Asian Business Awards Middle East recognizes and awards Asian business leaders

The glittering function was attended by the business community, government dignitaries, and prominent personalities from Asia and the Middle East. The ABA ME is instituted to recognize and award business excellence within the Asian community and nurture economic relations between the Middle East and the sub-continent.

Presented by Al Barari, the premier property developer based in the capital, this ground breaking event was put together with event architects Indian Expressions and Real Media. They unequivocally believe that this initiative will spur further growth, cross investment opportunities and promote substantial business practices.

Recognizing Asian business leaders and entrepreneurs who have walked the path of excellence, created and built enterprises in the Middle East and strengthened the traditional historic ties between the two regions, the winners of the ABA ME publicly nominated and polled for are:

Outstanding Asian Business Woman of the Year
Renuka Jagtiani - Chief Executive Office, Landmark International
Outstanding Asian Business Man of the Year
Sunny Varkey - Chairman, GEMS Education & Welcare World
Asian Rising Star of the Year
Ramesh Prabhakar - Managing Director, Rivoli Group
Young Asian Achiever of the Year
Madhu Koneru - Managing Director, RAK Minerals & Metals Investments
Outstanding Asian Contribution to the ME Development
Syed M Salahuddin - Managing Director, ETA Ascon & Star Group
Asian Business Leader of the Year
Yusuf Ali - Managing Director, EMKE Group

The Jury Choice awards were established to acknowledge Asian Business leaders and visionaries who have dissolved regional boundaries with their remarkable contributions to the world of business were a unanimous choice:

Lifetime Achievement Award
N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies Limited,
Global Asian Of the Year
Lakshmi N Mittal, President of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, Arcelor Mittal.

Through the decades, dynamic Arab business leaders have been instrumental in strengthening the traditional bonds between the two regions and the ABA ME has instituted The Arab Honor Awards to recognize individuals who stand for exemplary business enterprise, leadership and contribution to the business society.

The recipients of this years awards are:

ABA ME The Arab Rising Star Award
H.E. Salah Salem Al Shamsi
President - Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce
ABA ME The Arab Business Excellence Award
H.E. Mohammed Abdul Jalil Al Fahim
Honorary Chairman - Al Fahim Group
ABA ME The Arab Lifetime Achievement
H.E. Obaid Khalifa Jaber Al Marri
Chairmam - Al Jaber Group

The ABA ME has set a differentiator in the award process wherein the public have been a clear and definite participative audience. The debut award year has had a phenomenal 200,000 registrations that have played an active part in nominating the business leaders of their choice in the six public polling categories. While the Grand Jury finalized the 3 nominees in each of the six categories, the public were once again imperative in the choice of winners. Two avenues that were instrumental in this process were the online voting and the SMS route that proved to be a winning combination, providing a wide spectrum of voters to participate.

The awards process this year had some of the most prominent and well informed business personalities of the region on the Grand Jury panel. These include Michael J Stevenson, Senior Partner Middle East Region, PricewaterhouseCoopers; Abdulaziz Sager, Chairman, Gulf Research Centre, and President of Sager Group Holding in Saudi Arabia; Alexander John Andrakis, Executive Director, Sales & Marketing, Emaar Properties; Sultan Saoud Al Qassemi, Managing Director of the Al-Qassemi group of companies and Chairman of Barjeel Securities and Dr. Fatima Saeed Al-Shamsi, Secretary General, UAE University, Al Ain.

PricewaterhouseCoopers were the independent analyst who brought in their objectivity and integrity that is strongly associated with the voting and assessment process from the time the awards were announced in September 2007 right into the closing ceremony on December 8th, 2007.

Against this backdrop, the ABA ME seeks to celebrate the engagement between the two sides in the past and showcase the potential for the future, that is loaded with opportunities. Not withstanding the historic ties, which have been sustained by the current oil, trade, tourism and expatriate dynamics, the way forward for a stimulating bilateral relationship rests on developing a paradigm that hinges on strategic dimensions. The ABA ME aims to serve as a catalyst to convert this East-East opportunity into a sustainable strategy.