Dubai: Sheikh Ahmed confers UAE Innovation Award, Emirates Women Award to 33 winners

Dubai: The Dubai Quality Group (DQG) conferred the 4th UAE Innovation Award and the 18th Emirates Women Award to 33 winners at a grand ceremony held at the headquarters of the Dubai Police Officers Club in Dubai on Wednesday.

Patron of DQG, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and CEO of Emirates Airline and Group, presented the awards in the presence of Abdulla Al Basti, secretary general of The Executive Council of Dubai, Dr. Hazaa Khalfan Al Nuaimi, DQG chairman, Lieutenant-General Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri, commander-in-chief of Dubai Police, and a group of senior leadership figures in the UAE.

He conferred the UAE Innovation Award to 11 winners from government and private entities in the UAE and GCC and the Emirates Women Award to 22 women who excelled in various walks of life in the country.

Sheikh Ahmed said: “I am pleased to attend the Dubai Quality Group Awards ceremony to award the distinguished pioneer winners who enhanced the culture of innovation on the local and regional levels. They were able to raise the innovative practices, in line with the vision of the UAE leaders to make Dubai a hub of excellence and innovation.”

Al Nuaimi expressed delight to honour the winners under the patronage of Sheikh Ahmed “who always supports the DQG’s awards, especially the Emirates Women Award, that encourages the women of the UAE to achieve the highest professionalism and to encourage women entrepreneurship.”

He said the UAE Innovation Award, which was launched under the guidance and support of Sheikh Ahmed in 2016, in its fourth cycle has “effectively raised the level of innovative practices of the organisations based on a world-class framework, standard, new categories and criteria.”

UAE Pioneers Award

The pioneers in practising innovation, who achieved outstanding results in the 4th cycle of the UAE Innovation Award, were honoured in three catogories as given below.

PLATINUM CATEGORY

Dubai Municipality

Emirates Global Aluminium - EGA

GOLD CATEGORY

Public Prosecution-Dubai

Emirates National Oil Company - ENOC

The General Administration of Customs, Abu Dhabi

Petroleum Development Oman

SILVER CATEGORY

Arabian Automobiles Company

Aster Pharmacy Group

Aster Hospitals, UAE

Farnek Services LLC

BRONZE CATEGORY

Knauf LLC

The winners of the 18th cycle of the Emirates Women Award were awarded (in no order) as below.

Distinguished Employee Award

Col. Samira Abdalla Hassan Ali Al Ali

Col. Muna Surour Marzouq Al Shuweihi

Vanitha Joseph Bruno

Leadership Award

Dr. Naseem Mohammed Rafee Abdulla

Mariam Mohamed Al Hammadi

Dr. Hanan Abdulla Al Mheiri

Professional Award

Amal Abdulla Mohamed Almulla Al Mheiri

Dr. Ghita Harifi

Young Employee Award

Alreem Abdulrahman Abdulla Hussain

Najla Rahma Ibrahim Alshamsi

Aisha Saeed AlMazrouei

Entrepreneur Award

Dr. Mariam Salim Shaikh Salim Husein

Dr. Leila Soudah

Business Award

Rasha Sharif Ahmad AlDhanhani

Social Work Award

Muna Mohammed Abdulla Alameri

Lamees Ebrahim Mussa Abuhlaiqa

Wafa Hasan Khalifa AlShamsi

The Innovator Award

Nour Hussein Tawfiq Shakhour

Noora Saeed Mohammed Al Shehhi

Hessa Jaffar Hassan Al Jawi

Culture and Arts Award

Maria Elena Murphy

Honouring sponsors, jury

The ceremony also witnessed Sheikh Ahmed honouring and appreciating the sponsors and jury of both the awards.

Lt. Gen. Abdullah Khalifa Al Marri received the honour for Dubai Police General Command that sponsors the annual awards ceremony of DQG while Abdul Hamid Ahmad, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Gulf News, received the honour for Gulf News, the official media partner.

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Burjeel Hospital, ARJMST and The Fantasia Dxb Creative Event Company were also honoured as sponsors.

The Jury Members of Emirates Women Award who were honoured included Colonel Salah Al Marzooqi (chief assessor), Dr. Alia Humaid Al Qassimi, Dr. Amna Khalifa and Dr. Mariam Mattar.

The jury members of the UAE Innovation Award who were honoured include Dr. Arif Bin Fadhel (head of jury), Dr. Eng. Humaid Saif Saeed, Dr. Khaled Khalifa Al Mazrouei and Fatima Ahmed Murad Almandoos.

Winners speak

Ahmed Saeed Albedwawi, director of Excellence and Knowledge Department at Dubai Municipality, said: “We thank the DQG for this opportunity and for all their endeavours during the entire journey starting from the submission phase till the successful organisation of the awards ceremony today. It is a great honour for us to be awarded the Platinum Award in the Innovation Category. This recognition assures how Dubai Municipality embraces excellence in innovation management and how it perceives innovation as a sustainable way of doing business. This is definitely the output and result of the entire DM team and the reflection of its leadership vision.”

Wayne Bryant, head of change and continuous improvement at Petroleum Development Oman, expressed delight over his company being the only winner from outside the UAE.

“This is not my award. There has been many years of hard work and dedication of everybody involved in change and continuous improvements in PDO to get us to this stage. To be able to get the gold award in our first attempt is just absolutely brilliant. All I can say is thank you to everybody in PDO who has helped out and got continuous improvement embedded in the business to allow us to win this. I believe it’s down to just the hard work and habits of making tomorrow better than today and innovating at every opportunity using the data that we have around us to drive the improvements and deliver benefits for the business.

Col. Muna Surour Marzouq Al Shuweihi, who won the award for Distinguished Employees, said it was an honour for her 31 years of service with Sharjah Police. “I have been working with Sharjah Central Jail for 25 years. I worked for the Forensic Department prior to that. I feel honoured with this recognition. I remember I was a bit nervous when I first joined the Central Jail. But, with my seniors’ support and advice, I faced the challenges. Now, I am in charge of supervising everything related to male and female prisoners. We have a lot of initiatives for the prisoners, for their wellbeing and to transform them into responsible citizens.”

Dr. Ghita Harifi, who won the Professional Award, is a consultant rheumatologist at Mediclinic Parkview Hospital. She said: “Women empowerment has always been one of my priorities during my career. And I’ve always been giving a lot of time also to that. So being recognised as one of the women who had impact in the Emirati society is something that means a lot to me. It’s a moment of pride and joy. And also, it’s something that would push me to do more, and to give back more to the society that I’m part of.”

Nour Hussein Tawfiq Shakhour, is a mother of four who works with the Abu Dhabi Police and also pursues a PhD in British University in Dubai. On winning the Innovator Award, she said: “I consider this as a unique award for a distinguished employee. As a Human Resources specialist, I deal with all the aspects related to the analysis of human resources and try to make sense of the data we have to help take informed decisions that would give more direction and will affect the strategic planning of Abu Dhabi Police in a positive way. My PhD is about agility and being agile. I’m just implementing this in my life also to be as flexible as I can.”