Chairman's Award 2017

Barry Callebaut Chairman's Award 2017 group picture

Chairman's Award 2017

Honoring outstanding performance and community service – the annual Chairman's Award recognizes long-time employees with outstanding work performance and strong social commitment in their local communities.

The Chairman’s Award was conceived in 1995 by Klaus Jacobs, the late former Chairman of Jacobs Holding AG and founder of Barry Callebaut. Recipients of the annual award are individuals who embody the Barry Callebaut values of customer focus, passion, entrepreneurship, team spirit and integrity.

This year's emotional Chairman's Award Ceremony was held on August 31, 2017 in a historic house in downtown Zurich. A suitable setting for Barry Callebaut's Chairman Patrick De Maeseneire and CEO Antoine de Saint-Affrique, who took turns in honoring the 12 winners from 11 countries and handing over the personalized glass awards. 

Congratulations to the winners!

  • Wendy Bouw 
  • Katharina Mastromarino
  • Manuel Zanardi
  • Jean Bernard Amy
  • Julia Rosati
  • Cindy Marroquin
  • Caleb Agblo
  • Wan Zamri Wan Hassan
  • Hilde Matthys
  • Haidab Farhat
  • Peter Emmerson
  • Ester Brizeno

Wendy Bouw - de Vries
Packaging employee
Zundert, The Netherlands

In 2014 Wendy took over a school in the Gambia acquiring the building and some land beside the school for playing. Employing four teachers and educating up to 250 children, Wendy, with her husband and children, travels to the school once a year to help out and to positively impact on their future.

Sponsors are needed to pay teacher’s salaries and fundraising is constant to pay for water and electricity. Cooperation with a local school in Zundert raises funds and awareness. Wendy also sends goods and clothes to the school several times a year and donated her own bike to a teacher who was walking hours from home. 

Wendy Bouw de Vries

Katharina Mastromarino
Personal Assistant to Information Management department and Chief Information Officer
Zurich, Switzerland

As well as her exemplary positive team spirit and work at Barry Callebaut, Katharina is a most caring person, devoting a significant amount of her holiday time to a non- profit organisation called ZO which works with mentally disabled people in Switzerland.

Over the past three years, Katharina has given ZO four weeks of her own holiday free of charge and has spent the time on cycling and creativity holidays with the service users inside and outside Switzerland looking after them and ensuring they have a great time.

Katharina Mastromarino

Manuel Zanardi
OSCO Controller 
Milano, Italy

Passionate about not only his job but also the environment, Manuel has implemented initiatives to reduce waste. As well as installing a batteries collection box in his office, he also, when he was responsible for IT support, made sure that his offices in Milan were first to implement new technology to facilitate ‘on-demand printing’ to reduce paper consumption before it was rolled out company-wide.

Manuel is a volunteer in the Catholic parish of his hometown, teaching catechism to children and organizing weekend and summer activities for them and also supports the parish priest in the bookkeeping and costs management of the community.

Manuel Zanardi

Jean-Bernard Amy
Maintenance Technician 
Louviers, France

Having had an accident at work, Jean- Barnard used this experience positively and has participated in a safety film that can be used for the safety training of others. Also a committed member of the Safety Council, he also spends time sharing his experience and training technicians.

Because of Jean-Bernard’s efforts and commitment, safety awareness has been raised significantly amongst employees of Barry Callebaut showing a real positive outcome.

Jean Bernard Amy

Julia Rosati
HR Manager for the Eddystone PA site
Eddystone, PA

Julia is very active in the Girl Scouts of America non-profit organisation. Girls Scouts is a youth organisation for girls preparing girls to empower themselves and promote their self-esteem. For the past several years Julia has been a leader and key event organizer and is also Treasurer on the Parent Teacher Organisation in her local school district. She spearheads many fundraising activities in her community to benefit all of the children in that school district.

Julia believes in raising young girls, including her daughters, to be independent and successful young women by teaching them the values and ethics needed for their futures.

Julia Rosati

Cindy Marroquin
Customer Service​
Monterrey, Mexico

Cindy has injected her joy and enthusiasm into her team and colleagues from other departments and is always looking for a way to help and support activities in the company

With a sign language certificate, she participates in integration activities for deaf, blind and mute people within the community and performs as an interpreter at special events for people suffering from these challenges. Cindy also leads efforts to promote local food sharing programmes for the needy. In addition, she volunteers at local hospitals focusing on providing fun and engaging activities for sick children.

Cindy Marroquin

Caleb Agblo
Food Safety Coordinator
Tema, Ghana

As well as his excellent work performance, Caleb is a helper of others and has volunteered in a district hospital laboratory offering quality laboratory health diagnoses in Sefwi Wiaso in the Western Region of Ghana.

Additionally, he helps cocoa farmers during his vacations to clear weed on their farmland and carry cocoa beans from the farm to the nearest feeder road to be transported by trucks. Caleb also spends his weekends teaching people of different age groups in their homes effective parenting; preventing domestic violence and helping them to become responsible people.

Caleb Agblo

Wan Zamri Wan Hassan
Senior Store Keeper
Pasir Gudang, Malaysia 

As well as Zamri’s role as Store Keeper, he has also been active in the plant worksite committee and acts as a member of the Worksite Union Committee for the Food Industry Employee Union and Environmental Health & Safety (EHS).

He is actively involved with the community volunteer programs including the Royal Malaysia Police Volunteer Reserve Force, One programme, KRT, a voluntary program which is run by the Malaysian government, is aimed at developing local residences around the country. It is a collective community association which is made up of different residential areas providing a platform and community center for residents.

Wan Zamri Wan Hassan

Hilde Matthys
Sales Support
Wieze, Belgium

Demonstrating that we should look after each other in good times and bad, Hilde is a shining example. In good times, she organises an annual ski holiday that brings colleagues closer together.

And in a difficult time, she cared for one of her colleagues with great love and care who was fighting cancer. From the beginning of our colleague's year and a half’s absence, Hilde visited her on a regular basis and always brought her a gift from her colleagues in Wieze to help the patient to keep on fighting and not give up hope. At the same time, she kept the team informed about the health of our colleague.

Hilde Matthys

Haidab Farhat
IMS/IT Manager
Kumasi, Ghana

To ensure the proper set-up of the IT infrastructure for our Nyonkopa organization, Haidab has been instrumental in keeping the daily reporting structure running while we expanded our operations considerably.

Haidab believes in giving back because it is a moral imperative and the obligation of all of us to do what we can to make the world a better place. He started by supporting around 50 orphans from the ‘All Nation Charity Home’ to build up the orphanage and create a better environment. He also pays tuition for two students, one in nursing school and for a second one at primary school.

Haidab Farhat

Peter Emmerson
UK Technical & R&D Team leader
Banbury, UK

Peter has core family values that he brings to work every day which resonates through the business and customers in a positive manner. He also raised the largest amount of money across the regions for our internal community program "Winning Together".

For more than ten years, Peter has worked in and for his local community. He brings his passion for Chocolate to local schools by supporting and coaching young people who want to work in our industry. Additionally, he has promoted Leeds College over the years by linking their development kitchen with Barry Callebaut via a sponsor. 

Peter Emmerson

Ester Brizeno
Marketing Analyst
Brazil

Ester is hard-working and focused, contributes to the team and actively applies the company values in her daily routine.

Ester is also a great role model in community activities; she participates in social activities at her church, Casa Betel, where she promotes several activities, like the distribution of food and clothes to needy people in her city’s community. Several of these activities take place during the Christmas and Easter holidays. She dedicates a lot of time and passion to the social initiatives promoted by the church and her efforts truly make a difference in other people's lives.

Ester Brizeno

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