Seoul, 16 January 2008 – CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, pioneered the Business Leader Awards worldwide, to acknowledge exceptional CEOs globally. Recipients of the awards are stellar individuals, who are visionaries behind today’s outstanding businesses.
During a grand gala dinner, held in Seoul, Korea, co hosted by Business & Digital Chosun, CNBC has announced the winners of the 6th CNBC Asia Business Leaders Awards,
The coveted Asia Business Leader of the Year was awarded to Mr. Harish Manwani of Unilever Asia / Africa for effectively capitalizing on global trends and leveraging the global scale of Unilever to deliver accelerated strong growth while significantly increasing profitability in Asia / Africa for his company. This is largely attributable to Mr. Manwani’s ability to align and motivate staff to a common agenda. He has led the way in retaining loyal customers, helping Unilever to remain market leaders in almost every key category. His innovative, visionary leadership has helped build a strong core of local management teams across the 43 operating companies under the Unilever umbrella. Mr. Manwani has emphasized the need to develop leaders who understand the changing landscape of commercial trade, and he has been actively involved in nurturing a core of solid leaders to ensure continued success for Unilever. He has consistently encouraged his leadership team to focus on an integrated approach towards rural markets with substantial positive impact on the business and its people. Coupled with his strong commitment to Social Responsibility, Unilever has continued to strengthen its corporate reputation within the region. He has helped bring increased focus of the top management team around the vast growth potential and strategies for the Developing and Emerging markets.
The other 6th CNBC ABLA winners are:
• Asia Innovator of the Year – Dr. Liu Jiren of Neusoft Group
– has successfully led an organization that has innovation at its very core and as a result, achieves outstanding business success.
• Asia Corporate Social Responsibility of the Year – Anusorn Sangnimnuan of The Bangchak Petroleum Public Company Limited
– for his outstanding contributions to education, the environment and community development
• Asia Talent Management – Dr. Shuhei Toyoda of Toyota Boshoku Corporation
– recognizes and supports the importance of talent in both word and deed.
• The Korea Business Leader of the Year Award goes to Mr. Kim Nack Hoi of Cheil Communications
– whose vision and management abilities have helped steered his company successfully in not only in Hong Kong but also in the global marketplace.
• Asia Viewer’s Choice Award - Dr. Shuhei Toyoda of Toyota Boshoku Corporation
– received most votes by CNBC’s viewers in the Asia Pacific.
"Being the First in Business Worldwide, CNBC takes pride in identifying premier global business leaders and celebrating their achievements. CNBC is also proud to host the CNBC Asia Business Leader Awards, a platform where top Asian business leaders are able to meet, network, and share valuable insights, to enhance their respective companies, and have a direct impact on enhancing the corporate economy,” said Jeremy Pink, President and Managing Director, CNBC Asia Pacific. “We would like to congratulate all the winners and finalists who have made it after a stringent elimination process of companies across the region. That is an achievement in itself."
read more : http://www.cnbc.com/id/22722619
6th Asia Business Leader Awards is co- hosted by
CNBC Asia Pacific
CNBC Asia Pacific is uniquely positioned to speak to viewers from across the region. Headquartered in Singapore, the network provides nine and a half hours of live Asia-produced programming, which is complemented with coverage of live market action from Europe and the US. CNBC Asia Pacific's channels, which include CNBC Asia, CNBC-TV18 (India), CNBC Pakistan, Nikkei-CNBC (Japan) are available in more than 21 countries across the Asia Pacific region. CNBC also has a strategic alliance with Shanghai Media Group, which wholly owns a subsidiary, China Business Network, and a partnership with Digital Chosun, part of the Chosun group of companies, the biggest media conglomerate in South Korea. The channels are distributed via satellite, cable and terrestrial broadcast networks, as well as broadband. CNBC content is also distributed on the 3G platform through selective markets. For more information, please visit us at www.asia.cnbc.com.
Business & Digital Chosun Ilbo
On April 2007, Digital Chosun Ilbo, a subsidiary company of Chosun Ilbo, launched its business channel ( Business&), which mainly targets the highly-educated white-collar population of the nation. Business& is currently airing business-savvy programs such as "The Economy Compass," that meets the needs of today's viewers by providing the most up-to-date trends and strategies. "Korea's Marketing Legends" showcases marketing tactics of the most successful brands in Korea and "Global CEOs met by Cho Dong-sung“ includes interviews of prominent CEOs of companies like Kimberley Clark, Dupont Asia, and GE Healthcare. Along with many of its unique merits, Business& is distinguished as a program provider as it broadcasts more than thirty three percent of its programs in High Definition. Prior to launching the channel, Business& already was supported with the infrastructure (as part of Chosun.com) to showcase its programs in High Definition. The premium media network strives to provide all its contents in High Definition form by 2010 and looks to sustain its position as the key provider of premium business information and news in the future. Apart from these practical and exciting programs, another course of information from overseas are provided on Business&. Well-reputed shows like "CEO Exchange," which features business maestros of our time such as Jack Welch of GE as well as CEOs of the most influential companies such as Amazon.com, CBS, are aired. For more information, please visit Business& website at http://businesstv.chosun.com/html/broad/business_introduction_english.html
ABOUT CNBC ASIA BUSINESS LEADER AWARDS (“CNBC ABLA”)
CNBC pioneered the Business Leaders Awards worldwide, to acknowledge exception CEOs globally. The awards are held annually in the respective regions of the the United States, Europe and Asia.
Recipients of the awards are stellar individuals, who are visionaries behind today’s outstanding businesses. They epitomize core values of a successful leader - strength, innovation, ingenuity, knowledge and foresight – values that are imperative to carving out powerful businesses in the global economy.
The CNBC ABLA is our way to contribute to the development of the business community in Asia. We feel that exceptional regional business leaders should be saluted for what they have accomplished, and the Asian business community should be able to learn valuable lessons from them.
The CNBC ABLA recognizes these outstanding individuals, and is a platform in which they are able to engage with the business community at large.
Previous CNBC Asia Business Leader Award winners include:
• Anand G. Mahindra Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (2006)
• Chen Feng President, Hainan Airlines Company Limited (China) (2005)
• Gerardo Ablaza Jr CEO, Globe Telecom Inc (Philippines) (2004)
• S. Ramadorai CEO, Tata Consultancy Services (India) (2002)
• KV Kamath CEO, MD, ICICI Ltd (India) (2001)
