Corporate social responsibility award ceremony in Oslo a success

The ceremony for the 2010 Oslo Business for Peace Awards, held today in the Oslo City Hall, turned out to be a great success. The awards honoured seven businesspersons for their contributions towards corporate social responsibility.

The award winners for the 2010 Oslo Business for Peace Awards today were Francis Yeoh (Malaysia), Stef Wertheimer (Israel), Venkataramani Srivathsan (Nigeria), Emily Cummins (UK) and William Rosenzweig (USA). Ratan Tata (India) and Roberto Servitje Sendra (Mexico). Master of the ceremony was legendary Norwegian news anchor, Einar Lunde.

“The 2010 Business for Peace Honourees have each helped clear a path to a better way of coexisting, and they are showing the rest of us how to help improve our own lives, and those of others, in mutual collaborations that achieve greater prosperity and peace and stability for many, not just a few. They are an important counterweight to the skepticism directed towards business, and their work is proof that business can show a better way”, said Per Leif Saxegaard, chair of the Business for Peace Foundation during his ceremony speech.

Alongside the ceremony was the Oslo Peace through Trade Summit; featuring a panel debate on corporate social responsibility, moderated by keynote speaker, Mr. Jan Egeland, NUPI. Jan Egeland has been prominent in several peace processes that include the Oslo Agreement between Israel and the PLO (1993), and was Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General for Conflict Prevention and Resolution from 2006-2008.

Today’s keynote speeches on social responsibility in business were delivered by Mr. Rajat K. Gupta, the chairman of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, and Mr. Jeremy Rifkin, American economist, writer, public speaker, political advisor and activist.

The panellists during the debate were Mr. Gupta and former Prime Minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik, and one of the 2009 Business for Peace Honourees, Mr Anders Dahlvig, then CEO of IKEA.

The Award committee comprised of Professor Muhammad Yunus (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006), Professor Wangari Muta Maathai (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004), and Professor A Michael Spence (winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for 2001).

Supporting partners for this year’s Oslo Business for Peace Awards and the Oslo Peace through Trade Summit were the Business for Peace Foundation and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

For more information about today visit, http://businessforpeace.no/