Countdown Begins For 2013 Gulf Business Awards

The Gulf Business Industry Awards (GBIA) 2013, the region’s benchmark for recognising local business achievement, will be held on Monday, September 23, 2013 at the Oberoi Dubai in Business Bay.

Now in its second year, the high profile evening will recognise business achievement with 25 awards across the full spectrum of UAE industry.

The different categories include: banking, real estate, aviation, retail, media and marketing, energy, tourism, education, IT and technology. Under each of these categories, two awards – ‘Company of the Year’ and ‘CEO of the Year’ – will be presented to the winners.

GBIA will also present the following special awards: Innovator of the Year, Entrepreneur of the Year, Businesswoman of the Year, a Special CSR Award and the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award.

For the first time, GBIA 2013 has also given Gulf Business readers the opportunity to vote for the ‘UAE Company of the Year’. Readers were invited to vote on the Gulf Business website, choosing from a shortlist of 10 UAE companies drawn up by industry experts which included Emirates, Jumeirah, Emaar and Etisalat and TDIC, among others.

“GBIA 2013 has selected a highly credible panel of judges, covering a broad spectrum of UAE industry,” said Ian Fairservice, managing partner and group editor-in-chief at Motivate, publisher of the 17-year-old Gulf Business magazine and gulfbusiness.com.

“Following an incredibly positive response to the first GBIA evening last year, we look forward to continuing to grow the event’s scope by adding more voting categories for readers.”

The GBIA’s judging panel includes: Ibrahim Al Ansari, CEO of Dubai First; Husam Hourani, managing partner at Al Tamimi; Y. S Shashidhar, managing director of Frost and Sullivan MENA; Peter Cooper, editor of the ArabianMoney website; and Alicia Buller, editor of Gulf Business.

More than 20 companies and individuals were recognised for their contribution at GBIA 2012, where the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award was presented in person to His Excellency Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, CEO of Mashreq.

GBIA 2013 will be hosted by Motivate, in association with Marina Gulf, and co-sponsored by Alpari, Nikon, and Servcorp.

The Gulf Business team will reveal the full list of winners and exclusive photos from the event via www.gulfbusiness.com on 24 September 2013.

You can also follow @GulfBusiness on Twitter to receive all the latest updates live from the venue this evening.