The World Bank’s CEO Kristalina Georgieva and two incumbent prime ministers, Alexis Tsipras of Greece and Zoran Zaev of North Macedonia, have been named as the recipients of Emerging Europe’s Remarkable Achievement Awards for 2019.
Dr Georgieva has been awarded the Princess Marina Sturdza Award, while Mr. Tsipras and Mr. Zaev have jointly been given the Professor Günter Verheugen Award.
“The Emerging Europe Awards promote best practice and individuals who embrace and enhance collaboration, unity, inclusion, diversity and progressive thinking,” says Andrew Wrobel, Founding Partner, Emerging Europe. “Through their work Dr Georgieva, Prime Ministers Tsipras and Zaev proved that their goal is to unite and prosper. As an organisation that brings the world together to shape the future of Central and South-East Europe, we are honoured that the Emerging Europe Council has recognised the remarkable achievements of these three individuals.”
Following an almost three-decade long dispute and after months of often delicate negotiations, Greece and FYR Macedonia signed an agreement last summer renaming the latter as the Republic of North Macedonia. Following the agreement coming into force in February 2019, permanent representatives to NATO signed a protocol on the accession of North Macedonia to NATO. Mr Tsipras visited Skopje in April 2019 and became the first Greek PM to have done so since North Macedonia’s independence in 1991.
Zoran Zaev
Dr Kristalina Georgieva has built a reputation as a gender equality champion, humanitarian, and leader in the global fight against climate change. During her term at the European Commission, where she served as the European Commission vice president for budget and human resources, she managed one of the world’s largest humanitarian aid budgets and established herself as a global champion for resilience. At both the Commission and the World Bank, she has driven progress on gender balance, pushing towards a target of 40 per cent women in management by 2019 at the European Commission, and achieving parity in senior management at the World Bank.
The Emerging Europe Council, who chose the laureates, is an independent advisory body to the board of directors of Emerging Europe, and includes leading opinion formers, senior business executives, scholars, former senior representatives of international organisations, civil society and the world of diplomacy and art.
The Leders Meeting will take place in London on 27th and 28th June.
Members of the Emerging Europe Council
• Elisso Bolkvadze, a globally recognised pianist and musician;
• Milda Dargužaitė, Chief Executive Officer at Northern Horizon Capital Group;
• Agnieszka Gajewska, CEE Leader, Public Sector and Infrastructure at PwC;
• Mircea Geoană, President of the Aspen Institute Romania;
• Olga Grygier-Siddons, former CEO of PwC Central and Eastern Europe;
• Anne-Marie Martin, British Chambers of Commerce’s Director for Global Business Networks;
• Ivan Mikloš, a former deputy prime minister and minister of finance, deputy prime minister for economy and minister of privatisation of the Slovak Republic;
• Teofil Mureşan is the founder and chairman of E-INFRA;
• Gergana Passy, founding president of the Digital National Alliance and a former Bulgarian deputy minister of foreign affairs;
• Peter Stračar, a former CEO of GE Europe;
• Ion Sturza, a former prime minister and minister of economy of Moldova.
• Professor Günter Verheugen, former European Commissioner for Enlargement, Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry;
• HRH Princess Katarina of Yugoslavia, a member of the British Royal Family and the Serbian Royal Family, an active supporter of many charitable causes and a humanitarian.
