The annual Chairman's Award recognizes employees who have been with Barry Callebaut for a number of years and demonstrated outstanding performance at work, as well as social commitment in their local communities.
Honoring outstanding performance and community service
The annual Chairman's Award recognizes employees who have been with Barry Callebaut for a number of years and have demonstrated outstanding performance at work, as well as a strong social commitment in their local communities. They are individuals who embody the Barry Callebaut values of customer focus, passion, entrepreneurship, team spirit and integrity.
The Chairman’s Award was inaugurated in 1995 by Klaus Jacobs, the former Chairman of Jacobs Holding AG and founder of Barry Callebaut. Since then, the Chairman’s Award has been given to select number of employees each year.
In 2008 thirteen Barry Callebaut employees from ten countries received the award and were invited together with their spouses or partners to come to Switzerland to be given the award by the CEO Patrick De Maeseneire, Chairman Andreas Jacobs and Vice Chairman Andreas Schmid.
Roselyne Marie Therese Aman
Assistant Financial Direction
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Roselyne Marie Therese Aman is an active member of the committee of the vocations for the parish Saint François d'Assise at Koumassi Remblais and general secretary of the committee of vocations for all the parishes of Abidjan. The objective is to help young people on the spiritual, moral and intellectual level. She and her friends organize visits to a community hospital and take part in the cleaning the buildings and also make gifts for the patients.
Fabrizio Barbanera
Production Manager
San Sisto, Italy
Fabrizio Barbanera is known as a very competent, committed and hard working person whose employees very much appreciate his pleasant, calm and respectful attitude, as well as his willingness to understand their point of view. In his free time Fabrizio Barbanera looks after handicapped people in the social house “Gruppo Famiglia”.
Sophie Bousquet
Receptionist
St. Hyacinthe, Canada
Sophie Bousquet is a member of the CQVT (Comité qualité de vie au travail or in English the Life Quality Work Committee) which aims to improve the quality of the work environment.
She is engaged in promoting recycling projects, but also in team building activities like shows, special holiday lunches, stop smoking challenges, Christmas Kids days or BBQ lunches. For three years she has been a co-organizer of the “Wine & Cheese financial activities” to help the “Kids St. Hyacinthe House”.
Martine Clement
Employee Research & Development
Meulan, France
After having done trekking in Tibet and meeting many children there, Martine Clement decided to sponsor a 9-year old girl for two years to enable her to go to a Buddhist school. She also organized a 1-hour walk each Wednesday in Meulan to collect as many kilometers as possible for Barry Callebaut’s employee program “Winning Together 2008!” to fund two schools in Ivory Coast.
Sonja Fortong
Sales Food Manufacturers
Norderstedt, Germany
In her free time, Sonja Fortong collects donations for children who are ill with cancer. The donations are collected with a “Phoenix-Foundation-Run” during the Marathon of Hamburg. In 2008 they collected EUR 16,000 from the run. Combined with other donations from sponsors they reached a total sum of EUR 107,631 for the children.
Doris Gasser
Logistics Coordinator Traffic
Zurich, Switzerland
Spending time with the elderly to keep them company or to take them shopping for necessities is an example of some of the work that Doris Gassers does for BENEVOL, an agency that coordinates volunteers. She is also active for Nez Rouge, a service offered to anyone who does not feel capable of driving. She runs the switchboard and coordinates the rides for customers. The money collected is donated for social purposes.
Allison Horan
Quality Assurance Coordinator
Swedesboro, New Jersey, USA
Allison Horan has participated in a number of 5-km runs for different charity organizations. She also took part in the company’s “Winning Together 2008!” initiative to help support two schools in Ivory Coast. In the past, she was involved in the Special Olympics and Owen tutoring, a home for handicapped adults.
Agnieszka Jastrzabek
Senior Customer Service Specialist
Lòdz, Poland
In her spare time, Agnieszka Jastrzabek does volunteer work at a center for young people with problems, where she assists the social worker to look after teenagers during the different types of trips. She is passionate at customer service work, always willing to help and generally showing a strong identification with the company and its values.
Josef Kuspit
Assistant Manager Production
Norderstedt, Germany
Josef Kuspit has committed himself financially to the Mukoviszidose e.V. organization, which is fighting the rare disease cystic fibrosis (CF). He also gives his time to a community that help families with children suffering from CF, which is an inherited and affects the mucus and sweat glands most often damaging the lungs, pancreas, liver, intestines and sinuses. Until recently most people with CF died quite young, but now many are living into adulthood.
Isabelle Passy
Buyer
Meulan, France
Both in her work and in her free time Isabelle strives to help people. She is currently working together with “Médecins du Monde” to create a snack bar for adults and teenagers suffering from malnutrition. She is working on the conception of the bar and on the cost price. She is also the founding member and President of the association “Terres de savoir”, which provides remedial courses to young people in school age on the African continent. In 2007 she travelled to Africa to estimate the precise needs and get additional commitments.
Marlene Schüner
Shift Supervisor
Saalfeld, Germany
Marlene has been working as a shift supervisor for the past 32 years at the Barry Callebaut plant in Saalfeld, Germany. She likes to live in close contact with nature and is rooted to her native soil. She and her husband are actively involved in the Society for the Preservation of Regional Traditions in their home village.
Jean Pierre Tchatcheu
Responsible for Transit
Douala, Cameroon
Jean Pierre Tchatcheu is an active member of the church council in his community. He contributes to many social activities like the building of new churches, visiting people in need at the hospital, visiting orphans or abandoned children. He personally distributes pens, notebooks and books to children of the village’s school each year.
Marc Vanderstraeten
Truck Driver
Wieze, Belgium
Marc Vanderstraeten has been a member of the volunteer fire department of Lebbeke for 30 years. In the past four years, he has been responsible for the maintenance and the purchase of all materials for the department. He also cooks at dinners to benefit local associations like the fire department, the local soccer team and the youth movement Chiro. Chiro is a Flemish youth organization similar to the YMCA, based on Christian values, with some 100,000 members. It aims at developing youngsters' responsibilities and skills.
