SERAS CSR awards unveil 2017 judges committee
The organizers of the sustainability, enterprise and responsibility awards otherwise known as The SERAS CSR Awards Africa have announced a list of nine professionals and global CSR and sustainability industry leading figures for the 2017 jury panel. The judges would serve a two year tenure that could be renewed.
The list comprises Deborah Leipziger, Tunde Arogunmati, Maria Silanpaa, Jonathon Hanks, Adesuwa Onyenokwe, Ini Usoroh, Scott Walker, Indira Kartallozi and Olusegun McMedal.
The committee would be presided over by Deborah Leipziger,author of The Corporate Responsibility Code Book and SA8000: The Definitive Guide to the New Social Standard. She also advises companies, governments and UN agencies on corporate responsibility issues. Other members are Tunde Arogunmati, a specialist in business strategy and former president of the Nigerian- British Association who sits as the vice President of the panel. Jonathon Hanks is founder and director at Incite, an advocacy-based consultancy network in South Africa.
Maria Silanpaa is an internationally recognized corporate social responsibility and sustainability leader and founder of Sustainability Advisory Group (SAG).
In 2011, CSR International rated her third amongst global practitioners. Adesuwa Onyenokwe, a successful broadcaster who has spent the last 35 years in the industry promoting the rights of girls, women and children and publisher of Today’s Woman Magazine.Scott Walkeristhe founding Director of N.Y.lon Consulting, which provides public policy, public affairs and corporate sustainability solutions. Ini Usoroh holds a PH.D in corporate social responsibility and sustainable development from Nottingham Trent University, U.K. and currently consults for several organizations in Nigeria and the UK.
Others on the list include Olusegun McMedal, a media entrepreneur, public relations advisor and current chairman of the Lagos state chapter of the Nigerian Institute of public relations (NIPR), and Indira Kartallozi,founder and director of Chrysalis Family Futures- a social enterprise that stands for protection and empowering of human and socio-economic rights of vulnerable and marginalized families and children.
According to Ken Egbas, founder of The SERAS, in a statement “We set out to up the ante this year and we have shown this with the highest grade of personalities on the judges committee.
We have come this far riding on the credibility of our internal processes. These outstanding professionals with impeccable industry records have spent on the average twenty years each helping to shape the trajectories of global CSR and sustainability as well as best practices. The onus now rests on them to not only decide the organizations who cart home the twenty-five prestigious statuettes, but also help the award top retain its rating not only in Africa but also in the world”.