Business & Money | Sunday 22 March, 2015 8:52 am |

Awards event honors the GCC’s best chief executive officers based on quantitative data

Held in Dubai on March 30, 2015, the forthcoming Top CEO event celebrates the very best in GCC business leadership. The prestigious annual event, organized by TRENDS magazine and INSEAD – the leading international business school – sets the standard for business awards programs in the region by honoring only leaders from publicly listed companies.

The companies will be evaluated on the basis of their performance in 2014, when the combined market capitalization for stock exchanges in the GCC grew to AED3.78 trillion ($1.029 trillion).

Top CEO was established to acknowledge industry heads at the helm of growth in the Gulf equities market, which is increasing at a rate of 22 percent year on year. Recognizing that the region’s stock markets are the engines of the economy, the program celebrates the business acumen of senior GCC business figures and highlights those individuals who have excelled as supreme guiding lights for their respective listed organizations.

“Top CEO is a major awards ceremony held to recognize and celebrate the achievements of the region’s leading CEOs. Along with independent auditors, TRENDS and INSEAD will ensure the transparency of the process. In addition, Hawkamah – the corporate governance institute – helps us verify that corporate governance criteria have been adhered to. The awards’ stringent and open evaluation procedures make them the foremost leadership awards program in the region and a benchmark for business heads and their companies,” says Julien Hawari, Co-CEO at Mediaquest, the media company organizing the event and publishing TRENDS magazine.

First launched in 2011, Top CEO has stood out as a uniquely distinctive ceremony, as only the CEOs of listed GCC companies are evaluated. The awards are bestowed following an analysis of the financial statements of these companies, with the assessment process being fully audited and transparent. TRENDS magazine works with INSEAD to make sure that the ranking formula is accurate and with Hawkamah to ensure that corporate governance is part of the overall ranking. Applying an evaluation process of the highest standards makes Top CEO one of the most credible business leadership awards in the region.

“Too often, the role that business leaders play in driving the economy is taken for granted. At INSEAD, it is our goal to nurture those who add tangible and long-lasting value to their organizations and communities,” says Miguel Lobo, Associate Professor of Decision Sciences and Director of the Abu Dhabi campus at INSEAD. “We are delighted to partner with TRENDS magazine and formally honor those industry heads who contribute to the region’s economic growth and the betterment of society through their commitments and endeavors,” he adds.

To accurately and fairly judge leadership success for Top CEO, market reports are sourced from the GCC stock exchanges, with parameters including revenues, earnings per share, profits, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and corporate governance (i.e. transparency, timely submission of financial reports and shareholder communication). The ranking is finalized using quantifiable statistics and figures that are readily available to external auditors.

The Top CEO award categories are: The 100 Best Performing Companies and CEOs, The 10 Most Transparent Companies, The Five Best Banks, The Five Best Telecom Companies and The Five Best Consumer Goods Companies. The organizers assert that winning recognition under these categories is not only a validation of excellence, but is likely to lead to tangible new business opportunities.

“The recent upgrading of the UAE and Qatar stock exchanges by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) to emerging market status is encouraging growth and pulling capital into the region. Foreign investors are looking at benchmarks for corporate excellence, with the Top CEO results likely to be closely scrutinized by potential investors who are looking to enter the GCC market,” adds Hawari.

Top CEO is being held at The Four Seasons Hotel, Dubai. The format of the ceremony will see the foremost 100 business leaders, as identified by the program’s rigorous criteria, named and honored. The top 25 CEOs will receive a trophy on stage, with those ranking 26 to 50 being given trophies at their tables. CEOs ranking from 51 to 100 will receive respectable coverage in a special edition of TRENDS magazine, which is part of Mediaquest publishing house’s portfolio of publications. Further information about the event can be found at: www.mediaquestcorp.com.



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ABOUT MEDIAQUEST:
Mediaquest is one of the region’s largest, most successful and most influential privately owned media companies. Established in 1997, Mediaquest’s mission is to inform, educate and entertain audiences across the MENA region, thereby building bridges between the Arab world and the West. Mediaquest generates a combined online and offline portfolio of more than 20 titles, covering marketing, communications, women's interests, lifestyle, entertainment and automotive. Reputed brands include: Marie Claire Arabia, Haya magazine and Kippreport, as well as the highly regarded business-to-business titles: TRENDS magazine, Gulf Marketing Review, Saneou Al Hadath, Arabies and Communicate. Mediaquest’s dedicated dotmena network hosts 75 premium websites that attract more than 41 million unique visitors each month. Mediaquest creates, project manages and delivers some of the region’s best-known industry events, including the GMR Marketing to Women Conference, Insurex and the prestigious annual Effie Mena Awards, which is recognized as a benchmark for achievement in the region’s marketing sphere. For more information, please log on to www.mediaquestcorp.com and trendsmena.com.

ABOUT INSEAD, THE BUSINESS SCHOOL FOR THE WORLD:
As one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools, INSEAD brings together people, cultures and ideas to change lives and to transform organisations. A global perspective and cultural diversity are reflected in all aspects of our research and teaching.
With campuses in Europe (France), Asia (Singapore) and Abu Dhabi, INSEAD’s business education and research spans two continents. Our 150 renowned faculty members from 34 countries inspire more than 1,300 degree participants annually in our MBA, Executive MBA, specialised master’s degrees (Master in Finance, Executive Master in Consulting and Coaching for Change) and PhD programmes. In addition, more than 11,000 executives participate in INSEAD’s executive education programmes each year.
In addition to INSEAD’s programmes on our three campuses, INSEAD participates in academic partnerships with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and San Francisco); the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University near Chicago; the Johns Hopkins University/SAIS in Washington DC; the Teachers College at Columbia University in New York; and MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In Asia, INSEAD partners with School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University in Beijing and China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai. INSEAD began its collaboration with the multidisciplinary Sorbonne University in 2012, and also partners with Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil.
INSEAD became a pioneer of international business education with the graduation of the first MBA class on the Fontainebleau campus in Europe in 1960. In 2000, INSEAD opened its Asia campus in Singapore. And in 2007, the school began an association in the Middle East, officially opening the Abu Dhabi campus in 2010.
Around the world and over the decades, INSEAD continues to conduct cutting edge research and to innovate across all our programmes to provide business leaders with the knowledge and sensitivity to operate anywhere. These core values have enabled us to become truly "The Business School for the World."
More information about INSEAD can be found at www.insead.edu