The FINANCIAL — The FINANCIAL — TBC Bank’s General Director Vakhtang Butskhrikidze was nominated as one of four winners of “The International Award for Responsible Capitalism 2019” by the international organization “FIRST”, London.
Within the framework of the awards ceremony, her Royal Excellence Princess Anne awarded Vakhtang Butskhrikidze with the award “The FIRST Award for Promoting Responsible Capitalism in Adversity 2019”. Vakhtang Butskhrikidze was presented the award by Suma Chakbarti, the President of EBRD.
The awards ceremony, which was held at Lancaster Palace on 7 March, was attended by representatives of the London Diplomatic Corps, business and government circles, including Tamar Beruchashvili, Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Georgia to Great Britain, as well as staff of the London TBC Bank offices.
“Over the course of 27 years we have succeeded despite financial crisis, civil war and armed conflicts. Today, our brand is a marker of pride for Georgia, is the most active in CSR, and is recognized as the best supporter of business. We have achieved all of this because we have done business as a true citizen of our country.”
“We have developed special programmes for business support, with a special emphasis on SMEs. Within the framework of this platform we provide not only financial support but also invest in them to develop and grow, with different programmes, whether it be trainings, lectures, Business Reward, or meetings.”
“Our main goal is to simplify the lives of people by creating digital ecosystems.”
“After coming so far in Georgia, we decided to expand to other countries too. TBC aims to increase its customer base by up to 10 million, which means a 5 time increase of the current number.”
“This award does not just belong to me, it belongs to the 7 000 employees of TBC who bring our culture and philosophy to our customers. I am very grateful that such people stand beside me,” Vakhtang Butskhrikidze said in his acceptance speech.
About FIRST
From the year 2000, the organization FIRST has been awarding on an annual basis the private business leaders of various countries for their successful entrepreneurial activity and social responsibility.
At various times, winners of FIRST’s prestigious prizes have included: Güller Sabanch, Chairman of Sabanci Group; Howard Schulz, Founder of Starbucks; Paul Polmann, General Director of Unilever; Alan Wood, CEO of Siemens; John Brown, CEO of British Petroleum.
The multidisciplinary organization FIRST was founded in 1984. It aims to strengthen strategic dialogue between industries, the financial sector and government. FIRST regularly organizes a number of international conferences and high-level meetings attended by government officials and the executives of corporations. Experts of the organization are working in 60 countries, across three continents. In the years 2010 and 2013, the magazine FIRST became the first recipient of the “The Queen’s Award for Enterprise”.
