The final entry deadline for the 2014 (first annual) Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards, the first business awards program to recognize achievement in business throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region, has been extended through 31 March.

Information about the program is available online at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com.

The Stevie Awards are widely considered to be the world's premier business awards programs.  The Stevie Award trophies, made by the company that makes the Oscar and other major international awards, are among the world's most coveted prizes.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are open to all organizations in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region.

Entries will be accepted in the following categories:

• Technology Company of the Year
• Manufacturing Company of the Year
• Services Company of the Year
• Government or NGO Organization of the Year
• Fastest-Growing Company of the Year
• Exporter of the Year
• Management Team of the Year
• Customer Service Leader of the Year
• Technology Executive of the Year
• Manufacturing Executive of the Year
• Services Executive of the Year
• Government or NGO Executive of the Year
• Woman of the Year
• New Technology Product of the Year
• New Consumer Product of the Year
• New Consumer Service of the Year
• New Business Product of the Year
• New Business Service of the Year

The awards will culminate with a gala awards banquet at the Lottel Hotel in Seoul, South Korea on Friday, 30 May.

The following seven executives have been appointed to head the final judging committees that will determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie® Award winners in the 2014 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  (All the category groups can be viewed in more detail here.) The winners will be announced at the awards gala on Friday, February 21 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Becky Johns, Vice President of MarketBridge in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, is Chair of the Final Judging Committee for the Sales Achievement and Sales Individual categories.

Becky Johns works with clients to improve marketing and sales productivity by developing and executing integrated data-driven marketing and sales strategies. At MarketBridge, a global provider of digital marketing, sales enablement, and customer analytics solutions, her experience centers primarily on building brand loyalty through customer acquisition, engagement and retention programs and developing online and social media communities. Becky recently led her MarketBridge teams to win back-to-back Gold Stevie Awards for Sales Training Program of the Year in the 2012 and 2013 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service Awards, as well as a Silver Stevie for Brand Experience of the Year in The 2013 American Business Award.

George Orr, Vice President of Client Services at kCura in Chicago, Illinois, USA, is Chair of the Customer Service & Contact Center Achievement Final Judging Committee.

George Orr is vice president of client services at kCura, a developer of web-based e-discovery applications for managing large volumes of electronic evidence during litigation or investigations.  A member of the kCura team since 2007, George’s department is responsible for much of the company’s client-facing activity. Over the past few years, George has helped the team’s processes evolve from “brute-force problem-solving” to a set of polished procedures that ensures a positive customer experience every time. Prior to taking the reins of kCura’s client services department, George worked as the messaging systems manager for Rotary International, a Chicago-based non-profit organization specializing in humanitarian funding programs.

George is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to being a Relativity Certified Administrator, George also has extensive Microsoft and infrastructure training and is certified in both arenas.

 

Mike Ortegon, Director of Global Sales Operations at HomeAway.com in Austin, Texas, USA, Chairs the Final Judging Committee for the Sales Team and Sales Department categories.

Mike Ortegon joined HomeAway in March 2012. As the Director of Global Sales Operations, he is responsible for supporting sales leaders across the globe to help them make well-informed business decisions and to run effective and efficient teams while aligning to corporate strategy.  Throughout his career, Mike has been in management, operational, sales, and marketing roles in North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. 

 

Sanjeev Garg, Global Head of Customer Care, Commercial Vehicles Business Unit at TATA Motors in Mumbai, India, is Chair of our Customer Service & Contact Center Individual Final Judging Committee.

Sanjeev Garg has been the Global Head of Customer Care for the Commercial Vehicle Business Unit of Tata Motors since December 2011. His customer care group is spread across four continents and supports more than 3 million Tata Motors vehicles through 2,300-plus service touch points and over 33,000 retail networks of spare parts. In 1996, Sanjeev joined General Motors Ltd and was instrumental in launching new initiatives for the customer satisfaction index and new Competitive Intelligence processes. His work at GM encompassed global geographies including South East Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Under his leadership, GM was ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction in the Middle East, ahead of Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.

The Chair of our Customer Service Department Final Judging Committee is Kelly Thomas, Assistant Vice President, Client Relations at OppenheimerFunds, Inc., in Englewood, Colorado, USA.

Kelly Thomas began working with OppenheimerFunds 29 years ago and currently is assistant vice president of Client Relations at its Denver Campus.   Her leadership philosophy is to act with integrity and pursue excellence.  She believes a leader should be able to take risks, to challenge the status quo, to inspire others, and to create a healthy work environment that will encourage and foster team collaboration. In addition to her leadership role within OppenheimerFunds, Kelly serves as the president of the City of Centennial Chapter for the National Association of Professional Women. 

Ben Herkenhoff, Customer Interaction Center Manager at Outsell, LLC in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, Chairs our Customer Service & Contact Center Team Final Judging Committee.

Ben Herkenhoff has been the manager of the Customer Interaction Center at Outsell for the past two years.  Outsell LLC is a digital marketing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company that is transforming the way brands engage with consumers. Its Digital Engagement Platform offers clients the ability to consistently engage with consumers across distributed sales networks from the national to local level. Ben’s team at Outsell won the Stevie® Award for Contact Center of the Year in the 2013 Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Ben tells us he is “excited to get started” on the final judging, and has worked hard to put together a great committee.

The Chair of our Final Judging Committee for the New Product & Service and Solution Provider categories is Ansa Sekharan, Senior Vice President, Global Customer Support at Informatica Corporation in Redwood City, California, USA

Ansa Sekharan is senior vice president of Global Customer Support at Informatica Corporation, an independent provider of data integration software and data masking technology. He is responsible for establishing Informatica as a trusted partner for customers worldwide by ensuring their success with Informatica's products.  Ansa has a very busy schedule, dividing his time between Redwood City, California and Bangalore, India, as well as other global Informatica locations.

 

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.

We're so excited that The 9th Annual American Business Awards gala is just a week and a half a way.  Have you gotten your tickets yet for the June 20 event in New York? 

The following organizations have already confirmed their attendance.  If you're a nominee and would like to join them, login to your account at www.stevieawards.com/aba.  If you're not a nominee but would like to be part of one of the business world's top events, contact us for ticket details.

ABS Associates, Inc. Rolling Meadows, IL           

Accenture, Chicago, IL                      

Acorda Therapeutics, New York, NY            

adBrite  San Francisco  CA               

AECOM Technology Corporation  New York  NY   

Aegis Electronic Group Inc.  Gilbert AZ

Affinnova, Waltham, MA

Agiliance  Inc.

Allen Interactions Inc., Mendota Heights, MN

AlliedBarton Security Services

AmberMcGown.com

American Express Business Travel  New York  NY   

American Support

Americas' SAP Users' Group  Chicago  IL

Approva Corporation  Herndon  VA

Assurant Solutions, Atlanta, GA

A-T Solutions Inc., Vienna, VA

AXA Distributors, LLC

Berkshire Associates Inc.  Columbia  MD

BlackLine Systems                      

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Durham, NC                                         

BOXLIGHT, Belfair, Washington             

Braces By Burris  Jonesboro  AR                

BrainStorm Inc.  American Fork  UT             

Brendan O'Connell

Broadview Networks

Buckeye Partners  L.P.

Business TalkRadio Network

Cabell Huntington Hospital  Huntington  WV       

CACI International, Inc.

Cambium Learning Technologies  Natick  MA         

Capital Access Network, Scarsdale, NY

Cartus Corporation  Danbury  CT

Catapult Technology  Bethesda  MD

CIGNA Corporation

CitiusTech Inc.

Citizens Financial Group  Providence  RI           

CME Group  Chicago  IL                   

Content Master                           

Coverall Health-Based Cleaning System  Boca Raton  FL                   

Creative Lodging Solutions, Lexington, KY   

Definition 6, Atlanta, GA    

Dell  Inc.  Round Rock  TX

DeVry University

DHL Express  Tempe  AZ

DYMO Endicia

DYMO/Mimio Inside Sales & Sales Operations      

E Center, Inc.

eHarmony

Electric Insurance Company

Eloqua  Vienna  VA

EMKAY Inc.  Itasca  IL

Empire Today  Northlake  IL

EmpowHER Media  Scottsdale  AZ

Epic Media Group

Epicor Software Corporation  Irvine  CA

EXIT Realty Corp. USA  Woburn MA

F5 Networks  Seattle  WA

Flextronics International  Milpitas  CA

Fox Business Network

Gas Station TV

GPS Capital Markets  Salt Lake City  UT           

Groupon, Inc. Chicago, IL

Harris Corporation, Melbourne, FL

High Performance Technologies Inc.

Hilton Hotels & Resorts, McLean, VA

Homewood Suites by Hilton  Memphis  TN

Hubspan  Inc  Seattle  WA

Humana, Inc., Louisville, KY

IBM Netezza

Incredimeal.com

Infogroup

Information Builders  New York  NY

INSZOOM.COM INC.  San Ramon  CA

Integrate.com  Denver  CO

InterContinental Hotels Group, Atlanta, GA      

International Checkout Inc  Van Nuys  CA              

Investor Growth Capital             

iolo technologies                                  

John Hancock Funds  Boston  MA                  

KPMG LLP, Montvale, NJ

L-com Connectivity Products, North Andover, MA  

Leadership Vanguard 

Legacy, Washington, DC

LifeLock                            

MailerMailer  Rockville  MD                      

Makovsky + Company, New York, NY

Marriott Intermediary Partner Care  Omaha  NE          

MASERGY Communications  Inc.  Plano  TX

MBX Systems  Wauconda  IL

McKinley Marketing Partners  Inc.  Alexandria  VA     

Merisel

Microsoft  Redmond  WA

MicroTech, Vienna, VA

Modern Technology Solutions, Inc., Alexandria, VA

MonaVie, South Jordan, UT

Mondial Assistance USA  Richmond  VA

Moreover Technologies  Reston  VA

MOST Brand Development + Advertising

NIIT Technologies, Inc., Atlanta, GA

Noetix Corp.  Redmond  WA

Nutricap Labs  Farmingdale  NY

Overture Networks  Morrisville  NC

PeopleMetrics

Percussion Software, Woburn, MA

PetRays

PHH Arval

PlanSource  Orlando  FL

Prescription Solutions/UnitedHealth Group  Irvine  CA        

Quality Systems  Inc.  Irvine  CA

Reliv International  Inc.  Chesterfield  MO            

Richardson                                       

Rovi Corporation, Santa Clara, CA

Rush Communications

SCRA  Charleston  SC                            

SDL

SoftPro                                

SteelHouse  Los Angeles  CA                     

Summit Medical Group  Berkeley Heights  NJ         

Sungard

SurePayroll  Glenview  IL

Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare  Inc.         

TelecityGroup, New York, NY

The Knowland Group  Lewes  DE

The Lincoln Electric Company  Cleveland  OH             

The Receivables Exchange  New Orleans  LA              

thebigword  New York City  NY                     

TIBCO Software Inc. Palo Alto  CA                        

Travelex Global Business Payments, Washington DC   

USANA Health Sciences  Inc . West Valley  UT             

uTest, Southborough, MA

ValueClick  Inc.  Westlake Village  CA     

Vérité, Inc.      

VerticalResponse  San Francisco  CA                   

Voices Heard Media                         

Weather Trends International                        

Webs, Inc, Silver Spring, MD

Webtrends  Portland  OR                             

WowWe Inc.  The Woodlands  TX                      

Xcelus  LLC  Provo  UT                            

Zayo Group, Louisville, CO

Zeno Group  New York  NY