Rebecca Flood, CEO of New Directions for Women, in Costa Mesa, California, USA, has been named the chair of the jury for the individual Executive categories of the 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run.

The final entry deadline for the awards is September 20.  Complete details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

In her nearly four decades of experience in the health care industry, Rebecca J. Flood has demonstrated expertise in program development, implementation, and evaluation. She was with Seabrook House in Seabrook, New Jersey, for over 25 years. As Vice President of Treatment Services, she oversaw the organization’s residential treatment programs and the planning of specialized treatment for women, adolescents, and individuals with co-occurring disorders. She has also distinguished herself in the areas of marketing, fundraising, technical assistance and board development. As CEO of New Directions for Women since 2004, her expertise has been applied exclusively to issues relating to women of all ages, pregnant women in any trimester, and women with dependent children affected by addiction.

Rebecca has always been committed to giving back and has given of her time, talent, and treasure by serving on international, national, and local boards, providing training at national conferences, and serving as a CARF surveyor. She is currently a member of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) Board and of the Seabrook House Board, and is President of the Association of Intervention Specialists (AIS).  She is also a member of the TRIAD Board and the Advisory Committee for Limen House in Wilmington, Delaware; and of the Sober Living Coalition Board for the State of California.

Rebecca attended Johns Hopkins University and obtained a Master’s Degree in Human Services from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. She is a Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor (LCADC) in the state of New Jersey; a Nationally Certified Drug & Alcohol Counselor (NCAC II); and is certified in California, Delaware, and New Jersey as a Drug & Alcohol Counselor (CADC II).

Rebecca tells us: “The old saying that ‘you always get more than you give’ has certainly come true for me in my life. Being able to Chair the 2017 Individual/Executive Judging Committee is a great example of that. I am honored to share some of my time in recognizing incredible, visionary women all over the world that are impacting our communities for the better.”

Marlene Fox-McIntyre, Principal of Athene Solutions LLC in Coral Springs, Florida, USA, has been named the chair of the jury for the New Product and Service categories of the 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run.

The final entry deadline for the awards is September 20.  Complete details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Marlene Fox-M^cIntyre has over 30 years of engineering and management experience in the government, private industry, and non-profit sectors, and she proudly served as a Captain in the United States Army Reserve.  Marlene recently started her own high-tech business, Athene Solutions LLC. The company specializes in the development of unique technologies to make aviation safer, and to deliver quality-of-life technologies for the home. According to Marlene: “We are currently developing several 'secret sauce’ technologies that will be announced as soon as patent applications have been filed. Stay tuned!”

In 2016, Marlene won the Stevie Award for Woman of the Year – Technology for her leadership role at Hilton Software LLC as Program Executive and head of business operations, responsible for the success of all Hilton Software programs, and ensuring client and end-user satisfaction across all company products. According to Dr. Hilton Goldstein, CEO and Chief Architect of Hilton Software, “Marlene provided stability to our company. She has proven to be invaluable in the management of our government and commercial software programs. Not only did she bring her expertise in technology into the firm, but many years of experience in the public sector. I am very proud of her achievements and privileged to have her run our incredible line of products.”

Marlene earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Chemistry from the University of Texas, a Graduate Certificate in Engineering from the Army Materiel Command, and a Master’s Degree in Technical Management from Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, where she also lectured for several years. She is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and earned her Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) in 2006.

Marlene is honored to have been selected to Chair the 2017 New Product/Service Awards Judging Committee.  “Our committee is looking forward to the exciting challenge of choosing the best new products and services from an incredibly talented pool of nominees,” said Marlene. “Good luck and best wishes to all the outstanding nominees!”

Aline Stanworth, Global Communications Leader - Specialties Markets with SABIC, of Bergen op Zoom, Noord Brabant, The Netherlands, has been named the chair of the jury for the Communications, Marketing & Media categories of the 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the world's top honors for female entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run.

The final entry deadline for the awards is September 20.  Complete details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Aline Stanworth is a Gold Stevie^® Award honoree for the campaign Stories of Possible from SABIC. Based in the Netherlands as Global Communications Leader Specialties Markets, she drives strategic communications to accelerate the diffusion of SABIC’s unique technologies in industries such as Mass Transportation, Healthcare, Electronics, Energy, Additive Manufacturing, and Industrial Automation. She is a Dutch and Brazilian national with a diversified International Business-to-Business experience in both private and public-listed global companies in Personal Care, Healthcare, Entertainment and Chemicals industries.

Aline holds a Master of Science in Corporate Communications from Erasmus University (Hons) and Bachelor of Arts in International Business Management from Hogeschool van Amsterdam.

Aline tells us that she is honored to have been invited to Chair.  “These Awards provide a magnificent platform to celebrate true talent. It is an immense honor to be invited to Chair such a high-caliber judging team.  I look forward to helping promote to the world the best work of female professionals in Marketing, PR and Media.”

We know, summer's almost over and you're getting back into the swing of things. Whatever the reason, you didn't get around to submitting entries to this year's Stevie Awards for Women in Business. But you've gotten a reprieve. We have some tips on how you can submit your nominations in as little time as possible. 

The last day final entries wil be accepted is Wednesday, September 20.

If your women-owned organization deserves to be recognized, surely you can find 10 free minutes. Because in 10 minutes you can prepare and submit an entry to the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and potentially win a Stevie®, one of the most coveted trophies on the planet.

Here are a number of ways you can do that:

Repurpose Nominations From Other Awards Programs
The submission requirements are fairly open-ended, and there's a wide variety of categories to choose from. If you've entered any other awards programs this year, simply repurpose the nominations you wrote for those competitions, as long as they qualify as being run by women. Most categories require only the submission of an essay of up to 525 words and an optional collection of supporting files and web addresses to support your entry and provide more background information.

Repurpose Your Press Releases and White Papers
It's likely you've already done the heavy-lifting of describing your organization's achievements, your innovations, your new products and services, your marketing and PR campaigns, etc. Throughout the year you've been trumpeting your successes through press releases and white papers. Simply comb through your output over the past year and cobble together the text you've already written into a short essay. Note that the 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business will recognize your achievements since the middle of 2016.

Repurpose Your Press Clippings
With every nomination you have the option to attach any number of press clippings, work samples, video clips, photographs, etc. to your essay, to help paint the picture for the judges. Does one or more of your press clippings feature a compelling story that can be the basis of the essay for your Stevie Awards for Women in Business nomination? There's no need to reinvent the wheel if it already exists and you can reuse it.

Hire a Consultant
Did you know that there are a number of consultancies that specialize in preparing and submitting awards nominations on behalf of their clients? There are quite a few in the U.S.A., and internationally and they've been remarkably successful over the years in winning Stevie Awards for their clients. Contact us if you'd like a referral to one of them who can take the process of getting entries into the Stevie Awards for Women in Business off your hands this week.

Submit Media Work
Sometimes you hope to win a Stevie for a specific reason - for a major achievement, or a member of your team - but you can also win a Stevie Award for specific media work. If that's the case, take a look at the categories for videos, apps, websites, publications, and live events. It's really easy to enter these categories. These categories generally require only a short essay of up to 200 words, describing the nominated work's purpose and results to date, and the nominated video or app, etc., itself.

Resubmit a Nomination From Another Stevie Awards Program
Did you have success with a nomination in the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, or The American Business Awards? One Stevie Awards competition has nothing to do with another, and resubmitting a nomination from one program to this year's Stevie Awards for Women in Business is a valid strategy followed by many organizations.

Contact Us for Help
You'll save a lot of time by letting us do some of the important work for you. We'll save you the trouble of plowing through our category lists to find the category that's right for you, for example. Contact us, by email at help@stevieawards or telephone at +1 703-547-8389. Tell us what your organization wants to be recognized for, and we'll suggest the best category for your nomination.

Whichever strategy you choose to get your nominations written and submitted this week, do get them submitted by the final entry deadline of Wednesday, September 20.

Ready to Enter the 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

All Female Entrepreneurs, Executives and Employees Worldwide Are Eligible

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, has issued the call for entries for its 2017 (14^th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Entry kits and complete details on the competition are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

The awards are produced by the creators of the prestigious American Business Awards and International Business Awards.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor the achievements of working women in more than 85 categories, including: Best Entrepreneur, Best Executive, Mentor or Coach of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Women Helping Women, Employee of the Year, Woman-Owned or -Run Company of the Year and Innovator of the Year. All female entrepreneurs, executives, employees and the organizations they run, worldwide, are eligible to be nominated.

The final entry deadline is August 23, but late entries will be accepted through September 20 with payment of a late fee. Finalists will be announced on October 4, and the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners will be revealed at a gala awards dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York on November 17, 2017.    

Most categories require the payment of an entry fee for the submission of a nomination, but several categories require no fee, including most of those honoring women in the non-profit and governmental sectors, Female Employee of the Year and the Startup of the Year categories.

Niamh Barker, founder and managing director of The Travelwrap Company in the UK, commented on the impact of her win. “Winning the Stevie Award was an enormous achievement for me and my business and continues to prove beneficial to our operations every day. I had no idea of the impact that winning this award would have on our business until I checked my email from my hotel room the next morning and online orders had flooded in from across the USA. We now have a growing and loyal customer base in America via online and retail outlets. The Stevie Awards have definitely helped elevate our U.S. presence.”

Winners of the 2016 Stevie Awards for Women in Business include, among others: 

• Mina Lux, Founder and CEO, Meelo, New York, NY
• Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, President and CEO, Bank Leumi, Tel-Aviv, Israel
• Yvonne Mei, Executive Vice Chairman of World System Builder, World Financial Group, San Jose, CA
• Ellie Hollander, President and CEO, Meals on Wheels America, Arlington, VA
• Nyree McKenzie, Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Thought Bubble, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• Astha Malik, VP of Marketing, PagerDuty, San Francisco, CA
• Teresa White, President, Aflac U.S., Columbus, GA
• TAPfit, Queensland, Australia
• Prelude, London, UK
• Humana Insurance, Louisville, KY
• Century 21 Real Estate, Madison, NJ

The 2016 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflected a diverse group of large and small organizations around the globe. The 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business will be judged by more than 200 leading professionals around the world, and nominees will have access to all of the judges’ comments and suggestions about their nominations: an invaluable resource.

The 14th annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business, the world’s top honors for women entrepreneurs, executives, employees, and the organizations they run, is now accepting entries. All organizations and individuals worldwide are eligible to submit nominations.

The early-bird entry deadline, with discounted entry fees, is July 19. The final deadline is August 23, but late entries will be accepted through September 20 with payment of a late fee.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE

Learn about what’s new and different in the 2017 edition of the awards.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business offers categories for every aspect of the women-run workplace.

Today we will feature the Individual Awards categories. 

These categories will recognize the achievements since July 1, 2016 of individual female entrepreneurs, executives and employees.

Entries to these categories require the following:
1. An essay of up to 525 words describing the nominated individual's achievements in the category since July 1, 2016
2. A biography of up to 125 words of the nominee
3. Optional (but highly recommended), a collection of supporting files and web addresses that you may upload to our server to support your entry and provide more background information to the judges.

The entrepreneur categories are for women who founded their organizations. The executive categories are for women who run all or some part organizations founded by others. Employee totals are for the entire organization.

1. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Products –10 or Less Employees
2. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Products –11 to 2,500 Employees
3. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Products –More Than 2,500 Employees
4. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Services –10 or Less Employees
5. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Services –11 to 2,500 Employees
6. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Services –More Than 2,500 Employees
7. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Products –10 or Less Employees
8. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Products –11 to 2,500 Employees
9. Female Entrepreneur of the Year– Consumer Products –More Than 2,500 Employees
10. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Services –10 or Less Employees
11. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Services –11 to 2,500 Employees
12. Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Services –More Than 2,500 Employees
13. Female Solo Entrepreneur of the Year: new category for 2017.  This category will recognize the achievements of women business owners who work alone.
14. Female Innovator of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –10 or Less Employees (this category has no entry fee)
15. Female Innovator of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –11 to 2,500 Employees (this category has no entry fee)
16. Female Innovator of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –More Than 2,500 Employees (this category has no entry fee)
17. Female Executive of the Year – Business Products –10 or Less Employees
18. Female Executive of the Year – Business Products –11 to 2,500 Employees
19. Female Executive of the Year – Business Products –More Than 2,500 Employees
20. Female Executive of the Year – Business Services –10 or Less Employees
21. Female Executive of the Year – Business Services –11 to 2,500 Employees
22. Female Executive of the Year – Business Services –More Than 2,500 Employees
23. Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Products –10 or Less Employees
24 .Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Products –11 to 2,500 Employees
25. Female Executive of the Year– Consumer Products –More Than 2,500 Employees
26. Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services –10 or Less Employees
27. Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services –11 to 2,500 Employees
28. Female Executive of the Year – Consumer Services –More Than 2,500 Employees
29. Female Executive of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –10 or Less Employees (this category has no entry fee)
30. Female Executive of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –11 to 2,500 Employees (this category has no entry fee)
31. Female Executive of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –More Than 2,500 Employees (this category has no entry fee)

32. Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand
33. Female Executive of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand
34. Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada
35. Female Executive of the Year in Canada
36. Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Europe, the Middle East & Africa
37. Female Executive of the Year in Europe, the Middle East & Africa
38. Female Entrepreneur or Executive of the Year in Mexico, Central & South America

39. Most Innovative Woman of the Year: new categories for 2017.  These categories will recognize individual women for the innovations they initiated, developed, or launched since the beginning of July 2016.  Choose the category that corresponds to your nominee's industry, not her job function.
       a. Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations
       b. Business Services
       c. Franchising
       d. Industry
       e. Government or Non-Profit
       f. Manufacturing
       g. Technology

40. Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year: This category will recognize the achievements of female entrepreneurs under the age of 30.

41. Maverick of the Year: This category will recognize the achievements of female individuals who have affected positive change on their companies and/or industries. 

42. Lifetime Achievement – Business
43. Lifetime Achievement – Government or Non-Profit

These categories will recognize individual executives and entrepreneurs who have achieved accomplishments of significance over their entire careers. There is no eligibility period requirement for these categories.

44. Mentor or Coach of the Year – Business
45. Mentor or Coach of the Year – Government or Non-Profit

These categories will recognize the achievements of women who provided support and guidance to other women in the workplace.

46. Women Helping Women – Business
47. Women Helping Women – Government or Non-Profit

These categories will recognize the achievements of women who provided support and assistance to women in their communities.

48. Female Employee of the Year: This category will recognize the achievements of non-executive female employees. There is no entry fee for this category.
       a. Business
       b. Government or Non-Profit

49. Woman of the Year: These categories will recognize individual women, regardless of their titles, positions, or entrepreneurial or executive status, for their achievements since July 1, 2016, in the following industry sectors.  Choose the category that corresponds to your nominee's industry, not her job function.
       a. Advertising, Marketing & Public Relations
       b. Business Services
       c. Franchising
       d. Industry
       e. Government or Non-Profit
       f. Manufacturing
       g. Technology

For years, ElsaMarie D’Silva kept the incident a secret. She was travelling with her mother and siblings on a crowded train in Mumbai when she felt a stranger grope her pelvic area.

Yet the girl, just 13 years of age at the time, had no way of getting help. She couldn’t scream amid the cacophony of sounds in the train compartment. She couldn’t even raise her arms to bat the man away, since they were pressed down against a sea of fellow travelers.

The assault put an indelible scar on D’Silva. In the years that followed, she’d avoid city trains whenever possible, opting for more time-consuming routes to reach her destination.

And yet, like many victims of sexual assault, she didn’t feel comfortable telling anyone. “I filed it at the back of my mind and moved on with life in the best way I knew how to,” she explained during a 2015 Ted Talk.

That is, until a particularly horrifying event shook the country of India ‒ and the rest of the globe ‒ in 2012. It was then that a 23-year-old physical therapy student from Delhi, accompanied by a male friend, was so brutally raped by a group of young assailants that she later died from her injuries.

By then a 20-year veteran of the aviation industry, D’Silva knew she couldn’t remain quiet about her own story any longer. She decided to use the very tool that helped her coordinate 500 flights each day as an airline executive to help combat the problem of sexual assault in India: data.

Her solution was an app called Safecity, which allows women and young girls to report incidents of everything from rape to indecent exposure and unwanted picture-taking. It also provided a comments section where females can share their stories of violence and provide mutual support.

The data, she says, can help law enforcement officials and community leaders to focus on “hotspots” where this type of behavior seems to emanate. And, crucially, it also helps hold law enforcement accountable if those problem areas aren’t addressed. “My challenge with SafeCity is to actually get people to question the status quo,” D’Silva told her Ted Talk audience.

D’Silva has already garnered numerous plaudits for her venture, including the 2016 Gold Stevie Award for Female Entrepreneur of the Year. More importantly, the company she founded is making a big impact throughout some of India’s most populated cities.

The 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the top awards for women entrepreneurs, executives, and employees around the world, opens for entries on May 22. Request the entry kit here.

In Mumbai, for example, local police have altered their patrols to counteract hotspots. And in Delhi, city leaders have increased the availability of public restrooms, alleviating the opportunity for predators to abuse women who otherwise had no choice but to relieve themselves outdoors.

The technology is also making it possible to confront problems in more novel ways. For instance, crowdsourced data revealed a tea stall in Delhi where men would loiter and stare in an intimidating fashion at girls as they passed by.

Once that trend became known, a community group hired a local artist to paint a mural outside the tea stand featuring eyes that glare back at the male customers. It has a sign that, in translation, reads “Look with your heart and not with your eyes.” As a result, D’Silva says, the menacing behavior has been significantly reduced.

Because of stories like the horrific incident in 2012, India has developed an outsized reputation for sexual violence. But D’Silva says it’s important to realize that there’s actually a much wider phenomenon that needs to be addressed globally.  She uses a startling statistic from UN Women to make her point: 1 in 3 females, the organization finds, will encounter some type of sexual assault in their lifetime.

Indeed, the market for Safecity has grown beyond India’s borders to countries like Kenya, Cameroon and Nepal. The company is even getting reports from western cities like New York and London. In total, it’s gathered information on more than 10,000 incidents of sexual assault and intimidation.

The more the tool spreads, the closer D’Silva believes cities will get to achieving true gender equality. “We need to create a world where every girl can walk down the street without fear of being intimidated and where every woman has an equal opportunity to a quality life,” she said.

At a time when businesses have access to more data ‒ from more sources ‒ than ever before, Mina Lux believes the ability to better understand that information will be crucial to future success. That’s precisely the challenge that Lux, who just took home the Gold Stevie Award in the 2016 Stevie Awards for Women in Business for Female Entrepreneur of the Year, is trying to address.

The 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business will open for entries on May 22. These are the top awards for women across the globe. The program features entrepreneur awards, company awards, marketing awards, media awards, and more.

Request the entry kit now and it will be emailed to you in May.

Her young New York City-based firm, Meelo Logic, Inc., enables companies to aggregate data and gain insights through artificial intelligence. As a result, clients can “understand, activate, engage and motivate customers” more effectively.

It’s an endeavor that could fundamentally reshape the way companies interact with data. And yet the Taiwan native, who grew up in Canada, has an even more ambitious goal: to break down the longstanding gender gap within the tech industry.

She’s trying to tackle the issue by mentoring young females and calling attention to the issue at industry events. “Throughout my career, I’ve had the good fortune of supporting young women in their careers by offering them guidance and opportunities in organizations that are often dominated by men,” Lux says.

The under-representation of women is underscored by a 2015 TechCrunch report, which found that only 18% of technology companies had a female founder. That’s up from less than 10% as recently as 2009. The forces behind that phenomenon are numerous.  But for Lux and other women in the industry, there’s still plenty of work to do.

Certainly, having fewer female role models to follow has kept many young women from studying in computer science or engineering programs. Those who do pursue STEM-related degrees often find unique obstacles when they try to launch startups of their own. In part that’s because early-stage investment firms are themselves a “boy’s club,” according to researchers.

A joint survey by the National Venture Capital Association and Deloitte, for example, found that women make up just 11% of top decision-makers at venture capital firms. And, there are plenty of entrepreneurs who say that creates a bias ‒ whether consciously or not ‒ against female-led organizations.

To overcome those hurdles, Lux suggests it’s important for females to not only have the necessary skills, but the confidence to see their goals through. It’s a point she drove home during an International Women’s Day event at her alma mater, the University of Ottawa.

“We discussed the steps of building a company from recognizing a need, dreaming up a solution, solidifying funding, running a company and confronting challenges head on,” she says. “But most of all, I wanted to highlight the importance of never undervaluing your own brilliance and to believe in yourself.”

Breaking Barriers

Cracking the glass ceiling is something Lux has successfully done time and again. After graduating with a dual biochemistry and chemical engineering degree, she changed course and helped co-found a marketing company called FloNetwork. There, she pioneered the first technology platform that allowed businesses to send emails as a way of generating leads and building revenue. She ended up selling the business to DoubleClick for a staggering $80 million in 2001.

After a distinguished consulting career where she tackled digital marketing for the likes of USA Today and Doubleday Book Club, she decided to start a new technology firm that would help businesses strategize based on real-time consumer data and behaviour prediction. Meelo was born.

Already, the company is gaining serious attention from the tech world. Among its accomplishments: beating out thousands of early-stage firms to win the 2016 TiE50 Top Startup award. 

“[Meelo] is the only company that holds partnerships with the two largest think tanks in the cognitive technology and artificial intelligence: IBM Watson and Caltech/Jet Propulsion Labs,” Lux explains. “Meelo uses both think tanks to solve any problem and provide intelligence for any need." 

In order to deploy the technology effectively, she says it’s vital that the organization bring in contributions from a diverse pool of talent.

Lux says, “At Meelo, all voices are heard, all talents are valued and all have an equal opportunity to succeed.”

An interview with Etsuko Tsugihara, President of Sunny Side Up, Inc.

Stevie Award-winner, Sunny Side Up, Inc of Tokyo, Japan won a Gold Stevie Award in the 2016 Stevie Awards for Women in Business for Women-Run Workplace of the Year.  President and CEO Etsuko Tsugihara also won the Silver Stevie for Female Executive of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand.  Tsugihara shares what winning the Stevie Awards this year meant to the organization.

The 2017 Stevie Awards for Women in Business will open for entries in May. If your organization has operations in Japan or any of  the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region, you may participate in the 2017 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

What does Sunny Side Up, Inc., do?

We are a multi-faceted Public Relations firm offering a wide range of services from standard PR and marketing, to Sports Marketing, Casting, Digital Marketing, Business Development, Media Relations, Sales Promotion and more. Recently, we've expanded our services globally and our strength is in assisting foreign companies entering the Japanese market.

What is the organizational vision?

Our company motto is "Let's have fun!" We seek to create a buzz by continuing to evolve and expand, in order to stay ahead of social and cultural trends.

What sets your company apart in this category?

Japan is still a very conservative business culture with many challenges for women. For instance, less than 1% of the 3000 companies listed on the Japanese stock exchange are run by women. In fact, I may be the only female Founder! The Japanese government has a target to increase the number of women executives drastically by 2020. In my own small way, it would be great if I'm able to encourage and inspire the future businesswomen of Japan.

How did you first become acquainted with the Stevies®?

Some of our global partner companies and clients had received an award, and we wanted to see if it applied to our company as well.

What was it like for your company to win this award?

It's quite exciting for the entire company because this is a joint effort. Our company is young (average age is less than 35), with more than half being female employees. I hope that the award will help motivate them even more!

How has the win affected your business?

We hope it increases our visibility so that people who see our fun name will associate it with Public Relations in Japan. Perhaps we'll also be able to attract new team members?

What changes in the industry does your team find interesting and why?

Having been in the PR business for more than 30 years, I've seen how we've changed drastically with the diversification of media. For a very long time, mass media meant TV, newspapers, magazines and radio, and we were able to gain exposure by establishing strong working relationships and ties with the major media sources. With the expansion of the internet and social media, even the source of news and how it’s generated has expanded. In fact, anyone can be the source of news/information. More than ever, it’s not important how much you spend, but how creative and original you can be in creating newsworthy information. Sunny Side Up is known for creating a buzz, so we're in perfect position to be the trendsetters!

What is the story behind your organization that might inspire our audience?

I started the company when I was 17, and not only have we managed to stay in business for more than 30 years, we've been listed on the local stock exchange since 2008.That's quite a feat when you consider less than 1% of Japanese companies last that long. I hope that more young and motivated people are inspired to break out on their own!

Learn more about Sunny Side Up. Inc.

World's Top Honors for Women Entrepreneurs, Executives, Employees and the Organizations They Run Were Presented in New York Before More than 500 Accomplished Women From Around the World

Shining a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs, and organizations run by women, the Stevie® Awards for Women in Business announced the results of its 2016 competition on Friday, November 18.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an international competition produced by the creators of the prestigious International Business Awards and American Business Awards. The Stevie is widely considered to be the world’s premier business award.

With more than 500 businesswomen and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Nations represented at the event include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Croatia, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, South Africa, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.A.

The presentations were broadcast live via Livestream.

More than 1,400 nominations from organizations and individuals in 22 nations were submitted to the awards this year for consideration in categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Startup of the Year, among others. More than 160 professionals around the world participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and then the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements.

Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented to the five organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition, in their own names or in the names of one or more clients. Winners were determined by the number of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards won in the competition.

The Grand Stevie Award winners are:

•         PAIRELATIONS LLC, Centennial, CO USA (#1)
•         Accenture, Chicago, IL USA (#2)
•         WDS Marketing & Public Relations, Overland Park, KS USA (#3)
•         Jeunesse Global, Lake Mary, FL USA (#4)
•         Linqia, San Francisco, CA USA (#5)

Notable Gold Stevie Award winners from this year’s competition include:

• Shauna MacDonald, Principal and founder of Brookline Public Relations, Calgary, AB, Canada - Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada
• Viviana Zocco of Grupo Vi-Da, Buenos Aires, Argentina - Female Entrepreneur or Executive of the Year in Mexico, Central & South America
• Susan L. Abrams, CEO, Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center, Skokie, IL - Female Innovator of the Year – Government or Non-Profit
• LivingTree dba: Snowflake Technologies Inc., Austin, TX - Community Involvement Program of the Year
• Shyamala Soundari Kuppusamy, Senior Product Manager, Macy's Inc., San Francisco, CA - Employee of the Year - Business
• Bobbi Leach, CEO of RevenueWire Inc, Victoria, BC, Canada - Female Executive of the Year in Canada
• SUNNY SIDE UP, Inc. Tokyo, Japan - Women-Run Workplace of the Year - More Than 10 Employees
• TAPfit, Queensland, Australia - Startup of the Year - Consumer Products Industries
• TEARS Foundation, Sandton, South Africa - Organization of the Year – Government or Non-Profit– 10 or Less Employees
• Susan Ma, founder of Tropic Skin Care, Croydon, Surrey, United Kingdom - Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year
• Yvonne Mei, Executive Vice Chairman of World System Builder, World Financial Group, San Jose, CA, USA - Woman of the Year - Industry

The 2016 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the globe. Organizations that won more than one Gold Stevie Award include Accenture, Cisco Systems, Inc., Enabled Employment, Final Salute Inc., Goldie Blox, Happy Family, Jeunesse Global, Linqia, Madison Services Group, Inc., Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), and RippleNami, Inc.

For a complete list of Stevie Award winners and more information, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Entries for the 2017 edition of the awards will open next May.