Chairman's Award 2022

Chairman's Award 2022 - Barry Callebaut

Chairman's Award 2022

Back in 1995, Barry Callebaut's founding father, Klaus Jacobs, initiated the Chairman's Award: every year, we honor colleagues from all over the globe for their outstanding work performance and strong social commitment in their local communities. Recipients of the annual award are individuals who embody the Barry Callebaut values of customer focus, passion, entrepreneurship, team spirit and integrity. The award was handed over from our Chairman, Patrick de Maeseneire and CHRO, Masha Vis-Mertens, on August 25, 2022, in Zurich.

Get to know our Chairman’s Award winners & watch the video of their journey!

Chairman's Award 2022 - Barry Callebaut

Congratulations to the 2022 winners!

  • Mr. Adam Smith - St-Albans/USA
  • Ms. Arrizqiya Auliaur Rahmah - Bandung/Indonesia
  • Mr. Bogumil Ulanski - Lodz/Poland
  • Ms. Isabelle Ponceau - Louviers/France
  • Mr. Paolo Francesco Rapino - San Vito Chietino/Italy
  • Mr. Per Ström - Mjölby/Sweden
  • Mr. Pious Vincent Abakah - Kumasi/Ghana
  • Mr. Sean Terry - Eddystone/USA
Adam Smith

Mr. Adam Smith
Coordinator, Change Over Retail
St-Albans/USA

Passion and a willingness to volunteer for everything from organizing a float for the local parade to helping with office design and company training made Adam a worthy winner. Always willing to help when needed, volunteering to work overtime or switch shifts to help train, Adam flexes his schedule if necessary, on the night shift to assist with training new employees. He is a volunteer member of the site's safety and first aid teams and is always willing to put in the extra effort and help make BC the best place to work.

But it’s not just at work that Adam offers up his time. During COVID, he started volunteering at a local business that was struggling to get staffing, working as a host and helping to set events up. He has a strong presence in the LGBTQ community and is working with a local group helping to organize the city’s first Pride weekend. He is also looking into signing up as a volunteer for the Trevor project; an American non-profit organization founded in 1998 which focuses on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ and questioning youth.

Arrizqiya Auliaur Rahmah

Ms. Arrizqiya Auliaur Rahmah
HRBP & Learning Executive
Bandung/Indonesia

Arrizqiya better known as Kiki, is known for her smile and positive vibe, and is respected for her work within her local community. She volunteers in schools in the suburbs near her home sharing her experiences and equipping the children with vital skills and continued to volunteer throughout the pandemic, offering online lessons.

She also initiated book donation drives from various foreign embassies to build the libraries for children in those schools and set up an anti-bullying community called ‘Care Others’ to raise awareness against bullying in schools. The campaign was rolled out together with local mosques with its main aim being to empower students to stand up against bullying. There were also workshops organized for mothers to learn effective ways of communicating with their children to counteract bullying.

She was the Indonesia representative for Barry Callebaut’s ‘Water for Life’ project, going for a study tour in Cameroon and is still volunteering on various projects such as fundraising for orphanages with the biker’s community in BC Indonesia.

Bogumil Ulanski

Mr. Bogumil Ulanski
Molding Team Lead
Lodz/Poland

Bogumil also known as Bogus joined BC more than 10 years ago as an operator lines and is a real example of promotion from within; from a basic operator position to being a leader in a small factory. As a person with high entrepreneurial skills, he puts forward ideas on how to solve issues with creativity on one hand and product quality and the safety of employees on the other. He is also a trusted person who is ready to support his colleagues and his crew.

Bogus is vital in integrating the Lodz team by being part of and leading the jogging group and taking care of organizing events. He also plays a key role in leading initiatives aiming at supporting Ukrainian workers and their families as well as participating in several local initiatives focusing on supporting refugees. He is there for our Ukrainian employees from the very beginning coming in at night to talk to them, driving and helping them, all in his own private time and is there for them daily as their trusted advisor.

Isabelle Ponceau

Ms. Isabelle Ponceau
Warehouse Manager
Louviers/France

During her 33 years at BC Isabelle has demonstrated the BC company values in the distinct roles that she has had. Beginning as Raw Material Coordinator before becoming Power Blending Pilote in 2013, and in 2020 becoming Logistics Manager. She oversees the logistic team at the Louviers plant managing ten logistics operators and occupying a key position to support and supply the plant.

In 2019, as a Seeds for Change ambassador, Isabelle created a community garden at the Louviers Plant to promote awareness of the Seeds for Change program which was much appreciated by all the employees in Louviers. She is a key employee for the BC organization having demonstrated strong skills and development potential in her different roles as well as confirming BC values in different projects promoting internal development and women with strong integrity, creating a positive environment for all employees at Louviers.

Paolo Francesco Rapino

Mr. Paolo Francesco Rapino
Technical Sales Asia & America
San Vito Chietino/Italy

Now part of the technical sales team following customers in APAC and America, Paolo started his experience opening the Indian plant from a greenfield. He is always keen and ready to start new challenges and projects and has a great sense of belonging to Barry Callebaut, is loyal, with high moral integrity and always ready to help others.

Paolo helps at the local dog pound during the weekend and together with his girlfriend, they take care of cleaning, feeding, and looking after the dogs. He often brings home dogs that are old and sick, to let them feel the love of family during the last weeks of their lives. He's very active on the adoption front together with the local associations and the Italian parliament and during the pandemic he travelled in his car to the north of Italy to bring two dogs to their new families.

Per Ström - Barry Callebaut

Mr. Per Ström
Housekeeper
Mjölby/Sweden

Starting at ASM Food in 1986, Per has been a BC employee since 2005. He works in the maintenance department where he is responsible for housekeeping, which means literally everything that has to do with our premises and facilities.

Per is a man who stands up for his values. He has a passion for his work, is always a positive force and for him ‘nothing is impossible.’ He shares his values with others without lecturing, has a passion for people and a clear and natural compass in life. Acting as an informal leader, he keeps track of people around him and acts by helping them himself or turning to management or HR for assistance.

In his private life, he tends to have the same values as at work. Now that his own children have left home, he, and his wife act as a support family for children to give them a good start in life. He has a natural instinct for taking care of not just work colleagues, but also people around him in society who need a helping hand.

Pious Vincent Abakah - Barry Callebaut

Mr. Pious Vincent Abakah
Head of Operations
Kumasi/Ghana

Pious has successfully led our sourcing operations over 6 years and, since joining Nyonkopa in 2016 from the inception of the acquisition, his leadership has been key in ensuring that new and existing employees work well together.

Outside of work Pious has helped distribute more than four thousand exercise books to children in Sefwi Asawinso, in the north-western region of Ghana and helped to build a community well at Obaataso a suburb of Sefwi Asawinso township to aid in securing potable water. He also helped to paint the Asawinso Mosque and has made donations to the Muslim community. As well as providing roofing sheets and nails to assist households which were severely affected by rainstorms in Sefwi Asawinso township, Pious has also provided cement and sand for the repair of Asawinso Town Park and wood for the roofing of the general block of a nursing school on campus. He also writes recommendations for the recruitment of youth into gainful employment in both the public and private sectors of the Ghanaian economy, including the security services.

Sean Terry

Mr. Sean Terry
Mechanic, Maintenance
Eddystone/USA

Sean is an integral member of the maintenance team having started his career with BC as a temp working in our warehouse receiving department and because of his hard work he was hired on as a full-time employee. Since his start here in 2017, Sean has grown to be a valuable team player and in 2019 was promoted to Maintenance Apprentice, being the second employee in Eddystone's Maintenance Apprentice Program. He was quickly promoted to Maintenance Mechanic in early 2021 because of his working attitude and dedication to the job and the company.

He is the GSR of his area's Narcotics Anonymous chapter dealing with addictions recovery, leading the chapter, organizing funding and secure meeting spaces, preparing topics, organizing schedules and speakers and is also a sponsor for other NA members. Sean and his fiancé are raising their daughter along with his two kids from a previous marriage and he does all of this while working full time and playing weekend gigs with his band.

Congratulations also to the 2020 winners!

The winners from this year were joined by 3 winners of 2020 whose trip was postponed due to Covid-19.

  • Mrs. Belinda Fiennain Ful Kuh - Douala / Cameroon
  • Mrs. Catherine Gilot - Wieze / Belgium
  • Mrs. Katherine Thiré - Wieze / Belgium
Belinda Fiennain Ful Kuh

Mrs. Belinda Fiennain Ful Kuh
Sourcing Controller
Douala / Cameroon

There are many reasons why Belinda won this award. From improving budget monitoring and coordinating weekly OSCO meetings by being the go-between between the various to taking ownership of spare parts visibility. She was the Ambassador Contact of Seed for Change Program in 2018 and 2019 in Cameroon and contributed to the promotion of company's branding by creating cooperation amongst women.

In her personal time, Belinda is the President of Cocoa Ladies, a group of women in Sic Cacaos, engaged in the empowerment of women and charitable works. She is also President of Kom Sisters Keeper, an association she created with the objective of bringing together young professional women, to share their challenges, seek solutions and empower each other with their different life projects. They also help the less privileged, especially the internally displaced people from the northwest and southwest of Cameroon. To date, KSK has raised funds to supply materials of primary necessity and are currently sponsoring a primary school child and empowering their mother through skills acquisition to be able to help herself and her offspring.

Cathérine Gilot

Mrs. Catherine Gilot
Analyst, FP&A Gourmet, Western Europe
Wieze / Belgium

Catherine is known for preferring to work in the background at BC but is quietly contributing not just to the wellbeing of the company but also to the wellbeing of her local community with her fundraising activities.

Involving the whole company for ‘Kom op tegen Kanker’ (Flemish for ‘Fighting against Cancer’), a well-known Belgian charity organization that supports the fight against cancer, Catherine has raised vital funds for this important charity. There are two important yearly national events in March the100km run against cancer, and in May the 1000 km cycle against cancer and Catherine has been central in organizing the 100km run, making sure that all BC runners are comfortable and is a core member of the BC Kom op tegen Kanker Team, which organizes events (for example the yearly large chocolate sale on the first Saturday of December) raising tens of thousands of Euros for the charity.

Katherine Thiré

Mrs. Katherine Thiré
Chocolate Academy Assistant
Wieze / Belgium

Throughout her 39 years of working for BC, Katherine has been the perfect example of an employee who has the passion and the flexibility to adapt to the changes our company has gone through during the years. She exhibits great respect towards colleagues and management and her positive attitude sets an example for others.

Katherine took a course of yoga lessons to become an official yoga teacher to help people and following health massage lessons to give more comfort to people in need. She works part time for BC and on her free day, does the administration and shopping for her elderly mother. She has participated in all kinds of sporting initiatives the company has organized over the years like the marathon on the Chinese Wall (with Patrick De Maeseneire) and in New York, walking the 100km death run in Bornem. Katherine has been a volunteer for 'Family Open Door Days' and Kom Op Tegen Kanker activities and for several years, has been organizing bimonthly yoga lessons for all employees and workers on a voluntary basis.

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