AmCham Shanghai recently announced the winners of the 2016 Future Leaders of the Year Awards at the city's Four Seasons Hotel to celebrate the contributions and value of investing in young talent.

Kim Xu, chief digital officer and vice president of digital sales at IBM Greater China, delivered a keynote speech with advice for future leaders. "We can all associate with a higher purpose and, as a catalyst, we can change the world as future leaders," she said.

Xu also spoke about the sacrifices needed to become a leader. "The difficult moment in becoming a leader is when you disagree with everyone and you are willing to put your badge on the table. It's when you're willing to sacrifice and give up everything for what you believe," she said.

After reviewing a large pool of nominations, a panel of judges used a strict set of criteria to select winners in three categories: the Future Leader of the Year Award, the US/China Business Exchange Award and the Entrepreneurship Award. In addition to being recognized on-stage, winners received 10,000 yuan ($1,506) worth of AmCham Shanghai "training credits."

Kenneth Jarrett, president of AmCham Shanghai at the award ceremony Photos: Courtesy of AmCham Shanghai

 

Winners of the 2016 Future Leaders of the Year Awards

 

Personal and professional

Zhong Zhenxi, executive director at Shanghai Roots & Shoots, was awarded the Future Leader of the Year Award. Roots & Shoots is a program designed to educate youth about environmental issues and humanitarian values with a special focus on group interaction. The Shanghai branch of Roots & Shoots was founded as a volunteer organization in 1999.

Ray Wang, director of marketing at Harcros Chemicals, was awarded the US/China Business Exchange Award. Harcros Chemicals is a distributor and manufacturer of industrial and specialty chemicals.

Eric Loh, CEO of Vocinno Technology Inc., was awarded the Entrepreneurship Award. Loh founded his mobile applications development company to help Chinese teenagers' mental health. His company launched a social app in 2014 called Bengjiujie which aims to help address and create a forum for emotional and social issues facing Chinese youth.

The event concluded with remarks from Julia Wei, training director at Amway. Wei shared strategies that Amway employs to help younger generations in the company grow personally and professionally.

To learn more about the Future Leaders Committee, please contact committees@amcham-shanghai.org.

Source: AmCham Shanghai

Participants at the award ceremony

 

Participants at the award ceremony

 
Newspaper headline: Future Leaders of the Year Awards