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Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards to recognise Asia efforts
BRISBANE’s 2014 Lord Mayor’s Business Awards are open for entries until July 18, with a new award category recognising local companies forging strong links with Asia.
“A new award category – Doing Business in Asia - recognises businesses making an outstanding effort in building trade between Brisbane and Asia in areas such as education, energy and resources, design and property, manufacturing or value-added industries including accountancy and legal services,” Lord Mayor Graham Quirk said. 
“The new category highlights Brisbane’s growing role as a business hub in Asia, a region which we share increasingly close economic, trade and cultural links.”
Blue Sky Alternative Investments Limited was the star of the 2013 Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, winning the supreme Optus Business Platinum Award and the Australia TradeCoast Award for Business Growth.
“When you are driving hard building a business there are very few opportunities to stop, reflect and look back at what has been achieved,” Blue Sky founder Mark Sowerby said.
“Winning two of the Lord Mayor Awards put an exclamation mark on a tough but rewarding seven years.
“Even as a listed company, it is challenging to tell your story to the broader market, but since winning the Lord Mayor’s Platinum and Growth Awards there has been significantly greater interest in Blue Sky.
“Our market capitalisation has more than doubled since we received the Awards, and we were able to go to market for more capital in late 2013. I have no doubt the Lord Mayors Awards played a role in that success.”
Cr Quirk said the other major change to for 2014 sees the Australia TradeCoast Award for Business Growth become exclusively for Small Business Growth, open to small and medium enterprises employing up to 200 people.
“The Lord Mayor’s Business Awards highlight why an increasing number of decision-makers worldwide are choosing Brisbane for business, investment, study and conventions,” he said.
“I encourage all Brisbane businesses to enter this year’s Awardsso we can honour their role in making Brisbane what it is today; a city internationally recognised for its depth of innovative and fresh, original talent.
“The ninth annual Lord Mayor’s Business Awards will celebrate the achievements and contribution made by our business community to Brisbane’s $135 billion economy. The awards reinforce why Brisbane was chosen to host the G20 Leaders Summit in November.”
The awards, staged by the city’s economic development board, Brisbane Marketing, are the only awards in Brisbane to include businesses and individuals across all sectors.
Brisbane Marketing CEO John Aitken said the winners would be chosen by independent judging panels.
“The award-winning companies along with the finalists are all raising the bar when it comes to innovation, collaboration, research and development. They are also representing Brisbane on the world stage,” Mr Aitken said.
The 2014 winners will be announced at the dinner on October 10.
Brisbane LMBA categories are:
- Australia TradeCoast Award for Small Business Growth.
- Brisbane City Council Award for Corporate Citizenship.
- Energex Award for Sustainability in Business.
- Award for Business Innovation.
- Yellow Cab Award for Digital Strategy.
- ANZ Made in Brisbane Award for High-growth Business Start-Up.
- Doing Business in Asia Award.
- Award for New Investment.
- Brisbanetimes.com.au Young Business Person of the Year Award.
- Channel 7 Business Person of the Year Award.
- Optus Business Platinum Award.
The 2013 Lord Mayors Business Awards winners were:
Australia TradeCoast Award for Business Growth and Optus Business Platinum Award:
Blue Sky Alternative Investments
Established in 2006 as a private equity investment manager, Blue Sky Alternative Investments Limited is now an Australian-based diversified alternative asset manager specialising in four asset classes; Private Equity, Private Real Estate, Hedge Funds and Real Assets. The company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in January 2012 (ASX:BLA).
Blue Sky is headquartered in Brisbane, with offices in Adelaide, Sydney and New York, and the staff collectively own a large part of the business, and invest heavily in its funds.
Since inception, Blue Sky has built a strong investment track record by developing investment themes and finding innovative ways to express those themes. Its primary investment theme has been to find opportunities in "the essentials", which include food, water, housing, energy, resources, infrastructure and health.
ANZ Made in Brisbane Award for High-Growth Business Start-Up:
Liquid State
Liquid State is the quickest and easiest cloud-based, multi-platform digital publishing system.
Use Liquid State to go from a print document to a tablet app in just five clicks. Unlike other systems, pages only have to be laid out once, and they seamlessly adapt to any screen size or orientation.
The system is easy to use and doesn't require any special software or coding experience. Publishers, authors, and corporate communications teams use Liquid State to keep their production costs low and their audience engagement high.
Liquid State - Gutenberg for the digital age.
Nova 106.9 Award for Business Innovation:
Tritium
Tritium is a specialised engineering and manufacturing company developing solutions for the rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) market.
A well‐known EV industry brand for more than 10 years, Tritium has been designing and manufacturing state-of-the-art power electronics across a range of applications including
- electric vehicle charging
- driving electric motors
- battery storage systems
- renewable energy generation
Headquartered in Brisbane, Tritium’s locally manufactured products are largely destined for export markets, and the company has built up a global customer base. Tritium products are now being used on every continent – including Antarctica – which is testament to the quality and reliability of its technology.
Energex Award for Sustainability in Business:
Brisbane Airport Corporation
Brisbane Airport is the front door to Queensland, Australia’s largest airport on land size, Australia’s second-busiest airport on aircraft movements, and Australia’s third-largest airport on passenger numbers. With two major terminals servicing 29 airlines flying to 43 national and 28 international destinations, about 20,000 people work at the airport, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. More than 21.6 million passengers (nearly the entire population of Australia) travelled through BNE in FY13. Brisbane Airport Corporation is committed to an active response to the long-term impacts of climate change and minimising adverse environmental impacts from aviation and property development activities. Its sustainability goals are to maximise energy, water and waste efficiencies, manage noise impacts, balance the built environment and biodiversity values and achieve best practice in urban and built design.
4impact Award for New Investment:
OneHarvest Pty Ltd
From a base in Brisbane, OneHarvest employs up to 1000 people across Australia and supplies a range of fresh produce to supermarkets and greengrocers around the country. These products include pre-packed salads, stir-fry vegetables, prepared deli salads, fresh chilled meals as well as avocados and B74 mangoes (marketed under the Calypso brand), grown on the biggest commercial mango orchards in the country. In January 2014 it will introduce an innovative range of baby beetroot products.
Inspired by global trends in value-added produce and the opportunity to introduce fresh cut salads to Australia, OneHarvest opened its Brisbane production facility, the company’s first, in 1995. Since that time the company has won many sales, marketing, innovation and workplace awards. In 2012 the company invested $13 million in an expansion of this facility to allow it to increase capacity to cope with growing demand for its products.
At OneHarvest’s core is a passion and determination to change the way Australians eat.
Brisbane City Council Award for Corporate Citizenship:
Aliva
Aliva is a Brisbane-based, Queensland ICT success story: a strong, agile team delivering excellence in customer service. Aliva (formerly known as TLC iTSolutions) has recently rebranded. With 11 years of growth and achievement, it was time to evolve for the future.
Why Aliva? Because technology should never be a burden.
Its new name is light, active, alive and communicates its mission to lighten customers’ loads through smart use of technology and digital tools. Its promise is to make technology an active part of each customer’s business.
As a mature business operation with an honest and genuine commitment to doing the right thing, Aliva actively seeks opportunities to support the greater community, and provide assistance past its immediate sphere of influence. Aliva provides this support through a structured program of gifting, staff engagement and extended community support programs.
ACPET Award for Excellence in International Education Delivery:
The University of Queensland
The University of Queensland (UQ) is one of Australia's premier learning and research institutions. It is Queensland’s oldest university and has produced almost 200,000 graduates since opening in 1911. Its graduates have gone on to become leaders in all areas of society and industry.
UQ is one of the three Australian members of the global Universitas 21 alliance. The university is also a founding member of the national Group of Eight (Go8), an alliance of research-strong universities committed to ensuring Australia has higher education institutions that are genuinely world class.
Its eight internationally significant research institutes are drawcards for an ever-expanding community of scientists, researchers and commercialisation experts. UQ offers study programs informed by the latest research, and its teachers have won more Australian Awards for University Teaching than any other Australian university.
Today, more than 45,000 students study across UQ’s four main campuses in South-East Queensland: St Lucia, Ipswich, Gatton and Herston. Since its inception, UQ has graduated more than 200,000 alumni with half of all living alumni based in Queensland. UQ currently has graduates living in more than 150 countries.
Yellow Cab Award for Digital Champion:
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises
DPE (Domino's) is the largest pizza chain in Australia in terms of both network store numbers and network sales. It’s also the largest franchisee for the Domino's Pizza brand in the world. DPE has more than 1200 stores across six countries, including 570 in Australia and New Zealand. DPE employs more than 21,000 full-time and casual staff across five countries, including 16,500 in Australia and New Zealand. It operates a "hybrid" model based on a combination of approximately 20 per cent corporate stores and 80 per cent franchised stores. Each year DPE sells more than 60 million pizzas.
In Australia and New Zealand, it is focusing on ensuring DPE offers the best value in the "quick service restaurant" arena. Intensive time and planning has already gone into product development for the next 12 months and DPE will continue to undertake significant development to further enhance its competitive advantage, remain at the forefront of technology and maintain its position as the leader in the digital space.
brisbanetimes.com.au Young Business Person of the Year:
Anthony Yap – Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse
Anthony is the managing director and founder of Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse.
Anthony’s business career began with the purchase of his first pharmacy in Brisbane’s northern suburbs in 2001 at the age of 23. By 2003, he created the Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse brand, a “big box” concept based on a larger product range and an everyday low price strategy. Over the next 10 years Anthony has grown the business to more than 40 stores, across six states, with more than 700 employees. In the process he has made Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse one of the largest “big box” brands in Australia.
Anthony, and his wife, Hanh Luu, own and operate numerous pharmacies nationally under the Good Price Pharmacy and Good Price Pharmacy Warehouse brands.
Ian Davies – Senex Energy
Ian Davies has worked hard to establish Brisbane as a new power base for Australia’s oil and gas sector. Drawing on his international experience in investment banking, he played a critical role in the development of Queensland’s LNG industry and has subsequently brought Senex – a predominantly South Australian oil and gas operation – to Brisbane where the business has grown to become one of Australia’s largest independent onshore oil producers. Under Ian’s leadership, Senex has articulated a clear growth strategy based on aggressive exploration, appraisal and development of the company’s oil and gas assets in the South Australian Cooper Basin and Queensland’s Surat Basin.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Stefan Ackerie – Stefan Hair Fashions
Stefan moved to Australia from Lebanon with his family when he was 17. His father and grandfather were both hairdressers, and Stefan decided to continue on with the family trade. In 1964, Stefan opened his first salon in Longreach, and over a span of 47 years has grown his business to include 41 salons in Queensland and one in New South Wales.
Stefan has worked tirelessly over his very successful career to further the integrity and reputation of the hairdressing industry, provide opportunities for young Queenslanders, and support the homeless and needy through his continuous generosity and charity work.
Stefan’s greatest contribution to Australia, predominantly Brisbane, would have to be the employment, education and training of thousands of people. Not just in hairdressing, hospitality, and boats – but in the game of life and doing the right thing. Stefan has achieved this by being the inspirational man he is, and always carrying himself with dignity in or out of the public eye.
Stefan is the first and only hairdresser to build a joint alliance with a hair and beauty training school (Southbank Tafe) in which all his apprentices are trained at the Stefan Head Office in conjunction with Southbank Tafe. Stefan takes on 60 new apprentices each year from high schools all over Queensland and provides these young and driven youths with an opportunity of a lifetime. They have the choice of being trained in hair, make-up and beauty, and – better still – they get to apply these skills in the workplace each day.
Stefan has recently turned his second passion into a new business concept: Stefan Boating World, which produces affordable, unsinkable – and, of course, stylish – boats.
Today, Stefan has an extensive range of products: shampoos, conditioners, styling products, jewellery, bags, make-up, electronics and hair extensions – and this is only the beginning of exciting new journeys for the amazing Mr Ackerie.
ends
POSTED JUNE 10, 2014
