Paul Hughes' Lava Design wins ‘European Design Agency of the Year Award’ebbf member Paul Hughes (far right in the photo) is a partner at Lava, which was named ‘European Design Agency of the Year 2010 – the first Dutch agency to win the award.

The award was handed out during the fourth edition of the European Design Awards this year in Rotterdam. The European Design Awards were created in 2007 to celebrate European design with all its regional distinctiveness, as well as its common points of unity. The award comes to Lava in the year of its 20th anniversary.Lava is a creative, strategic design agency that belongs to a generation of businesses that position themselves between the worlds of traditional design and advertising.

It is internationally know for its innovative vision of brand identities, which it calls ‘Dynamic Identities’, which involves creating brands that live, learn and adapt just as their organisations do.Currently, Lava is developing ‘Humanity House’, a new museum concept for the Red Cross, as well as the new brand identity for the National Historic Museum of the Netherlands. Apart from the ‘Agency of the Year Award’, Lava won two individual Gold awards – one in the category ‘Identity’ for the cultural centre ‘de Balie’ in Amsterdam and a second for a calendar, designed by Iranian designer Reza Abedini, with whom Lava collaborates under the name ‘Orientation Lab’.

What makes Lava stand out from the design-crowd? Partner and strategic director Paul Hughes says: “Lava differentiates itself through a creative/strategic approach. Often strategic agencies produce thick reports that are filled with much research and few creative possibilities. 90% analysis, 10% solution. Our way of working is exactly the opposite. Analysis is about the past, our focus is on designing the future.”

“Design is becoming a commodity, more and more. Every year, thousands of talented designers graduate and enter the market. To design something beautiful is becoming the norm. Parallel to this development, we see an increase in demand for strong stories, smart ideas and integrated thinking.

"Fash Mahjoor's Phenomenex wins Wall Street Journal's ‘top 15 best small companies to work for in the USA’There are some 25 million small businesses in the United States that turn over under $200 million and employ less than 500 people – and thousands of them were considered for the 2008 Top 15 Small Workplaces award. Of the thousands of qualified companies, over 780 were nominated and of these, 35 were finalists.

Of the finalists, Phenomenex was selected to top the league, based on its innovative and progressive approach. As Fash, the company founder and CEO, mentions in a congratulatory letter to the staff that made this success possible

"We have built a very solid corporate culture of fun, hard work, honesty, high standards, decency, camaraderie and respect among our employees, our partners, and our communities around the world. Visitors to Phenomenex are constantly amazed at the energy of our staff, at the pride we take in our company and at the high standards we hold ourselves to."

He adds, "the strength and unique nature of our organisation is the fact that we are able to leverage our success to better support our customers and employees, going beyond the wellbeing of the workplace to actively strengthen our communities and assist those in need around the world.”This company upholds a new vision of business that is able to increase its productivity, motivation and ultimate financial results by giving its employees a sense that they "enhancing the wellbeing and prosperity of humankind".

In fact, Fash continues, "as part of our mission, we are all dedicated to promoting the well-being of our customers, our employees and humanity. No matter how much we grow, we must never forget our duty in these areas. Indeed, we shall strive to be EVEN BETTER and to have FAR greater impact in the future in all areas of our business".You can find more about Phenomenex in the Wall Street Journal's awards article.

Christel Scholten and her team named ‘Sustainable Bank of the Year’ in BrazilBrazilian bank Banco Real was named the overall most Sustainable Bank of the Year at the third annual Financial Times Sustainable Banking Awards in London, as well as being named the top Sustainable Emerging Markets Bank.Christel Scholten leads the sustainability efforts at her bank in Brazil. 

On receiving the prize, she commented, "We were really happy with the award as it will give us more visibility on all that we are doing. Our ‘Real Space for Sustainability Practices’ project is doing really well - we have run a number of courses for our clients and suppliers on how to integrate sustainability into their business."The company was recognised for its broad commitment to sustainability in financing.

In addition to using microcredit loans, the company runs consulting services to guide customers in using their finances to achieve sustainability goals.Judges said that the bank went well beyond the established sustainability practices encapsulated in measures such as the Equator Principles and applied sustainability practices across every aspect of its business.You can read a longer interview here about Christel’s job and motivations.

Ernst & Young - 2006 Entrepreneur of the Year (Luxembourg)

The second edition of the Entrepreneur of the Year award has gone to Abbas Rafii, Chief Executive of Ireco SA. With this distinction, the jury has honoured a dynamic and determined entrepreneur as well as an outstanding company, which has produced and distributed grilled pistachio nuts throughout Europe for more than 30 years.

Organised by Ernst & Young, the Entrepreneur of the Year awards is held every two years. The other sponsors of the 2006 edition were Fortis Banque Luxembourg, BIP Investment Partners, RTL and d’Wort.

Abbas was born in Iran, the second son and last child of Ali Akbar Rafii who created and owned large pistachio plantations in Rafsanjan, Iran. In 1971, Abbas Rafii established IRECO in Luxembourg with the aim of introducing pistachios into the European market, which were largely unknown to the European population at that time.

Jyoti Munsiff was named ‘Business woman of the Year’ at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in 2005. The ceremony, held in London, was attended by Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, eminent British lawyer and a patron of the awards, Cherie Booth and Kamalesh Sharma, the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.

The Awards were originally established to celebrate the commitment, dedication and determination of Asian women within the commercial, professional, artistic and humanitarian sectors.Ms. Munsiff joined the legal department of petroleum giant Shell in 1969 and became a project lawyer across most Shell businesses before leading groups of lawyers that provided advice to Shell's businesses globally.

In her last 18 months, she was appointed by Shell to the new position of Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, during which time she implemented a global ethics and compliance programme for over 100,000 employees.Presenting her with the award, Member of Parliament Theresa May said that Ms. Munsiff had "marked herself out in a male dominated arena, which says a lot about her strength of character and charisma."Ms. Munsiff is also director of and honorary legal counsel to the Prince of Wales' International Business Leaders' Forum.

She is president of the Commonwealth Association for Corporate Governance and a governor of the College of Law, a trustee of the Imperial War Museum and chair of the IMW Trading Company.In her acceptance speech, Ms. Munsiff said she attributed her career achievements to the confidence given to her by her parents who brought her up with the Baha'i principle that men and women are equal in the sight of God. 

Chris Tara-Browne founded a pizza restaurant in 1997 and adapted it to meet the merging trend for quality coffee before renaming it the Travelers Coffee House. The Siberian business now employs 2,000 people and covers all aspects of the coffee trade - buying, roasting, education, training, marketing and distribution. Chris is also competing in the WBC for the Russian barista championship.

The chain of coffee shops is founded on the following key principles: Consumer Responsibility Focusing consumers’ attention on problems in coffee-producing countries – in particular, the social and economic aspects of coffee productionReminding consumers that their purchase at Traveler’s Coffee is a responsible one and a vote to support the whole chain of producers, brokers and transporters who work hard to deliver their cup of coffee Alternative Positioning coffee as an alternative to alcohol, with a view to creating a more sober societyTraveler’s Coffee uses no alcoholic products whatsoever in any of its companies - from coffee houses to the sales division to pastry production

Sustainable Development

Creating a real financial base for providing support of social and economic development in Russia and throughout the coffee chain. Grassroots support from the coffee producing countries to the customers they serve daily.

Mr. Yunus with the 1998 ebbf board, on the day he accepted to become an honorary ebbf member in Stockholm at the Global Dialogue on Microfinance and Human Development convened by the ebbf and the Progressio Foundation of the Netherlands.

ebbf honorary member Muhammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006 for their efforts to create economic and social development from below.Yunus and the Grameen Bank have also built a financial system that is 90% dedicated to women – an approach which is seen by the Nobel jury as a positive way to bring about prosperity for the family and the entire community.

Grameen Bank has reversed conventional banking practice by removing the need for collateral and created a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability, participation and creativity. Grameen Bank provides credit to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral.

Arouna Roshanian now works in Jordan at the Programme Specialist Private Sector Development at UNDP for Iraq. She was previously working in Paris for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in a programme for foreign investment development, focusing on the Middle East and Africa.

She is also the winner of the 2006 Asa Career Award, the prize awarded every year by the association of students of the High School of Economics and International Relations (Aseri) of the Università Cattolica in Milan.In 2003, Arona completed a master in European Studies and Global Affairs with the thesis ‘Iran: Economy, industry and trade relations with Business opportunities for Italy.’

Catie Thorburn won a European Women of Achievement Award for her role as Founder and President of Generation Europe. This unique association links 28 EU and EU candidate nations by speaking directly to the youth of each country in their own language.

Through the Generation Europe daily diaries which are free of charge to 15-18 year olds, interactive media sites, books for younger children and teacher training kits, young people in all countries are empowered to communicate from a common knowledge base.

During the European Women of Achievement Awards ceremony, Catie said, “Generation Europe is going from strength to strength and has just signed a framework contract for 4 years to potentially produce 5 million student diaries and teacher’s guides per year in all member states, probably including Romania and Bulgaria. We have also relaunched our website and are planning to hold a ‘Future Leaders’ summit in 2007, bringing Europe, Africa and the Americas together in Brussels.

Gary Reusche received the prestigious Insignia of Honour accolade on 24th July 2006, the Medal of Honour of the Ukraine's Ministry of Agrarian Policy.The award was in recognition of Gary's leadership of an EU funded project aimed at supporting small and medium enterprises operating in the rural sector of the Ukraine. 

Gary is currently project manager World Bank's International Finance Corporation, based in Kiev