Chairman's Award 2016
Honoring outstanding performance and community service – the annual Chairman's Award recognizes long-time employees with outstanding work performance and strong social commitment in their local communities.
The Chairman's Award was conceived in 1995 by Klaus Jacobs, the late former Chairman of Jacobs Holding AG and founder of Barry Callebaut. Recipients of the annual award are individuals who embody the Barry Callebaut values of customer focus, passion, entrepreneurship, team spirit and integrity.
This year's emotional Chairman's Award Ceremony was held on August 19, 2016 in a historic house in downtown Zurich. A suitable setting for Barry Callebaut's Chairman Andreas Jacobs and CFO Victor Balli, who took turns in honoring the 12 winners from 10 countries and handing over the personalized glass awards.
We brought you on top of the mountains because we want you to feel that you are on top of something very special – the Chairman's Award.
Andreas Jacobs, Chairman of the Board
Congratulations to the winners!
Alex Mendes - Brazil
Mario Chicoine - Canada
Justyna Derlecka - Poland
Frank Samwel - Tanzania
Latiff Amat - Malaysia
Mary Margaret Geiser - USA
Yongshun Chen - Singapore
Héctor Cavazos - Mexico
Stéphane Bizard - France
Iskandar Abdullah - Malaysia
Elien Van Steen - Belgium
Bart De Backer - Belgium
Alex Mendes Dos Santos
Payroll & Litigation Manager
Alex has been a fully committed employee with Barry Callebaut Brazil for 8 years. He was and is responsible for the implementation of KPI's in HR to control and monitor the compliance with labor regulations, overtime, and other HR policies.
For almost 10 years he has been a volunteer with the Children Pastoral in Itabuna, Bahia, an assistance program by means of which low-income families receive support such as, for example, health check-ups for the children to monitor if they are malnourished or underweight.
Mario Chicoine
Maintenance Mechanic
St-Hyacinthe, Canada
Mario has been chosen as a candidate because of his great dedication to volunteering work over the last 23 years in his community and because of his 28 years of work contribution to Barry Callebaut.
He is highly recognized for his technical knowledge in molding and refrigeration. Mario is been volunteering and organizing local fund raising events for ''Opération Enfant Soleil'', a non-profit organization that raises funds to develop high-quality pediatric care and that contributes to social health projects for all the children in Quebec.
Justyna Derlecka
Raw materials planner
Justyna is a very flexible, reliable and open minded team member, who is always there to provide support and help. She is kind, hardworking, and a true role model for others.Justyna, together with her husband, actively participates in the charity project "Szlachetna Paczka". She provides direct social aid in a way that it's effective, concrete and meaningful, but also gives hope to the families who are struggling. She helps children in her home village by giving them free private lessons in English and mathematics.
Frank Samwel Kasanga
Sustainability Manager
Kyela, Tanzania
Frank Samwel currently works for the Biolands group in Kyela, Tanzania.
Before, he has worked for Bio-United, a Biolands Group entity, where he was in charge of managing sustainability matters, buying procedures and strategies in two sites and last but not least he was managing the office at Pendembu in Sierra Leone.
Frank shows an outstanding courage to work in life-threatening conditions, where most of us would give up. For example, he was the only expatriate who stayed in Sierra Leone when all the others were evacuated due to an outbreak of Ebola.
Latiff Bin Amat
Mechanical Foreman
Port Klang, Malaysia
Latiff has been with the company for 24 years. He has been showing great commitment and passion for his job. He has a naturally smiling face and a cheerful personality, which makes him easy to be approached for advice on works related matters as well as religious matters. He has always showed an earnest wish to fulfill religious duties.
As an active committee member of his children's school "Parent & Teacher Committee" and his village's mosque, he has supported school activities and human welfare activities for the poor. In addition, he has also been a member of the flood relief team mission.
Yongshun Chen
Technical Buyer
Senoko, Singapore
Yongshun has strong ethical standards, delivers on the targets he has and has the mindset to continuously improve things. He works independently and is always happy to help the team.
Yongshun volunteers with a non-profit organization known as MINDS MYG. The beneficiaries are persons with intellectual disabilities (PWID) who are a little slower in learning and processing information. They may show limitations in communication, living skills and/or social skills. There are 10 ongoing projects in Singapore, of which 2 focus on taking care of PWID kids aged 18 years and below, and the rest focus on adults with PWID.
Héctor Eduardo Cavazos Montalvo
LATAM Pricing Coordinator
Héctor is a very engaged Barry Callebaut employee, always willing to help others. He is a true role model who lives and breathes the BC values.
Héctor created a non-profit organization: "Dar de Corazón" ("Giving from the heart") in Monterrey Mexico, which helps children from low-income families by donating gifts at Christmas and distributing groceries throughout the year. This organization also provides Music and English lessons to children in order for them to be more prepared for the future.
His organization also supports children with cancer – the volunteers share time with the children while they receive chemotherapy and thereby try to make this a more bearable time.
Stéphane Bizard
Planner Cocoa liquid stream
Louviers, France
Everybody says on site: if you have any questions about products and flows; ask Stéphane!
He has a large knowledge of our cocoa products and cocoa lines capabilities. If the plant goes well, you can see him smile, if he's not smiling; you immediately know that something is not working adequately. He has been showing a major commitment for the company in the past 23 years.
Stéphane supports the initiative for Continuous improvement (ONE+) and for any implementation or trials. He started as Operator on Line Barth 3 & 4 in our Louviers Plant. Then he progressed within the local organization, as Production Assistant, Manager since 2008, Production Scheduler, and now as a Planning Optimizer.
Muhammad Nur Iskandar Ku Bin Abdullah
SR Warehouse Officer
Pasir Gudang, Malaysia
Iskandar, you are known for your happy go lucky and your cheerful personality. You are an outstanding team member with a strong work ethic, and with your fatherly and friendly approach, you have earned the respect from all your colleagues.Iskandar has been actively involved in his local mosque community service Masjid AL-Munauwarah. He has been entrusted as the mosque's treasurer for the past 17 years, but through the mosque Iskandar has also been greatly involved in the community, for example by driving donations to help the poor, and he has participated in community cleaning activities to eradicate dengue in housing areas.
Iskandar has been actively involved in his local mosque community service Masjid AL-Munauwarah. He has been entrusted as the mosque's treasurer for the past 17 years, but through the mosque Iskandar has also been greatly involved in the community, for example by driving donations to help the poor, and he has participated in community cleaning activities to eradicate dengue in housing areas.
Elien Van Steen
Global Project Leader, R&D
Wieze, Belgium
Bart De Backer
Head of Credit Control
Elien and Bart are excellent examples of engaged Barry Callebaut ambassadors. They are always enthusiastic and eager to participate, initiate, stimulate, inspire colleagues, and they have put a lot of energy & time - next to their day-to-day jobs – to charity.
They both initiated activities for fundraising in a very original way - involving the whole company - for "Kom op tegen Kanker" (Flemish for "Come up against cancer"), a well-known Belgian charity organization that supports the fight against cancer. In that respect, there is an important yearly national event in May: "1000 km cycling against cancer".
Thanks to Elien and Bart, Barry Callebaut has now already participated six times in a row, starting with only 1 cycling team in 2011. Each year, they have raised the entrance fees of 5000 € per team, which goes integrally to the "Fight against Cancer". Raising this entrance fee, demands a lot of creativity, enthusiasm and commitment.