Chairman's Award 2018

Barry Callebaut Chairman's Award 2018 group picture

Chairman's Award 2018

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 30, 2018 in a historic house in downtown Zurich. A suitable setting for Barry Callebaut's Chairman Patrick De Maeseneire and CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique, who took turns in honoring the 11 winners from 10 countries and handing over the personalized glass awards.

Congratulations to the winners!

  • Kristien Vermoesen - Wieze/Belgium
  • Jaume Soldevila - Gurb/Spain
  • Rosina Safoah - Tema/Ghana
  • Candice Davis - Chicago/USA
  • Luis Lozano - Monterrey/Mexico
  • Julie Sharp - Banbury/UK 
  • Sébastien Pichon - Louviers/France
  • Yi Ni Tan - Port Klang/Malaysia
  • Giuseppina Stella - San Vito Chietino/Italy
  • Erik Van Laethem - Halle/Belgium
  • Shirlene Pitta - Ilhéus/Brazil 
Kristien Vermoesen

Kristien Vermoesen
Master Data Analyst
Wieze/Belgium


Kristien has a real team spirit and has the knack of subtly getting everyone involved wherever possible. Since she joined Barry Callebaut Wieze 30 years ago she has always strived to do the very best in her job. Through years of experience, she's able to anticipate possible issues and she's always looking for the right, correct and qualitative solution. At any given moment, she can and will support whoever and whenever possible. She's a true colleague and friend for many people.

Besides work, Kristien invests her spare time in charity and good causes. She's part of an organization fighting against poverty and also supports the local Barry Callebaut events for charity (Kom Op Tegen Kanker), an initiative in the fight against cancer.  In addition she is a dedicated volunteer at the (Sintfeest) Party for Santa Claus in Wieze. Every year Barry Callebaut can count on her and thanks to people like her, the children of the employees can enjoy a fantastic afternoon.

Jaume Soldevila

Jaume Soldevila
R&D Product Expert Specialist
Gurb/Spain


Even after thirty-three years Jaume shows the same passion for his job and is a widely recognized professional at Barry Callebaut among his colleagues bringing knowledge and skills to his daily work. He’s especially known for his huge knowledge of the chocolate process, applications, and solution-driven ideas and most important for his passion for chocolate. He is an excellent role model for our Barry Callebaut values. His team spirit and commitment at work speak for themselves.

For many years Jaume has been one of the most valuable sponsors for town activities, gathering together different types of people, and spreading the joy of music to a huge amount of young local talents. He was also a music teacher at the town music school, loves music, plays different instruments and even plays at the local festivities.

Rosina Safoah

Rosina Safoah
Canteen Supervisor
Tema/Ghana

Rosina has run the company canteen for Barry Callebaut Ghana for the past seventeen years. She is a member of the pioneering team that started BC Ghana. She has had the opportunity to cook for three consecutive Barry Callebaut CEO's (Patrick De Maesenaire, Juergen Steinemann and Antoine de Saint Affrique) who have all complimented her culinary skills.

She recently led her team to have zero non -conformance during the recent FSSC 22000 for the canteen. The auditor was extremely complimentary about the improvement in the canteen and now thanks to Rosina BC Ghana is the only site which has ‘food wastage’ (how much edible food employees leave on their plate) as a KPI on the team board. In her spare time, she still loves to cook and shares the food with the less privileged in her community.

Candice Davis

Candice Davis
Customer Account Manager - Gourmet
Chicago/USA

Candice has been a dedicated employee and a very good performer since joining the team in 2009. Her team spirit, joyful attitude and welcoming demeanor, make her a favorite among her colleagues. She is very well respected within the department and the Chicago office.

Besides her great performance at work, Candice volunteers at Edgewater Health, which is a non -profit community mental health center located in Gary, Indiana whose mission is to provide comprehensive physical and behavioral health care services for individuals and their families in northwest Indiana. Candice works with mentally challenged adults or children that are willing but not able to help themselves. By volunteering, her goal is to assist those individuals to become the best version of themselves. The ultimate goal is to help them become fully functioning members of the community. 

Luis Lozano

Luis Lozano
Warehouse Head
Monterrey/Mexico

Since Luis joined Barry Callebaut six years ago he has always been an excellent role model for our Barry Callebaut values living his life through them and by inviting other people in his team to maintain integrity and ethics in their daily activities. He is an excellent example for his team and colleagues.

In his free time, he helps a five-member low-income family who live in the countryside. He usually goes every weekend to support them, by bringing food, clothes, and toys, but most of all, giving them knowledge about construction. Luis enjoys different extracurricular activities such as construction, which led him to visit a town and meet the family he supports today which has positively impacted on their lives.

Julie Sharp

Julie Sharp
Senior Technical Advisor
Banbury/UK

Julie has worked for seven years at Barry Callebaut as a senior technical advisor. She has the highest level of pastry and bakery skills and has a unique talent for translating all that knowledge so everyone can understand it. She inspires customers and young people at various levels with her dedication to her job and her passion and has a very high ‘satisfaction’ score on course evaluations.

During one quarter Julie visited various colleges, where she trained the chefs who thanks to her can now share their knowledge with their own pupils. She mainly focused on bakery, but touched on all aspects of chocolate. With her help and passion, the knowledge of high class bakery and chocolate and the joy and happiness it brings, is spread all over the world.

Sébastien Pichon

Sébastien Pichon
Downstream Support Technician
Louviers/France

Sébastien has been working as a downstream support technician at Barry Callebaut for the past five-member years. He’s known by his managers and colleagues as a dedicated, open-minded person with a widespread knowledge of the Louviers plant. He’s proactive in automation and cooling improvements and participated in a major energy reduction project where the energy consumption could be reduced by more than 30%.

Besides his great performance at work, Sébastien, his wife and his son have been a foster family for children for many years, providing them with a loving home and security and are currently, fostering a little girl. He also volunteers to help organize and ensure safety in various major running races in his town and in Louviers.

Yi Ni Tan

Yi Ni Tan 
Accounts Executive
Port Klang / Malaysia

Yi Ni is described by her managers and peers as a dedicated person, willing to stay late to accomplish additional tasks and her knowledge of accounting is unparalleled. She seems to be a walking encyclopaedia of knowledge when it comes to work processes and she loves to share her knowledge with everyone who will listen. She also assists in the FOX project and her capability is the main key to her success.

Yi Ni is also a qualified first aider trainer and officer at the St. John Ambulance and spends almost every weekend between March and April preparing documentation and training. She is also involved in other activities such as bomb disposal training and serving the hospital all year round.

Giuseppina Stella

Giuseppina Stella
Quality Specialist
San Vito Chietino, Italy

Giuseppina has been in charge of the quality department for the past twelve years. She set up quality clubs and trained people in managing audit processes for customers. She has implemented a QA system in D'Orsogna and supported the growth of the company over these years.

As well as this, Giuseppina is engaged in reprocessing products for charity through a private association which was founded for those who intend to receive or give information on food collections, support for immigrants or the collection of revenues for the needy through the sale of calendars, pictures and music. Nowadays she promotes the recovery of people that have been affected by alcohol addiction.

Erik van Laethem

Erik Van Laethem
Technician Automation
Halle/Belgium

Erik joined Barry Callebaut Halle 20 years ago as a Technician Automation. He’s permanently reachable in case of automation issues and willing to come to the factory day or night to help colleagues and to solve the issues and does it without asking for anything in return. It's his passion. He's acknowledged by everyone as a true expert and leader and younger colleagues look up to him as an example.

As well as Erik’s technical skills, he is a first aid and fire-brigade volunteer both for Barry Callebaut as well as for the overall community and he's also an ambulance driver in his free time which he began doing as a volunteer many years ago.

Shirlene Pitta

Shirlene Pitta
HR Manager
Ilhéus/Brazil

Shirlene has been a valued member of the Barry Callebaut team for eighteen years. She has achieved great milestones in advancing the Brazilian Leadership Training Programs, has also participated and led special projects focused on overtime reduction at the site level and has always shown herself to be a true HR professional, with an elevated sense of passion and commitment to the operations in Bahia.

In addition, Shirlene volunteers much of her free time to social and church programs. These activities include: food banks, church outings as well as helping organizations which donate food and clothing. Her focus has mainly been on young homeless people in the community including food preparation for church events, collection and donation of clothing and food for poor children.

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