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Recognising outstanding female leadership

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Mukhabat Teshaeva of Uzbekistan, Winner of the Entrepreneur Award

Nejira Nalić, Winner of the Financial Institutions Award

– Marina Sedykh of Russia, Winner of the Industry Award

The Women in Business Award Winners

Since 2005 the EBRD has recognised successful female leaders through the Women in Business Awards. Candidates are clients from the EBRD’s countries of operations and are nominated by the EBRD's resident offices and banking teams.

The Women in Business Awards are made jointly by the EBRD and Erste Bank and were presented this year by Brigita Schmögnerová, EBRD Vice President for Environment, Procurement and Administration and Edit Papp, Chairwoman of Erste Bank, Hungary.

Winner of the Entrepreneur Award – Mukhabat Teshaeva of Uzbekistan, founder and owner of Shahboz Shahrom, a privately-owned carpet producer. Head of the EBRD’s Tashkent Resident Office, Fernand Pillonel, accepting the award on her behalf, paid tribute to her hard work and determination. “Culturally Uzbekistan is a difficult place for a woman to succeed,” he said.

Winner of the Financial Institutions Award – Nejira Nalić of Bosnia and Herzegovina, founder of MI-BOSPO, a microcredit organisation providing financial services to low-income women entrepreneurs. Accepting the award Ms Nalić said: “We were born in a crisis and now we’re in another crisis. We have strength. Women can count on us. As a client of EBRD, without them we never could have dreamt of this 14 years ago.” Watch the video of Nejira Nalić talking about MI-BOSPO.

Winner of the Industry Award – Marina Sedykh of Russia, Director General of Irkutsk Oil, a company based in the far north-east of Russia. The only female Director General in the Russian oil industry, Ms Sedykh said it was a great achievement for her and for the company also.

16 May 2009