Asia’s Top CEO Named at the 8th CNBC Asia Business Leaders Awards

CNBC Asia pioneered the Business Leader Awards worldwide, to acknowledge exceptional CEOs globally. Recipients of the awards are stellar individuals, who are visionaries behind today’s outstanding businesses. They epitomize core values of a successful leader - strength, innovation, ingenuity, knowledge and foresight – values that are imperative to carving out powerful businesses in the global economy.

During an award ceremony that was broadcast LIVE around the world in Singapore, CNBC announced the winners of the 8th CNBC Asia Business Leaders Awards.

The Asia Business Leader of the Year is awarded to Mr. Frank Ning of COFCO Corporation for inspiring growth for his company, while keeping in step with global trends. With over 100,000 employees, COFCO has been on the list of Fortune 500 and ranked the first in China’s Top 100 Food Enterprises for years. Starting as a single grain, oil, and food trader, the company has grown into China’s largest diversified product and service supplier in agribusiness and food industry. Mr. Ning has been instrumental in leading COFCO through multiple phases of growth, helping to create the complete Industry Chain Agro-Enterprise. Mr. Ning is renowned in the industry, and has been recognized five times as one of the 25 most influential leaders by Chinese Entrepreneur Magazine. Mr. Ning’s leadership has helped COFCO to diversify into a company that is involved in the whole agro-business chain, including growing, storage, processing, trading, and branding. The growth COFCO has enjoyed under his leadership has been unprecedented in the company’s 60-year history, and he has been especially instrumental in providing guidance through times of change. Under his leadership, COFCO’s workforce of thousands have been motivated to excel in a marketoriented culture, continually scoring well in customer satisfaction, as well as achieving high performance standards by individual employees. We are proud to acknowledge the excellence in business leadership displayed by Mr. Ning.

The other 8th CNBC ABLA winners are:

Asia Innovator of the Year – Hiroshi Nagase of Nagase & Co., Ltd for his leadership in an organization that has innovation at its very core.

Asia Talent Management of the Year – Mr. Tan Pheng Hock of ST Engineering for his personal involvement in supporting and nurturing leadership within the company.

Corporate Social Responsibility Award - Mr. Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies for his ability to translate the company’s success into benefits for the community.

Lifetime Achievement Award – Steve Chang of Trend Micro whose vision and management abilities have helped steer his company successfully in not only in regionally but also in the global marketplace.

The Asia’s Viewers Choice Award – Mr. Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies.

"Being First in Business Worldwide, CNBC takes pride in identifying premier business leaders in the region and celebrating their achievements through the CNBC Asia Business Leader Awards," said Satpal Brainch, President and Managing Director, CNBC Asia Pacific. "We would like to congratulate all the winners and finalists for their outstanding leadership during a challenging year."

CNBC’s Asia Business Leaders Awards acknowledge exceptional CEOs regionally. Recipients of the awards are stellar individuals, who are visionaries behind today’s outstanding businesses. They epitomize core values of a successful leader - strength, innovation, ingenuity, knowledge and foresight – values that are imperative to carving out powerful businesses in the global economy. ABLA contributes to the development of the business community in Asia as it salutes exceptional regional business leaders for their accomplishments and gives the Asian business community the opportunity to learn valuable lessons from them. The CNBC ABLA not only recognizes these outstanding individuals, but is a platform in which they are able to engage with the business community at large.

Previous CNBC Asia Business Leader Award winners include:

Hirokazu Yoshikawa CEO, Dowa Holdings (2008)
HarishManwani        CEO, Unilever, Asia / Africa (2007)
Anand G. Mahindra Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd (2006)
Chen Feng President, Hainan Airlines Company Limited (China) (2005)
Gerardo Ablaza Jr   CEO, Globe Telecom Inc (Philippines) (2004)
S. Ramadorai   CEO, Tata Consultancy Services (India) (2002)
KV Kamath    CEO, MD, ICICI Ltd (India) (2001)