"Directors Of The Year Awards 2019" Now Accepting Nominations

Jun 06, 2019 18:39 JST

Source: The Hong Kong Institute of Directors

Main Theme for This Year Is "Embracing Innovation for Sustainable Growth"

HONG KONG, Jun 06, 2019 - (ACN Newswire) - The Hong Kong Institute of Directors ("HKIoD") has announced that the "Directors Of The Year Awards 2019" is accepting nominations. This year, the Awards have adopted the theme of "Embracing Innovation for Sustainable Growth". It aims to recognise pioneers with the vision and courage to lead their teams and promote innovation in the industry, as well as entrepreneurs with a social conscience who create value for their companies and remember to give back to society and care about sustainable development.

Mr Henry Lai, Chairman of the Council of HKIoD, said, "In an ever-changing digital era, corporate governance plays an important role. Good corporate governance structure and policies prepare a company to resolutely face a variety of challenges. For instance, many companies are affected by higher tariffs in the Sino-US trade war. Whether the management can proactively address the situation, quickly adjust its risk appetite and tolerance and come up with solutions to meet the challenges, this is the time to test its corporate governance. We hope that this year's winners can demonstrate how excellent corporate governance has helped them overcome obstacles and seize opportunities, and inspire other players to do the same through new ideas of management".

Dr David Chung, Under Secretary for Innovation & Technology Bureau, said, "The Hong Kong Government regards the promotion of innovation and technological development as a major task. In the past two years, we have allocated resources exceeding HK$100 billion into related initiatives, achieving fruitful results. The government has also set out the objectives of technological investment, hoping to increase the proportion of total R&D expenses in local GDP from 0.8% last year to 1.5% by 2022. The Legislative Council has approved the bill of providing super tax deduction of up to 300%, with the aim to encourage more companies to engage in R&D in Hong Kong. These initiatives will undoubtedly inject strong momentum into the development of local innovation. Besides, I want to take this opportunity to thank HKIoD for organising these prestigious Awards, and hopefully the leaders of all companies nominated will lead the industries with their wisdom and industrial expertise, and facilitate Hong Kong's advance as a major innovation and technology centre".

Mr Vincent Chan, Chairman of the Organising Committee of Directors Of The Year Awards 2019, said, "Developing a company is like sailing against the current, you either keep going or, if you are complacent, fall behind and cease to move forward only to be swallowed by the tide of technological development. Thus, leaders with foresight share the same qualities of guiding their companies to keep abreast of the latest technological advances and injecting new momentum into companies with open-mindedness. The organising committee hopes that the main theme of this year will promote a more open management model to all industries and jointly speed up the infusion of technological innovation in Hong Kong's business sector, so as to fully tap the huge opportunities in the Greater Bay Area available to local companies of all sizes".

Dr Carlye Tsui, CEO of HKIoD, said, "Business leaders must keep abreast of market conditions, new knowledge and the latest technologies, in order to understand opportunities and risks arising. As decision makers in a company, they must be open to accept valuable and constructive opinions, and consider advice made by professionals. HKIoD has designed training programmes to cope with market conditions for directors, in order to help them to attain new heights and far sighted vision so they can promptly make the right decisions for their companies".

Nomination for the Awards will close on 31 July 2019. The Panel of Judges comprises outstanding business leaders, professionals and regulators in Hong Kong. The Director Of The Year Awards 2019 recognises excellence in the following categories:

Company Categories / Director Categories
1. Listed Companies / 1. Executive Directors
2. Non-Listed Companies / 2. Non-Executive Directors
3.Statutory/Non-profit-distributing Organisations* / 3. Boards

Notes: *A non-profit-distributing organisation is defined as an organisation of which profits are not distributed to its shareholders, members, directors, employees or any other persons, with objectives including, but not limited to, charitable welfare, social service, health and medical care, education, research, trade and industrial alliance, professional advancement, self-help support, etc.

Selection criteria for winners in the Individual Director Categories include their effectiveness in performing strategic corporate business functions, contribution to board effectiveness, contribution towards managing change, risk and succession, leadership and other attributes and qualities, including continuing professional development for directors, business ethics and other outstanding achievements. As for the Collective Board Categories, judging criteria include board composition, skills mix and competencies of directors, effectiveness in performing strategic corporate business functions, development and implementation of strategic plans and monitoring of performance, managing compliance and accountability, managing change, risk and succession and development of the board. Board development criteria include continuing professional development for directors, effectiveness of board committees and business ethics as well as any other achievements.

The Awards nomination form and related information are available on The Hong Kong Institute of Directors website at www.hkiod.com.

About Directors Of The Year Awards
First launched in 2001, Directors Of The Year Awards were the first ever such Awards organised in Asia. The project has now become an annual project of impact in the community. The objectives are to recognise directors and board of directors for outstanding director practices and corporate governance, to publicise the significance of good corporate governance and to promote awareness of good corporate governance and director professionalism in Hong Kong. Nominations are open to the public. As good corporate governance is vital to all types of organisations, and professional director practices are encouraged from directors in all board roles, the Awards recognise excellence in categories by company types, including listed companies, private companies and statutory/non-profit-distributing organisations, and categories by roles, including Executive Directors, Non-Executive Directors and Boards. For more details on the previous years' Awards, please visit http://www.hkiod.com/dya-awardees.html

About The Hong Kong Institute of Directors
The Hong Kong Institute of Directors is Hong Kong's premier body representing directors to foster the long-term success of companies through advocacy and standards-setting in corporate governance and professional development for directors. A non-profit-distributing organisation with membership consisting of directors from listed and non-listed companies, HKIoD is committed to providing directors with educational programmes and information service and establishing an influential voice in representing directors. With international perspectives and a multi-cultural environment, HKIoD conducts business in biliteracy and trilingualism. Website: http://www.hkiod.com.

Media Enquiries:
Strategic Public Relations Group Limited
Eveline Wan +852 2864 4822 eveline.wan@sprg.com.hk
Brenda Chan +852 2114 4396 brenda.chan@sprg.com.hk
Chak Yau +852 2114 4395 chak.yau@sprg.com.hk

Directors Of The Year Awards 2018 Enquiries:
The Hong Kong Institute of Directors
Odessa So +852 2889 4988 odessa.so@hkiod.com
Moni Ching +852 2889 1414 moni.ching@hkiod.com

Source: The Hong Kong Institute of Directors
Sectors: Daily Finance, Daily News