Kingdom
Oi Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil
OMSAN Logistics Istanbul Turkey
Ooredoo Group Doha Qatar
Opet Petrolculuk Istanbul Turkey
other
Oxagile LLC New York NY USA
Oxford City Football Club Lake Worth FL USA
Pathways Community Interest Company Crewe United Kingdom
Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. Muntinlupa City Philippines
Portugal Telecom Lisbon Portugal
PS Communication Denmark ltd
PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk Jakarta Indonesia
Quality Systems Inc. Irvine CA USA
Ryan LLC Dallas TX USA
sahibinden.com
Scale Focus AD Sofia Bulgaria
ShoreTel Australia
SK hynix
Soohyun
Strategic Public Relations Group Hong Kong
Synergy Hill+Knowlton Strategies Seoul Korea
TATA Consultancy Services Ltd
TELUS Communications Edmonton AB Canada
Teradata Corporation Dayton OH USA
Theresa Bradley-Banta Real Estate Consultancy Denver CO USA
Tmob Mobile Technology Istanbul Turkey
TRACCS
TranslateMedia London United Kingdom
TTNET Istanbul Turkey
Türkiye Garanti Bankasi A.S. Istanbul Turkey
Türkiye Is Bankasi A.S. Istanbul Turkey
Uijeongbu City
Unite Communications Ortakoy Istanbul
Velie Law Firm Norman OK USA
Viettel Group
Viettel Timor Leste Unipessoal
Vipnet Zagreb Croatia
Virtual Piggy Inc. Hermosa Beach CA USA
Virtusa Corporation Westborough MA USA
Vodafone Istanbul Turkey
Weber Shandwick

More than 23,000 votes were cast in this year's People's Choice Stevie® Awards for Favorite Companies, a feature of The International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition. All organizations honored in the IBA’s Company of the Year categories were included in People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite Companies voting, in which the general public voted for their favorite companies.

Winners of the crystal People's Choice Stevie Awards will be presented on stage at the 11^th Annual International Business Awards banquet at the Westin Vendôme Hotel in Paris, France on October 10^th.

Organizations worldwide are eligible to submit nominations to the IBAs – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small.  More than 3,300 nominations were submitted to this year’s International Business Awards by organizations in over 60 nations and territories, for consideration in a wide variety of categories including New Product or Service of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, Management Team of the Year, Best New Product or Service of the Year, Corporate Social Responsibility Program of the Year, and Executive of the Year, among others. 

With the most votes received in their respective categories, the following are the 2014 winners of the crystal People's Choice Stevie® Award trophies:

Advertising, Marketing & PR: HH Global
Banking / Financial / Insurance: Union National Bank                            
Business Services: Competence Call Center                
Computer Hardware / Electronics: Arvento Mobile Systems   
Computer Services / Internet: Quality Systems, Inc.                 
Computer Software: HRBoss Singapore             
Conglomerates: Virgin Group               
Construction / Manufacturing / Materials: Clearpath Robotics         
Energy & Utilities: ADCO
Food & Beverage:  Food Innovation Solutions             
Health Products and Services: NU SKIN Expo
Hospitality / Leisure / Retail: Diamantis Masoutis S.A.
Media & Entertainment: ABS-CBN Corporation                  
Non-Profit & Government Organizations: Abu Dhabi Police GHQ
Service Industries: iPai
Telecommunications: Globe Telecom, Inc.
Transportation: OMSAN Logistics


For more information about The International Business Awards, including a complete list of all Stevie Award winners in the 2014 IBAs, visit www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

About the Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in six programs: The International Business Awards, The American Business Awards, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie 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.

Sponsors of The International Business Awards include Competence Call Center, Egyptian Steel, and the Korea Business Communicators Association

Tore Claesson, a Director of U.S.-based creative agency TIO, has been sharing his time between the US and China since October 2013.  Tore was a judge for The 2014 International Business Awards, covering the Communications Awards, PR Awards, and Creative Awards categories.

The 2015 International Business Awards will open for entries in January. Join the mailing list and we'll email you once the entry kit becomes available.

We talked to Tore about his experience of judging for the Stevie Awards and were gratified by his enthusiasm. “I think I’ve learned more from judging the Stevie Awards than from any book on creativity!” he told us.

Tore sees judging as an opportunity to peek into other professionals’ brains. As he puts it: “To see how others have solved certain business and creative problems is invaluable. It’s like a secret peek behind the curtain.”

Why China?

Tore had a pithy response to why he has been in China for the past year. “To fill a void.”

Tore explained: “There are simply no agencies focused on small and medium-sized businesses and brands that can bridge the culture gap between the U.S. and China, or Europe and China. And that applies whether a Chinese brand is going west or a Western company is trying to penetrate China.

“You either get an agency that finds a ‘partner’ in China for adaptation work, or—if you’re a Chinese company—you may go to a Chinese agency, which most likely has no experience in the nuances of US communications.

“Nuance is key to all communication. Being on the ground in China, with a mixed Western and domestic team, means we master those nuances. With an agency in New York as well as an agency in China, both cultures are a daily part of our work.”

The Importance of Social Media

Tore stressed the importance of social media in China. “One has to immerse oneself in all social media in China such as Wechat, QQ, Weibo, Youku, etc.  China may have a long way to go before it is on a par with the US and Europe on branding and marketing communications—the industry is still young in China—but in social media, which is a much newer business, they are way ahead. The West can learn from China when it comes to using social media.”

Future Judging

The Stevie Awards recently introduced the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, and the 2015 competition opens this month. (For more information on how to participate, sign up to receive an Entry Kit.)   Tore is intrigued by the possibilities of this competition and has expressed interest in judging the newly revamped and expanded entry categories.

Life in China

Since October 2013, Tore has been working in China and is based in Chengdu, Sichuan.  Tore told us, “Chengdu is China’s fourth biggest city with 14 million people, a fantastic kitchen if you like spicy food, a world famous Panda park, and Geely, which makes Volvo cars.

“Chengdu is known as the Silicon Valley of China—a real tech-hub—and Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone (CDHT) is home to 33,237 hi-tech companies, of which 1,115 companies are foreign-invested enterprises, including over 120 Fortune 500 and world-renowned companies.”

When we asked Tore what kept him inspired or excited about the future, his apt response was: “In my case it’s a curiosity to see where the road leads. I can’t stand still. Petrification is for statues!”

You can read and see more of Tore’s adventures in China on his blog or view some of the work being done in China on his LinkedIn site. His profile page links to a showcase for a Swedish company, Sveba-Dahlen, that needed a Chinese name and more.

About Tore Claesson

Tore’s background at agencies such as Ogilvy and Anderson & Lembke McCann, based in Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong in Asia, and Amsterdam in Europe, in addition to his many years in New York, means that TIO has a leader that knows the ins and out of cross culture communication better than just about anybody on this small planet.

About TIO Agency

TIO is a creative agency specializing in brand strategy, market communication, advertising, and design. TIO helps businesses communicate to their stakeholders with a unique, clear, and consistent voice. To be heard in today’s over-saturated media landscape, efficient brand communication must be designed holistically to convey a unified message to internal and external stakeholders, then transmitted via multiple media.By aligning to each client’s strategic vision, TIO ensures that its work is focused on concrete marketing objectives, rather than dictated by simple creative whims or technological indulgences.

TIO was founded in 2009 by designer Norman Rabinovich and brand strategist Michael Raisanen. Its team consists of 20 creative professionals across design, strategy, communication, technology advertising, public relations, and new media. The agency is headquartered in New Canaan, Connecticut, USA, with an office in Gothenburg, Sweden.

The Stevie® Awards have announced the winners of the Best of the IBA Awards in The 2014 (11^th Annual) International Business Awards, the world's premier business awards competition.

Nominees in the 2014 IBAs were not able to apply for the Best of the IBA Awards directly. Winners were determined by a points system based on the total number of awards won in the IBAs. This year's Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners in The International Business Awards were announced on August 13.

The winners of the Best of the IBA Awards will be presented with Grand Stevie Award trophies at The 11^th Annual International Business Awards banquet at The Westin Vendôme Hotel in Paris, France on October 10. 

Winners were determined by a points system based on the total number of awards won in the IBAs, with a  Gold Stevie win counting for 3 points, a Silver Stevie for 2 points, and a Bronze Stevie counting for 1.5.  The winners are:

Organization of the Year: Quality, Systems, Inc. Irvine, California, USA. With 68.5 total points, Quality Systems, Inc. is the most honored organization in the 2014 IBAs.

Public Relations Agency of the Year: MWW. MWW offices around the world won a total of 42.5 points.

Marketing Agency of the Year: Weber Shandwick. Weber Shandwick offices worldwide won a total of 39.5 points.

Interactive Services Agency of the Year: Plasenta Conversation Agency, Istanbul, Turkey (31.5 points)

Top 10: After the winners of the above prizes, the following entrants earned the most award points in the 2014 IBAs:

1. MSLGROUP, worldwide (35.5)
2. CallidusCloud, Pleasanton, California, USA (32.5)
3. Akbank TAS, Istanbul, Turkey (31.5)
4. Maras Group, Adelaide, Australia (31)
5. LLORENTE Y CUENCA, Madrid, Spain (27.5)
6. Odea Bank A.S., Istanbul, Turkey (26.5)
7. Ooredoo Group, Doha, Qatar (25.5)
8. Accenture, worldwide (24.5)
9. Oxford City Football Club, Lake Worth, Florida, USA (23)
10. ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (22)

The International Business Awards feature a wide variety of categories to recognize achievement in every facet of work life, including management awards, new product awards, marketing awards, PR awards, customer service awards, website awards, and more.

For more information about The International Business Awards, including a complete list of all Stevie Award winners in the 2014 IBAs, visit www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

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.

      Business Awards Program to Celebrate Excellence Worldwide at Paris Event

High-achieving organizations and executives around the world have been announced as Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie® Award winners in The 11th 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 Friday, 10 October at the Westin Vendôme Hotel in Paris, France. Tickets for the event are on sale now at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA. 

Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners were selected from more than 3,500 nominations received from organizations and individuals in more than 60 nations. All organizations worldwide are eligible to compete in The International Business Awards, and can submit entries in a wide range of categories, including management awards, company of the year awards, marketing awards, public relations awards, customer service awards, human resources awards, new product awards, IT awards, web site awards, and more.  

More than 250 executives worldwide participated in the judging process this year.

The top Gold Stevies winners this year are Weber Shandwick, worldwide, with eight, and Quality Systems, Inc. (USA) with seven. Accenture (USA), Akbank (Turkey), LLORENTE Y CUENCA (Spain), MSLGROUP worldwide, MWW Group (USA), and Plasenta Conversation Agency (Turkey) are winners of five Golds each. Winners of four Gold Stevies are AT&T (USA), CallidusCloud (USA), Jack Morton Worldwide, Maras Group (Australia), and Oxford City Football Club (USA). 

Among the winners of three Gold Stevie Awards are Advanced Bionics (USA), AECOM (USA), ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller (United Arab Emirates), DHL Express worldwide, Globe Telecom (Philippines), Kanyon (Turkey), Odea Bank (Turkey), PS Communication (Denmark), and StarHub Ltd (Singapore).

A complete list of all 2014 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners by category is available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

 “The entries we received this year were some of the most noteworthy we have ever seen,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards.  “We congratulate all of the winners, and we look forward to recognizing them for their achievements at our gala event in Paris on 10 October.”

Next week the winners of the Best of the IBA Awards, five best-of-competition prizes, will be announced.

For high-resolution photos of the Stevie Award trophy 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 six programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. The sixth program, the new German Stevie Awards, will open for entries on 18 August.  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 on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.

The following professionals participated in preliminary judging of The 2014 International Business Awards, the worlds top business awards program, in May-July.  Their average scores determined the entries that were eligible to be included in final judging.  We thank them for their time, insights and support.

Dr. Mamdooh Abdelmottlep, Founding President, International Police Sciences Association, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Nicole Y. Adams, Translator & Consultant, NYA Communications, Brisbane, Australia
Hazem Adawie Senior Manager-Corporate Performance Management Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Bora Aksoylu, Event Manager, NIKE Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey
Shadi Al Hroub, Creative Director, Freelance, Amman, Jordan
Ahmad Alhai, Drilling Services Automation Project Manager & RTOC Project Member, ADCO, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Mahmoud Alhayek, Quality Expert, Abu Dhabi Police, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Dr. Mohammed A. Alkhozai, Director, Bahrain Management Society, Manama, Bahrain
Amal Al-Najjar, HR Manager, Fluor Kuwait, Kuwait
Col. Mohammed Alreeh, Ministry of the Interior, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Ani Atanasova, CEOPixelhunters, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dr. Christina Augustine, Global Strategic HR, Virtusa Corporation, Chennai, India
Heather Barton, Head of Human Resources, American Institute for Foreign Study (UK) Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Israel Bonequi, Creative Director, Birds Nest Foundation, Montreal, QC, Canada
Ted Bridgwater, President, Foresight Corporate Communications, Toronto, ON, Canada
Oana Bulexa, Managing Director, The Practice, Bucharest, Romania
Connie Bullock, Director, Marketing, NuCompass Mobility, Manassas, VA , USA
Mark Burton, CEO, International Armoring Corp., Centerville, UT, USA
Peter Bush, Doctor, Response Ambulance Services, Port Talbot, United Kingdom
Jorge Cachinero, Director Corporativo de Reputación e Innovación, Llorente y Cuenca, Madrid, Spain
Venkata Rajesh, Cheerla    Group Senior Manager - HR Strategy, Policies & Compliance, Etisalat Group, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Tore Claesson, Director, Tio Agency, New York, USA
Sally Clubley, Senior Consultant, IHRDC, Stourton, United Kingdom
Dorothy Crenshaw, CEO, Crenshaw Communications, New York, NY, USA
Kate Darcy Hohenthal, Founder, The Birthday Club, Manchester, CT , USA
Karla Davis, General Manager, Plantation Resort, Surfside Beach, SC, USA
Saraida De Marchena Kaluche, President and CEO, Markatel, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Lelanie de Wet, Web Content & Social Media Manager, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa
Teresa DeFelice, Account Executive, RCI, Orlando, FL, USA
Danielle Di-Masi, Managing Director, The Interactions Lab, Coogee, Australia
Richard Dixon, Owner/Administrator, Home Helpers and Direct Link of North Texas, Keller, TX, USA
Sheryl Dobson, Director of Customer Contact, J2 Global, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Michal Dunin, Managing Director, WebTalk, Warsaw, Poland
Stacey Edmonds, Founder and MD Lively, Lively Coogee, NSW, Australia
Rochelle Ekanayake, Managing Director UK/SRI LANKA, MrPierce Studios International Asia (PVT) Ltd, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Kristina Garcia, Managing Director, German State of Hessen U.S. Office for Economic Development, New York, NY, USA
Sergio García, Creative Director, Doctor Jekyll, Barcelona, Spain
Manoj Gautam, Om shiva, shakti herbal company pvt. Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal
Constantinos Grivas, CEO and Founder, Swiss Nutraceuticals MIKE, Athens, Greece
Naresh Gupta, Associate Partner, IBM Global Business Services, Gurgaon, India
Danita Harn, VP of Operations, Harn & Associates Bookkeeping Firm, Woodstock, GA, USA
Robin Harris, Principal/Creative Director, Harris Design Inc., McLean, VA, USA
Aida Hernandez, New Business Development, Marco de Comunicación, Madrid, Spain
Jesse Hertstein, Senior CSR Specialist, Amway, Ada, MI, USA
Jamie K. Holt, MBA, President/CEO, JMK Notary And Services, Miami, FL, USA
Giles House, VP Marketing, CallidusCloud, Pleasanton, CA, USA
Yvonne Howie, CEO, NSW, The CEO Institute, Neutral Bay, NSW, Australia
Richard    Hu, Senior Editor, China Advertising, Beijing, China
Elif Ildeniz, Employer Branding Project Leader, TOFAS-FIAT, Istanbul, Turkey
Echo Ilott, Director, Boost Marketing, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Leo Indarwahono, Public Health & Educational Executive, The Indonesian Business Coalition on AIDS (IBCA), Jakarta, Indonesia
Petr Jares, Member of the Board, Etnetera, Prague, Czech Republic
Parag Jaripatke, Senior Systems Administrator, AOL Inc., Dulles, VA, USA
Monika Jaslowska, Senior Head of Brand Public Relations Department, Polpharma Biuro Handlowe Sp. z o. o., Warsaw, Poland
Beverly Jensen, President/CEO, WomensMedicineBowl.com, Greeley, CO, USA
Özgür Karaçak, Managing Partner / Founder/ Creative Director, SesliHarfler Digital Advertising Agency, Istanbul, Turkey
Hakan Karamanli, IT Manager, GARANTI TEKNOLOJI, Istanbul, Turkey
Samitha Karunarathne, CEO, Aryans Engineering (Pvt) Ltd., Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka
Mazin Khoury, CEO, Middle East, AMEX (Middle East) B.S.C. (c), Manama, Bahrain
Elzbieta Krawczynska, Quality Specialist & Trainer, Bank Zachodni WBK S.A, Poznan, Poland
A.J.Lawrence, CEO, the JAR group, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Andreea Leonte, Senior PR Consultant, MCCANN PR, Bucharest, Romania
Chris Litherland, International Snr Director HR, Intermec by Honeywell Heinsberg, Germany
Ke Je Tony Liu, Greater China Partner, Creative Chairman, MC Saatchi aeiou, Shanghai,  China
Denis Looney, Vice President, Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Cork, Ireland
Anil Machado, Managing Director, Tnell, Sieradz, Poland
Morag Malloy, Managing Director, Fission Creative, Paisley, United Kingdom
Kristin Marcell, Vice President Public Relations, SmartMark Communications, Newtown, PA   USA
Wessam Massoud, Programme Delivery Manager, Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Center (ADSIC), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Chris McConnell, Senior Manager, Accenture, Chicago, IL, USA
Colin McKillop, Chief Executive Officer, Butcher Enterprises, Windsor, ON, Canada
Jennifer, McQueen, Managing Partner, Ausnindo-Asia/Pacific, Croydon, VIC, Australia
Jeremy McWilliams, Managing Director, Bang TV, London, United Kingdom
Ronald Meske, President, Training Systems Design, Camarillo, CA, USA
Eric Mosely, CEO, Globoforce, Dublin, Ireland
Rajesh Kumar Mudiakal, SAP Project Manager, CMC Limited, Mumbai, India
Motomasa Murayama, Professor, Tokiwa University, Mito City, Japan
Rajiv Noronha, AVP, Location HR Leader & Head -Org., Effectiveness, Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore, India
Charles Olsson, Managing Director, Stockfeed Purchasing Pty Ltd, Crestmead, Australia
Pierluigi Orati    Head of Country Analysis, SENEL SPA, Rome, Italy
Diego Otero Rodríguez, Creative Director, Suigeneris Communications SL (A Save Your Numbers Holding), Barcelona, Spain
Alper Afsin Özdemir, President, Krombera Digital Marketing Agency, Istanbul, Turkey
Cem Cabbar Özdemir, Creative Director, Project House, Istanbul, Turkey
Parveen Panwar, CEO, PMI 5, Media LLC, Los Altos, CA, USA
Anne Patterson, VP Client Delivery, FreeFlow, Kerry Ireland
Katarzyna Pawlikowska, Managing Partner, Garden of Words, Warsaw, Poland
Guy Perry, President, CEO & Founder, Salt Lake Running Company, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Donald Pillai, International Marketing Executive, Bumbo (Pty) Ltd, Rosslyn, South Africa
Churchill Dass Prince, Founder & CEO, Sales Intellect Company, Chennai, India
Rammesh Rajagopal, Senior Manager IT, Cisco Systems Inc., Morrisville, NC, USA
Fanjarivo Rakotonirina, President, Tropical Items Madagascar, LLC, Boulder, CO, USA
V.S. Ramachandran, Senior VP, Emarat, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Mohamed A. R. Rashed, Director of Strategic Planning, Ahlia University, Manama, Bahrain
Dennis Reno, Vice President, Customer Experience, New Relic, San Francisco, CA, USA
Pamela Robinson, CEO, Financial Voyages LLC, Atlanta, GA, USA
Linanne Sackett, Principal Investigator, Verizon Next Step Program, Albany, NY, USA
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Amr Sadik, VP - Curriculum Development, INTEX, Cairo, Egypt
Sasan Saeidi, Managing Director, FP7, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Göktug Sahin, Lecturer, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey
Hande Sarantopoulos, Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Director, Kale Group, Istanbul, Turkey
Gauri Sharma, Head of Business, Modest Inc, Chicago, IL, USA
Keira Shein, Partner, WilkinsonShein Communications, Stevenson, MD, USA
Pelle Sjöqvist, Creative Director, Dahlheim & Sjöqvist, Stockholm, Sweden
Asuncion Soriano, Vice President, INFORPRESS, Madrid, Spain
Leslie Stretch, President & CEO, CallidusCloud, Pleasanton, CA, USA
Julian Stubbs, Senior Lecturer, Marketing (retired), The University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom
Begum Susar, Digital Marketing and Design Assistant, Vice President, ING Bank Turkey, Istanbul, Turkey
Andrzej Szczepaniak, Deputy Director, Bank Zachodni WBK S.A, Srem, Poland
Pinar Tuba, Temizkan, HR Senior Consultant and Co-Active Coach, Elemental-Value (official provider of The Coaches Training Institute-CTI), Istanbul   
Meera Tenguria, Founder & Director, Aarrohan Communications, Mumbai, India
Wailaya    Tiningsih Bravyanto, Corporate Relations, PT Unilever Indonesia, Tbk, Jakarta, Indonesia
Han Tjan, VP Corporate Communications, Daimler, New York, NY, USA
Aigerim Tulepbergenova, Business Analyst, Morgan Stanley, Eugene, OR, USA
Noel Unciano, Research Specialist, Industrial Technology Development Institute, Taguig City, Philippines
Aykut Ustun, Group Manager - HR and Management System, Opet Petrolculuk, Istanbul, Turkey
Rob Vandenberg, President & CEO Lingotek, Draper, UT, USA
Kirti Vashee, Vice President, Enterprise Translation, Asia Online, Santa Monica, CA , USA
Nicole Vaughn, Account Supervisor, Fleishman-Hillard, Inc., St. Louis, MO, USA
Vincent Verdi, Art Director, CUNY-TV, Staten Island, NY, USA
Robyn  Vogels, Founder, Managing Director, Personnel Relocations, Cheltenham, SA, Australia
Mike Voznick, National Business Consultant, Harn and Associates, Smyrna, GA, USA
Clara H.Y. Wang, Account Director, KAI Communications (China&UK), Beijing, China
Floor Wijburg, CEO, W & I Consultants, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Silvana Xhaferi, General Secretary, Albanian-British Chamber of Commerce and industry, Tirana, Albania
Mimi Young, Principal, Behavior Design, New York, NY, USA
David Zapata, President, Zapwater Communications, Chicago, USA                            
Joseph Zitzelberger, Director of Manufacturing Development, PACCAR Inc., Chillicothe, OH, USA                                                                                                                          

The Korea Student Aid Foundation (KOSAF) in Seoul, Korea, won two Gold Stevie® Awards in The 2013 International Business Awards: in the marketing awards categories with their National Scholarship PR Campaign; and for Best Twitter Feed.

(Entries for The 2015 International Business Awards will open next January, while the 2015 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards will begin accepting entries this September. Get your entry kit here.)

We talked with Mr. Byong-Sun Kwak, Chairman of KOSAF, about what winning Stevie Awards has meant for his organization.

“It has been an honor for KOSAF to be recognized in The International Business Awards for the past three years,” Chairman Kwak told us. “We received it as a sign of encouragement and support to increase our efforts for the development of our future human resources here in Korea.”

Reforming the System

Kwak told us that the people of Korea were still in deep shock following the recent Sewol-ho ferry disaster. “It took the lives of many young high school students who had not yet blossomed,” he told us. “As the representative of an organization working to improve the future of young people—as well as a Korean—I felt tremendous regret. Learning from this accident, however, the government and public institutions are seeking ways to reform our social systems, and there are headlines about these reforms every day. KOSAF will also be participating aggressively in this movement, and we will be doing our part to build an even more impressive organization. The disaster has given us renewed incentive to earn the trust of our customers and to build a better future for the young people of Korea.”

Opening Doors for Korean Talent

We asked Kwak how The International Business Awards (IBAs) could be of help in broadening support for Korean students and their post-graduate careers in countries outside Korea.

“KOSAF aims to be a world-leading scholarship aid organization for the development of human resources,” Kwak told us. ‘We hope that by winning in the IBAs we will have an opportunity to share KOSAF’s vision and goals with businesses and organizations all over the world. We want to spread a similar system to other countries as being an exemplar of a scholarship aid organization. Our aim is to build momentum in constructing an international network for global human resources.”

According to Kwak: “We will explore every opportunity for talented Koreans to use their abilities, and to take an active part on the international stage, such as working for a major international corporation that may itself be an International Business Awards winner. We will open every possible door to achieve this, and would certainly like to hear from any foreign organizations interested in our Korean talent.”

Building for the Future

Kwak told us of his hopes for the future. “Not long ago, we held a writing contest for students who had received a scholarship or a student loan. It was really a meaningful event. I was deeply impressed at seeing how so many students had a true appreciation for the national scholarship and student loan system. Their essays showed us their determination to be capable men and women who would strive to repay this social aid.”

Added Kwak: “The contest led us to forget about the financial statistics (2014 budget of 3.7 trillion won—nearly $3.7 million—of scholarship support and 1.2 million scholarship students) and to feel each student’s passion to pursue his or her dream.”

Concluded Kwak: “I think what KOSAF should do is to provide the students with more opportunities to serve our society—not as the object but as the subject of our society. We plan to form a virtual circulation structure that will encourage beneficiaries of national scholarships to voluntarily return their benefits to society so that more students could be supported.”

“The fundamental purpose of a scholarship is sharing. The culture of voluntary participation and sharing should be encouraged if Korean society wants to become more advanced. Since our foundation’s job is not merely working as a public institution but building the future of our country, we will encourage our talented students to achieve their dreams, but with a full understanding of their debt to society.”

About Byong-Sun Kwak

Since Mr. Byong-Sun Kwak was appointed chairman of KOSAF in May of 2013, he has greatly expanded national scholarships to lower the burden of college tuition – and to free college life of worries about tuition fees – by creating the “conversion loan” program and others which substantially cut the existing borrower’s loan rate, along with the stabilized operation of the college student loan. He was awarded the Happiness Deoham Contribution Grand Prize in 2014 for his contribution to society, and he also faithfully fulfills his own social obligation by donating 50% of his private income mainly to scholarship funds.

Before joining KOSAF, Kwak was president of the Korea Education Development Institute (KEDI); a member of the Presidential Commission on Education Reform, Republic of Korea; a member of the Board of Education Sub-Committee of UNESCO Korea; a member of the Presidential Commission on Education and Human Resource Development; and he served as a President of Kyungin Women’s University. He has been awarded the National Medal of Merit from the Korean Government (1986), National Medal for Excellent Service from the Korean Government (2003), and the Pacific Circle Consortium’s Peter Brice Award. His major publications include Curriculum Theory and Textbook, Civil Society and Citizenship, and Search for an Educational Paradigm for the Future of Co-Existence and Cooperation with Focus on the East Asian Situation, among many others.

Chairman Kwak graduated from the college of education at Seoul National University, and received a Master’s Degree in education at the same university. He also attended the College of Education at Marquette University graduate school in the United States, majored in education, and received a Ph.D.

About KOSAF

The Korea Student Aid Foundation (KOSAF) is a quasi-governmental agency under the Korean Department of Education. Its mission is to help anyone to be a capable human resource by operating the financial fund consigned by the government, by bonds issued on the capital markets, and the funds donated by enterprises or individuals. To achieve this mission, KOSAF implements projects such as a national scholarship for low-income students, a scholarship for academic excellence, a scholarship in conjunction with work programs, and a low-interest tuition loan project. Since its inception in May 2009, about 6 trillion Korean won (approximately of scholarships and over 20 trillion won of tuition loan has been supported, and up to 7.8% of the tuition loan interest prior to the organizations foundation has been reduced to 2.9% to ease the student’s burden. The foundation is also building boarding houses to lower students’ living costs, and operating a system which enables more than 400 celebrities to mentor the college students—and for those students in turn to help the studies of elementary, middle, and high school students. At present, about 30,000 college students who receive benefits from KOSAF are participating in the knowledge-mentoring program for younger students from low-income and multi-cultural families, as well as families that have defected from North Korea.