Cintas Customers Win Big at the NAUMD Awards

For the 13th consecutive year, customers of Cintas Corporation received Image of the Year (IOY) corporate awards during a banquet held by the North American Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors (NAUMD) in Las Vegas. Embassy Suites, Harrah’s Cherokee and The New York Palace were presented with the prestigious award based on the fashion, function and creativity of their apparel programs.

“Cintas has a rich and strong history of creating and delivering innovative and inspiring fashion focused apparel designs,” said Richard J. Lerman, president and CEO of the NAUMD. “Our panel of distinguished industry and media judges look for uniform submissions that truly reflect the professionalism of those who wear them and also meet the corporate image the client wishes to project. The award is a testament to customer service excellence, and we’re pleased to present Cintas and their corporate partners with this important award.”

A corporate awards winner in the multi-unit hotel category, Embassy Suites’ corporate-wide apparel program complements each property’s décor with customizable, updated uniforms from three collections--Cosmopolitan, Parkside and Sunrise. Owners can select which collection best reflects their property and mix and match pieces among job functions to create unique and stylish wardrobes for team members. Featuring functional details and innovative fabrics, the uniforms from Cintas can also be home laundered, meeting Embassy Suites’ desire for increased environmental and cost efficiency.

Pampanga Meat Processing Firm Bags Award

Madrid-based Business Initiative Directions (BID) gave the Century International Quality Era (CQE) Gold Award to meat processing company Mekeni Food Corp. during its 14th convention on March 11 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Prudencio Garcia, Mekeni president, shared the news last week in a letter to Levy Laus, chairman of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PamCham).

“We would like to share with you and our PamCham members the good news that once again Mekeni Food Corp. had scored another first in the Philippines’ food industry by being awarded the Century International Quality Era-Gold Award,” Garcia said.

The award, he said, put Mekeni in the league of top global corporations that have been recognized for quality.

In a statement, Laus lauded Mekeni, saying it now serves as a model to Kapampangan and Filipino businessmen in terms of product quality and corporate excellence.
BID, a private organization, selects the corporate awards winner through the principles of a quality model being implemented by companies in more than 100 countries.

Criteria include customer satisfaction, communication strategies, benchmarking, information and data analysis, leadership, planning and decision making, human resources, processes and production, financial outcome and business results.

The corporate awards are divided into the gold, platinum and diamond categories. Votes from winners came from the BID council, previous winners and online polling.

Garcia said the award was another testimony to Mekeni’s continuing adherence to the highest standards of food quality and safety.

Corporate Leaders Honored at Financial Summit

The Annual Financial Thought Leaders Summit marked its second day at the Grosvenor House hotel with a gala Visionary Leaders Corporate Awards function, which recognized the contributions of C-level executives who have demonstrated a positive impact not only on their organizations, but the GCC as a whole.

Organized by French business information group naseba, the event connected up to 100 senior-level delegates to collate industry data and discuss sustainable growth plans for the GCC. Last night saw the.

Faisal Al Bannai, CEO of Axiom Telecom, scooped the CEO of the Year award winner at the ceremony. Axiom Telecom serves around 95 per cent of the 1,500 small shops trading in the UAE. It offers phones, SIM cards and accessories on a makeshift, ‘micro-distribution’ basis to capture the lower end of the market.

One of the recurring themes of the opening day’s discussions was the need for diversity, not only in terms of product but in location, processes, and leadership. Al Bannai noted that micro-distribution was a “part of the business [that] was key to the company’s growth and had helped to double net profits last year.”

The corporate awards also considered key factors such as the need to create jobs for young people, and the Innovative Leader of the Year award winner achieved just that. Rashid Fahad Al Naimi, chairman of the board of directors, Mazaya Qatar Real Estate Development has contributed significantly to improving the job market for young people in Qatar.

United Way Recognizes 22 Corporate and Agency Partners

Greater Twin Cities United Way last week recognized 22 corporate and agency partners at its annual “Best Of Awards”—and three of the top corporate awards went to Arden Hills-based agricultural cooperative Land O’Lakes, Eden Prairie-based vehicle financing and fleet management provider GE Capital Fleet Services, and Minneapolis-based law firm Bassford Remele.

In their respective size categories, each of the three companies won “best in show,” which recognized the best overall campaigns with regard to employee participation and engagement.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe, which has a district office in Minneapolis, earned another major corporate award—the inaugural “General Mills, Inc., Outstanding Achievement in Fundraising.” Last year, the company’s giving campaign increased participation by 6.5 percent and boosted donations by 10 percent through a strong labor-management partnership, retiree involvement, and an engaged company ambassador, according to Greater Twin Cities United Way.

Meanwhile, Carol Jackson, a longtime employee of Edina-based grocer Jerry’s Foods, earned the Stan Kowalski Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes lifelong excellence through volunteerism. Jackson is also vice president and historian for the Ney Nature Center—an environmental learning center in the city of Henderson.

2012 MarketTools ACE Award Presented to Wind River

Wind River, a world leader in embedded and mobile software, today announced that it has been recognized with a 2012 MarketTools ACE (Achievement in Customer Excellence) Award, recognizing the company's achievement in customer satisfaction for worldwide customer support. This marks the fourth consecutive year Wind River has been recognized for customer excellence with MarketTools ACE Corporate Awards.

The MarketTools ACE Awards program recognizes outstanding achievement in customer, employee and partner satisfaction. To be eligible for a 2012 MarketTools ACE Corporate Awards, clients must have conducted one or more surveys to assess customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, or partner satisfaction between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011. Qualifying performance is determined by a combination of customer satisfaction mean scores and top-box rating percentages maintained during at least a six-month time frame during the eligibility period. Wind River earned a 2012 MarketTools ACE Award based on overall satisfaction with Wind River customer support by its global customer base.

MaltaPost Awards Employees at Annual Meeting

During its recent annual staff meeting, MaltaPost employees were given an update on the company’s performance of the previous year by Chairman Joseph Said, and a number of postal employees were presented with special corporate awards for their performance and accomplishments during the past year.

The awards form part of a series of motivational incentives that MaltaPost offers its employees. MaltaPost employees enjoy excellent working conditions including an array of benefits such as an annual performance bonus, free health insurance and continuous recognition for their efforts.

The overall best quality achieving team, the Postal Area Group at Xewkija Delivery Hub in Gozo, won the best Postal Area Group Award. The runner up was the Postal Area Group at Zejtun Delivery Hub. The Qawra Post Office won the Best Post Office Award for 2011 for the quality of service given to customers and for the upkeep of the Post Office with the runner up being the Luqa Post Office.

Emanuel Spiteri from the Operations Department received the Best Employee of the Year 2011 award. The winner was selected according to specific criteria, which include activities outside working hours carried out for the benefit of the community as well as the employee’s honesty and integrity on the place of work.

Other corporate awards were given to the Corporate Security Section for attaining the Universal Postal Union Quality of Service Award for Best Management for the project entitled ‘Security of the Physical Postal Network’. Alexander Sammut was given the Long Service Award for 30 years of service. The Best Employee Awards for every section were given to Ryan Penza, Rianne Camilleri, Mario Zammit, Andre` Barbara, Horace Calleja and Frances Portelli. The smart appearance award was given to Kevin Sammut, Andrew Bonanno, Therese Vella, Kirsten Portelli, Charlene Mifsud, Elaine Busuttil, Sylvana Vella, Sue Ellen Moran, Agatha Vella and Carlo Stivala.

Bentall Kennedy Receives 2012 ENERGY STAR® Award

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded Bentall Kennedy a 2012 ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award in recognition of its continued leadership in protecting our environment through energy efficiency. Bentall Kennedy's accomplishments will be recognized at a corporate awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. on March 15, 2012, which marks the 20th anniversary of ENERGY STAR.

Bentall Kennedy, an ENERGY STAR partner since 2009, will be honored for its long-term commitment to energy efficiency. Bentall Kennedy's continuous improvement approach to energy efficiency includes a robust energy management system, collaboration with tenants, building optimization, and implementation of energy retrofit programs. As an example, installation of motion sensor operated lighting at Newport Corporate Centre resulted in an award in the Kilowatt Crackdown, an energy benchmarking competition in the Seattle area.

"Bentall Kennedy is committed to partnering with ENERGY STAR in our efforts to increase energy efficiency in our managed real estate portfolio and in our assets under development, which helps protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Bob Ratliffe, Executive Vice President, Bentall Kennedy.

The 2012 Sustained Excellence Awards are given to a select group of organizations that have exhibited outstanding leadership year after year. These winners have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by setting and achieving aggressive goals, employing innovative approaches, and showing others what can be achieved through energy efficiency. These corporate awards recognize ongoing leadership across the ENERGY STAR program. Award winners are selected from about 20,000 organizations that participate in the ENERGY STAR program.

Automotive Industry Leaders Honored by AIAG

AIAG honored five individuals last evening with awards for outstanding achievement in recognition of their contributions and overall dedication to corporate responsibility in the global automotive industry. AIAG, a not-for-profit, member-supported organization that works with a wide range of manufacturing companies and service providers to help them operate at peak performance, also recognized 11 others for outstanding leadership on AIAG corporate responsibility projects. The organization presented the corporate awards during a ceremony at its 2012 Corporate Responsibility Summit.

"As the globalization of the automotive industry has led to increasingly complex supply chains, managing the impact on our business has become a greater challenge," said J. Scot Sharland, executive director of AIAG. "The corporate responsibility landscape continues to expand exponentially. Our member companies have individually and collectively made tremendous progress in the CR space due to the personal and professional commitment of our volunteers."

Outstanding achievement corporate awards were presented to Elly Bradford (American Honda), Christopher Harden (PTC), Al Hildreth (General Motors), Monique Oxender (Ford Motor Company) and Kathy Phipps (HP Enterprise Services). They were selected based on their advocacy and implementation of corporate responsibility at their companies and through participation in AIAG initiatives.

Aepona Recognized as One of Ireland’s 20 Best Managed

Aepona has been named as one of Ireland's 'Best Managed' companies in the Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Programme. In total, twenty companies which demonstrated superior business performance were recognized at a gala corporate awards dinner in the Burlington Hotel in Dublin on 2 March 2012.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD was special guest speaker at the event.

The Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Program, in association with Irish Life Corporate Business, recognizes indigenous Irish companies across the island of Ireland which are operating at the highest levels of business performance.

Commenting on the award, Allen Snyder, CEO, Aepona, said: "We are delighted to receive this prestigious award, and are especially honored to have been chosen for special recognition in the Strategy category. The award is testament to the hard work and commitment of our management team and all of our employees, which is also reflected in the business growth that we have achieved over the past two years".

An independent judging panel, chaired by Liam O'Mahony, measured company performance by looking at a broad range of criteria including strategy, capability, commitment, financials and management performance across all key functions of the business.

The Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Program is open to companies from all 32 counties on the island of Ireland. It is the only corporate awards program that considers a business' performance from every perspective. Details of entry for the 2013 Awards will be issued in the coming weeks on www.deloittebestmanaged.ie.

The 'Best Managed' designation is an important marketing tool for the winning companies - but, perhaps most importantly, the award provides a reason to celebrate the efforts of the entire company.

RSA(R) Conference Announces 15th Annual Awards Recipients

RSA Conference, the world's leading information security conferences and expositions, today announced the honorees of its 15th annual corporate awards program. Award applicants were judged in the fields of mathematics, public policy and security practices. Also presented this year was a lifetime achievement award given out to an individual who has made a big impact in information security over the last 21 years. This year's recipients were revealed yesterday at RSA(R) Conference 2012 in San Francisco.

The recipients of this year's RSA Conference Corporate Awards are as follows:
Excellence in the Field of Mathematics Award Eli Biham, Professor, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Computer Science Dr. Mitsuru Matsui, Senior Researcher, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Professor Eli Biham and Dr. Mitsuru Matsui have both contributed groundbreaking work on the cryptanalysis of symmetric-key ciphers. Biham, a professor and dean of the Computer Science department at the Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology, co-discovered the technique of differential cryptanalysis with Adi Shamir in the late 1980's. Dr. Matsui, inspired by Biham and Shamir's work, discovered the technique of linear cryptanalysis in 1993. The following year, he was the first to publicly report an experimental cryptanalysis of DES.

Excellence in the Field of Public Policy Award Congressman Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chair of the House Republican Task Force on Cyber Security Mac Thornberry, a lifelong resident of the 13th District of Texas, has established himself as a leader in national security, an area in which he continues to be given new responsibilities and opportunities to help advance the security of our nation. In early 2011, Thornberry was tapped by the Speaker of the House and Majority Leader to spearhead a Cyber Security Task Force to guide House legislative action on the growing national security and economic threat. Charged with making recommendations in a number of areas including protecting critical infrastructure and sharing cyber security information, the Task Force released its recommendations on October 5, 2011 to favorable response from both sides of the House and the Senate, as well as the White House, private businesses and other outside organizations.

Energy Star Award Given to Delhaize America

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded Food Lion, Harveys and Reid's, all units of Delhaize America, with an Energy Star Sustained Excellence award, the chains’ eleventh consecutive Energy Star award.

"We are honored to receive this Energy Star Sustained Excellence award and are committed to being strong corporate citizens in the communities in which we operate," said Susan Sollenberger, director of energy, maintenance and equipment purchasing at Delhaize America South, in a statement. "Food Lion, Harveys and Reid's remain dedicated to environmental stewardship and are proud to continue to lead the way with energy conservation initiatives."

The 2012 Sustained Excellence Corporate Awards are given to organizations that have exhibited energy leadership year after year. Winners have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by setting and achieving aggressive goals, employing innovative approaches, and showing others what can be achieved through energy efficiency.

For more than a decade, Food Lion, Harveys, and Reid's have been dedicated to numerous sustainability initiatives, such as energy conservation and reducing carbon dioxide emissions throughout its 10-state footprint, reducing its energy consumption by more than 25% since 2000 or 2.61 trillion BTUs. Company representatives will receive their corporate awards on March 15 in Washington.

Awards Taken by Oando, ExxonMobil and Shell

The Oando Plc, ExxonMobil and Shell Companies in Nigeria bagged awards of Nigeria’s Best Company of the Year, Best Corporate Social Responsibility Company of the Year, and Best Excellent Company in Local Content Development while Nigerdock was awarded the Best Project Company of the Year at the just concluded Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja.

Nigeria Oil and Gas conference organized every year by the CWC Group, is an industry-wide event and Nigeria’s biggest oil and gas event. It attracts companies in exploration and production, downstream operations, oil service firms, banks, hotels and airlines from across the world.

Every year, the organizers in collaboration with operators in the industry choose companies that have outstanding performance in various aspects of the industry and recognize them to ginger them for greater performance and spur others to action.
Speaking at the corporate awards ceremony, the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Mr Austen Oniwon lauded the impressive investment of Oando in the oil and gas sector in the last one year.

Oniwon said the companies that got corporate awards have done so well in the sector over time. He noted that all the award recipient companies merited the awards given to them because they were based on their active roles in upstream, mid-stream and downstream, among other sectors of the oil and gas industry. "The award is in need a well-deserved one based on the company’s significant impact in the oil and gas sector," he added.