London, 5 December 2019 - The winners of the ProShare Annual Awards 2019 were announced at a glittering awards dinner in London last night, sponsored by Awards Dinner Partner Barclays Global Stock & Reward Services. Ben Shephard, TV presenter and sports pundit, hosted the Awards, which recognise and celebrate the best companies and individuals involved in employee share ownership.
Held at the London Hilton Bankside, each year the Awards receive entries from organisations large and small, representing almost every sector of the business world, from retail and banking to telecommunications and the media.
Chris Mowatt, Director, Barclays Global Stock & Reward Services said: “I am delighted that Barclays were once again the major sponsor for this year’s Annual ProShare Awards. This is now the second year that our Global Stock and Reward Services business has partnered with ProShare and it was great to see the diverse range of companies who were shortlisted and won awards on the night. The strength of entries showed how strongly employee share ownership is being championed across the board. It was also great to see Keri Simm, Peter Howell and Carine Schneider honoured for their personal contributions to our industry. Hosted by Ben Shephard, the ProShare team organised a fantastic event enjoyed by over 500 leading figures from our industry.”
Gabbi Stopp, Executive Director, ProShare said: “Right now, employee share ownership is part of a much bigger movement that is gathering momentum across all developed economies – the desire and urgent need to reshape capitalism so that it works for everyone, not just those who’ve made it to the top of the pyramid. Employee share plans have an important role to play in helping to redistribute wealth, and that should give everyone working in the share plans industry a deep well of hope, optimism and energy to draw upon now and in the future.
“We have a truly diverse group of winners this year: companies that are listed, private, global and local. I know that the judges will agree with me that all of our award-winners should be extremely proud of what they have achieved, as this benefits not only their companies and their colleagues, but their broader communities as well.
“2020 will be Sharesave’s 40th birthday and SIP’s 20th. These share plans have benefitted many millions of employees over the years, but they will still need to change to remain relevant to the needs of the modern workforce. ProShare’s policy position paper ‘Super-Charging Share Ownership’ sets out exactly how we can achieve this. We are immensely grateful to everyone who contributed to this important piece of work, and to everyone who supports ProShare’s work in promoting employee share ownership and, of course, our Annual Awards Dinner.”
The highly commended and winning companies are as follows:
- Best New Share Plan
Winner - Abcam
Highly Commended - The Works - Best International Share Plan
Winner - Reckitt Benckiser
Highly Commended - The Weir Group - Most Effective Communication of an Employee Share Plan Up to 500 employees
Winner - Derwent London - Most Effective Communication of an Employee Share Plan 501 - 5,000 employees
Winner - The Vitec Group - Most Effective Communication of an Employee Share Plan 5,001 - 50,000 employees
Winner - Reckitt Benckiser
Highly Commended - Taylor Wimpey - Most Effective Communication of an Employee Share Plan 50,001+ employees
Winner - Starbucks Coffee Company - Best Employee Share Plan Outcome Following a Major Corporate Change
Winner - Marks and Spencer
Highly Commended- DWF Group - Best commitment to Employee Share Ownership in a Private Company
Winner - The Edrington Group - Most Effective Use of Technology
Joint Winners - AstraZeneca & Diageo - Best Financial Education Initiative for Employees
Winner - GSK
Highly Commended - Eastman Chemical Co. - Best Overall Performance in Fostering Employee Share Ownership Up to 500 employees
Winner - Morses Club - Best Overall Performance in Fostering Employee Share Ownership 501 to 5,000 employees
Winner - Abcam
Highly Commended - Croda International - Best Overall Performance in Fostering Employee Share Ownership 5,001 to 50,000 employees
Winner - Diageo
Highly Commended - Aviva - Best Overall Performance in Fostering Employee Share Ownership 50,001+ employees
Winner - Royal Dutch Shell.
In addition to the corporate winners, individual achievements in the field of employee share ownership were also recognised as follows:
- Employee Share Plans Champion of the Year
Winner - Keri Simm of Diageo plc - Award for Services to Employee Share Ownership
Joint Winners - Peter Howells of Howells Associates & Carine Schneider of AST Financial.
ENDS
For further information & photos please contact:
Notes to Editors:
ProShare is a part of The Chartered Governance Institute.
ProShare is the voice of the employee share ownership industry in the UK. It was established in 1992 by the Government, the London Stock Exchange and a number of FTSE 100 companies to promote Employee Share Ownership. ProShare is a not-for-profit membership organisation, funded by its members and its commercial activities.
More information: www.proshare.org