You're reading: These people make Kyiv a better place to live

Three awards for individual achievement will be presented during the 10th annual Kyiv Post Best of Kyiv award ceremony on Jan. 27. The other 21 prizes go to top businesses and one non-profit organization. The individual awards are the Spirit of Kyiv, given to the person who generously helps make Kyiv a better place.

The Business Person of the Year award for exceptional success and the 10-Year Award for the most outstanding contributions to life in Ukraine for the past decade.

Winners for the individual awards are chosen by the Kyiv Post, while a combination of online voting and expert tallies decided the 21 business or organization awards.

Here are the nominees for individual awards in the Spirit of Kyiv and Business Person of the Year Categories. The Kyiv Post will profile the 10-Year Award nominees in the Jan. 21 edition.

SPIRIT OF KYIV

 

Britain’s Ambassador to Ukraine Leigh Turner (right) enthusiastically engaged in Ukrainian life when he arrived in June 2008.

He has hosted charities at his residence. He blogs regularly about the importance of democratic institutions. And he often takes trips outside Kyiv to visit places like Chornobyl and the castles of western Ukraine to get a better understanding of Ukraine’s tumultuous history.

Turner often makes public appearances to promote Ukrainian literature, improvements in the Ukrainian judicial system and other projects supported by the British Embassy.

While it’s fashionable for corporate social responsibility activities to focus on one-off orphanage donations, Maryna Krysa’s Help us Help the Children Foundation is involved full-time.

Krysa provides aid and relief to orphanages, holds educational and health-improving summer camps, runs a scholarship program for gifted orphans, raises awareness on human trafficking, and supports and trains orphanage staffs.

Annually her organization reaches more than 3,000 orphans at up to 100 children institutions.

Under Anna Derevyanko’s leadership, the European Business Association tripled its size to 750 companies since 2003 and, consequently, has become the biggest association for foreign businesses in Ukraine.

It has six regional branches — in Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Zhytomyr – and a representative in Brussels.

The EBA has tried to keep Ukraine’s government honest by lobbying for legislation that meets European standards.

The Zhytomyr native is active with the Foreign Investors Advisory Council and the Council of Investors.

Canadian Mychailo Wynnyckyj prepares Ukraine’s next generation of business and social leaders at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy.

He directs the institution’s doctoral school, heads its sociology masters program and leads its president’s master’s in business administration program.

A sociologist by training, he is a youth counselor for Plast, a boy scouts group and a member of the Lviv Brotherhood, whose activities include running a semi-private nursery school allowing children to engage in a Ukrainian language environment.

 

Bate C. Toms (second on the left), the founder of the eponymous Kyiv-based law firm, is an American attorney who has used knowledge gained from Cambridge University and Yale Law School to help businesses sift through Ukraine’s murky legal environment since the early 1990s.

Those are high marks in themselves, but he is also making a noticeable mark on the country through non-profit activities.

He leads an effort to digitize Ukraine’s most significant and historic materials, making them available in libraries and universities across the globe.

He’s also the president of the British-Ukraine Chamber of Commerce and is an avid cricket player.

Gregarious Ecuadorian Jorge Intriago has promoted Ukraine’s integration with European Union through lobbying and as an adviser to several economic ministers.

He has served seven years as the European Business Association vice president, one year as the president and always has had a seat on the board of directors. “I have put a lot of time into the EBA,” Intriago told the Kyiv Post. He currently is a partner at the Big Four accounting and auditing firm Ernst & Young.

In 2010, Intriago was Ernst & Young’s second highest performing partner in the Commonwealth of Independent States. “It was by far my best year yet,” Intriago said. He has advised government officials on various issues, including current state security chief, Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, when he was the economy minister. Intriago also advised Serhiy Tigipko in 1997 when he was the minister of economic reform.

“I mostly helped them devise investment climate strategies and even organized a listening tour for Khoroshkovsky around the country to talk with local governments and businesses,” he said. Intriago is often the top bidder at charity auctions held by the Lion’s Club, Lawyer’s Association and other non-profit groups.

Intriago has also been nominated for the Business Person of the Year special award.

 

Founding partner of Gvozdiy & Oberkovych law firm Serhiy Oberkovych vigorously encourages his staff to conduct pro bono work.

“About 5 percent of our workload consists of helping people who normally cannot afford legal services,” said Oberkovych.

One of his pet projects is helping former first lady Kateryna Yushchenko’s Children’s Hospital of the Future by conducting contract analysis and helping out on land and procedural issues.

He also helps ex-President Viktor Yushchenko’s Ukraine 3000 Fund, which promotes Ukrainian culture and language.

“We take on small cases that help single mothers on social issues and also large-scale projects,” he said.

Some things are actually free thanks to Oberkovych’s generosity and belief in giving back to the community.

 

H. Brian Mefford has offered party building, election and campaign skills training on every side of Ukraine’s political aisles for more than a decade.

An Arkansonian, he headed the International Republic Institute’s Kyiv office until 2009.

He has since become an independent political consultant being part of an international team of political advisors to Viktor Yushchenko’s 2010 bid for re-election among other campaigns.

 

BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR

 

Chicago native Nick Piazza turned a small, money-losing investment bank in BG Capital to one of the largest market makers for Ukrainian companies in just two years.

As the chief executive officer of Ukraine’s largest foreign listed investment bank, Piazza ensured it made a profit for the second year in a row.

BG Capital is only one of two investment banks to hold foreign placements for Ukrainian companies in 2009 and 2010.

It also expanded in Georgia by facilitating the placement of Euro bonds and has been a brokerage leader in post-crisis deals.

“It was a great learning experience, rebuilding the company from scratch,” Piazza said on Oct. 10.

 

George Logush, vice president of Kraft Foods, is an American of Ukrainian roots. He says Ukraine has always been a “great laboratory” for demonstrating how business can succeed and give back to society.

As head of Kraft’s operations in 12 countries in the region headquartered in Kyiv, Logush has shown that investors can expand and succeed in Ukraine – even in times of crisis. He saw net revenue jump 23 percent in 2010 to $500 million. He has led a number of charity and public initiatives.

Together with his wife, Tetyana, he has managed a popular literary competition, “The Coronation of Word”, now in its 10th year.

Logush was recently re-elected to the board of the American Chamber of Commerce, which represents 650 companies and is consistently ranked one of Ukraine’s top chief executive officers.

 

Seasoned grain trader Bjoern Stendel has since October 2010 worked for a Canadian grain trading company after heading Alfred C. Toepfer International’s Kyiv office from 1999 to 2009.

In 2009, Stendel also received an award from former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for “his personal contribution to promoting the investment climate of the food production sector and for his high professionalism.”

Stendel, as general director of Toepfer in Ukraine, had also placed high in rankings by various business publications as one of the bestexecutivesin the agro-industrial sector.

The German native is an avid soccer fan and has supported Ukrainian regatta competitors to participate in international competitions.


Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at
[email protected].