KUWAIT CITY, Feb 2: The British Business Forum (BBF), a non-profit association of British business people in Kuwait held its 15th Annual British Excellence Awards gala evening in front of a capacity audience attended by the British Ambassador to Kuwait, HE Frank Baker. The event was held at the British Embassy atrium Friday evening Jan 27, 2012.
This event is the highlight of the BBF Business Year, recognising and rewarding business people in the private and public sector for their contribution to British and Kuwait business in 2011.
The guest speaker of the evening was John Sergeant, a leading UK Political Commentator for television and radio since 1981 and the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent from 1992-2000.

Subsequent to which he has made regular television and radio programmes ranging from satirical comedy, current affairs, news quiz and even ballroom dancing. An honouree doctorate from University of Teesside in the North East of England, John provided an illuminating insight into how some perceived (at the time) mistakes or errors can in fact have an extremely positive and career defining impact as he exampled in two occasions from his own experience and career.
The sponsors of the evening were Crowne Plaza, British Airways, Land Rover and Wataniya Telecom.
Honours
After a brief Question and Answer session with the guest speaker eight Awards were presented — 6 awards of Certificates of Excellence followed by two top honours of Awards of Excellence.
First to an organisation and then to an individual that had in the opinion of the BBF adjudication panel achieved and encapsulated such values and excellence as to present themselves as a paradigm for others.

The first certificate of excellence was presented to RMD Kwikform ME. LLC. represented on the evening by Mohamed Muhtaseb, Kuwait Country Manager and Hassan Tahrini, the company sponsor within Kuwait.
As the Equipment Services arm of the Interserve Group, a UK Services PLC, RMD Kwikform employ around 700 salaried staff around the World and present in Kuwait over a number of years.
In 2011 the company was also awarded the Queens Award for Enterprise in the category of International Trade, this complementing their UK business which has also been heavily involved in the Great Britain 2012 Olympic site projects.
The second certificate of Excellence was presented to Anthony Coleby — Partner and Head of Corporate Advisory at Al Markaz Law Firm.
Since qualifying as an English solicitor in 1983 Anthony spent 20 years working in the City as a banking & corporate finance lawyer followed by several years running his own corporate & investment law practice in Guernsey.

Style
The third Certificate of Excellence was awarded to Rachael Gibson of Top to Toe Hair and Beauty Studio who arrived in Kuwait 5 years ago aged just 21 to start work as beauty therapist for a local salon with a limited salary. Within 2 years after learning about the local market and with support for her entrepreneurial style she opened her own business within a small salon in Salmiya.
The fourth Certificate of excellence was awarded to Tom Gilmartin, General Manager of EcovertFM, Kuwait. A former Royal Marine who after demob in 1993 worked for McClellan International (FM) he rose in 2008 to be General Manager of their retail division from where joined EcovertFM Kuwait as head of operations.

EcovertFM Kuwait is a UK Company which in early 2008 when Tom arrived in Kuwait held a single contract valued at KD 132,000 with 32 staff. Through the introduction of Tom’s vision and drive the company now holds KD 3.2 million per annum of contracts and approaching 700 staff to provide Facilities Management services to many locations throughout Kuwait including Al Kout Waterfront, KPC head quarters Bayet Abdullah Children’s Hospice, the Al Hamra Tower and United Tower Sharq.
The fifth Certificate of Excellence was presented to Richard Woods, CEO of City Group Co.
Having worked predominantly in the UK transport industry for over 25 years in various senior management & director roles with some of the big multinational organisations, Richard has been in Kuwait for 5 years now in a position that offered some different challenges.

Strategy
The sixth Certificate of Excellence was received by Darren Craven — Latterly the Chief Transformation Officer of The Sultan Center, and currently acting as an independent strategy consultant.
Following a Royal air Force career Darren moved into retail with Tesco in the UK and then with The Sultan Center demonstrated an intuitive understanding of the cultural differences of operating in the Middle East verse the Western market.
During his term as the Transformation manager for The Sultan Center Darren and his team delivered several key change programmes in terms of business processes and organisational structure.
The top honour BBF Award of British Excellence for an organisation for 2011 was presented to Foster + Partners who early in 2011 announced and unveiled their design for the new terminal, the winning design over some aggressive international competition.
The strategic aim for the airport is to significantly increase capacity and establish a new regional air hub in the Gulf. Foster +Partners design matches such aims with a state of the art terminal building setting the highest levels of comfort and a new environmental benchmark for airport buildings.
The first Award of Excellence to an Organisation as presented to Foster + Partner for their success in securing the Kuwait International Airport terminal was collected on behalf of the company by partner, Morgan Fleming.

The top award of the evening, the BBF Award of British Excellence for an individual for 2011 was presented to Michael Ferbuyt, CEO of the Dasman Diabetes Institute (DDI) for the last 4 years The mission of Dasman Diabetes Institute is to Prevent, Control and Mitigate the impact of Diabetes and related conditions in Kuwait and thereby improve the quality of life in the population.
During Michael’s stewardship as CEO the DDI has seen tremendous growth and development in its programmes of Research, Training, Education and Health promotion with over 30 current research projects both at local level and with International collaboration.
His background is healthcare management having worked in various countries within the Middle East, Europe and America after spending his significant formative years working within the National and Private Healthcare industries in the UK. Upon initially coming to Kuwait Michael was responsible for the commissioning and opening of the Royale Hayat Hospital.
The presentations were made by the evening’s guest speaker John Sergeant, Ambassador Baker and Paul McKay, Chairman of the BBF.

The evening was fitting to the Kuwait 50/20 celebrations throughout 2011 and this high profile promotion of the Award winners, together with an opportunity to promote British business success confirms the BBF Excellence Awards as the premier business awards ceremony of the year in Kuwait.
The gala dinner and Awards evening was hosted by Graham Kenny, General Secretary of the BBF and head of the Awards committee which also included Duncan Hoyland, UKTI.
Speaking on the occasion he said, “The Awards committee has once again received a significant number of nominations, supported by many more additional citations from a number of illustrious members of the business community. This, as in previous years meant the task of selecting the winners was not an easy one. The British business community can be proud of the exceptional ability and performance of its organisations, its businessmen and women.”
The Excellence Awards were launched in 1997 to celebrate individual successes of men and women in business not just from Britain but the wider Kuwaiti community for their achievements in British business excellence. It is open to organizations of any size and entries are received from those who feel they have made a discernible difference to enhance Britain’s business interests.