Sam Fischer became President, Diageo Greater China and Asia in September 2014 and a member of Diageo’s Global Executive Committee. He was appointed as Managing Director, Southeast Asia in 2009. He had previously served as General Manager, Diageo Vietnam, and prior to joining the organisation, worked at Colgate Palmolive for 15 years, culminating with his role as a General Manager in Central Europe.
The Women’s Empowerment Journalism Awards aim to inspire, nurture and advance quality reporting on women’s empowerment issues, so as to educate and empower communities across the world. An Asia Pacific initiative, the Awards are part of Diageo’s global ‘Plan W: Empowering Women through Learning’ programme which was launched in 2012. Diageo aims to empower 2 million women of all socio-economic profiles through training and skills development by 2017. To date we have empowered over 60,000 women and indirectly benefited over 300,000 people in the community.
Diageo’s Women’s Empowerment (WE) Journalism Awards
The impact of our first WE Journalism Awards far exceeded our expectations, attracting over 300 entries in total. The shortlist included a roster of extraordinarily talented journalists whose inspiring narratives have not just raised awareness for women’s empowerment, but have created change as a result.
Women finally being heard
Women are finally being heard and the power of their stories being amplified by the media. The overwhelming response is proof that there is a need to recognise this work, and by doing so we inspire a next generation to cast a crucial light on women’s empowerment. The WE Journalism Awards reflects the importance we place on raising awareness for women’s empowerment.
Judging panel of women – respected advocates in their fields
We are honoured to once again have such a distinguished judging panel, all of whom are rallying behind a similar cause. Respected advocates in their fields, each have produced extraordinary work that focuses on this topic.
The judges for the 2015 Awards are:
Monique Villa
- CEO of Thomson Reuters Foundation and founder of Trust Women, a fast growing global movement committed to putting the rule of law behind women’s rights through concrete action
Yan Mei
- Senior Partner, Brunswick Group, China, where she provides strategic communications advice to major global corporations and hailed as one of China’s most powerful women
Shaili Chopra
- An independent award-winning journalist who has worked with NDTV, ETNOW and BBC Horizons in India. She is a face India is familiar with and in her new avatar as a digital entrepreneur she is currently experimenting with platforms that promise to change the way people consume news
How to enter:
Submissions for the 2015 Awards are now open and journalists are welcome to submit their entries via the WE Journalism Awards website at www.WEJournalismAwards.com.
WE Journalism Awards 2015 will accept submissions and nominations for pieces published from 1st January 2014 – 31st December 2014. The deadline for entry is 31st December 2014 and short-listed finalists from across the region will be invited to attend a gala awards ceremony on 5th March 2015, held in Hong Kong, where the winners will be announced.
Winners for the categories, Print Story of the Year, Broadcast Story of the Year, Online Story of the Year, Photo Story of the Year and Journalist of the Year, will receive a trophy and a cheque for US$1,000 each. Winner of the Media Title of the Year category will win a trophy and a cheque for US$3,000 to support women’s empowerment initiatives.
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