We recently recognized the recipients of our 2017 Martha Ingram Leadership Award during our latest Global Town Hall. Distinguishing those who continue your legacy of business leadership and promoting the welfare and well-being of others is always a top highlight of our year.
As always, we had many well qualified nominees– spanning 14 countries and multiple areas of our business. We narrowed down the nominees to four associates who exemplify your legacy of leadership, commitment, integrity and trust. Here’s a little bit about each winner:
Waddah Fadul is a pre-sales technical consultant out of our Dubai office and the founder and president of Institute of Tomorrow, an 
African think tank and NGO that he founded in 2015 while attaining his college degree. The Institute focuses on finding sustainable resolutions to some of the challenges that face the region in education, healthcare, energy and public services. Waddah has also demonstrated excellent leadership qualities at Ingram Micro and in January 2017, Cisco Systems selected him as a global Cisco Champion based in large-part on his efforts to help establish Ingram Micro Cisco’s preferred Data Center VAD in the region.
Patrik Karlsson is a senior operations manager from Sweden. Patrik has been instrumental in establishing Ingram Micro as one of 
Sweden’s most desired employers for people with disabilities. He championed a key partnership with Samhall, a state-owned company with a mandate to create work that furthers the development of people with functional impairment causing reduced working capacity. He was instrumental in convincing a major manufacturer in Europe to award us their business by proposing that 30% of the temporary workforce be provided by Samhall, rather than a mainstream temporary services provider. This was a true win-win situation for Ingram Micro, Samhall and their associates, as well as for our customer.
Justin Jimenez is a senior finance manager from our Manila Shared Service center, where he is responsible for organizing our annual 
Finance Leadership Summit. His creativity was showcased at our 2017 event, as he presented videos of associates sharing stories on personal and professional growth. Justin has also been a key resource in transitioning significant back office efforts from multiple countries into shared services. Outside the office, he actively leads and participates in numerous charity endeavors, including HOPE, Helping Others Progress and be Enriched, where his efforts led to a donation of 27 tables and 108 chairs for use by children at Eusebio Santos Elementary School.
Tom Stein is a senior operations manager in our Irvine office. He plays a critical leadership role in remediation efforts to resolve global IS 
issues with customers and internal clients. A former Marine, Tom’s passion is for coaching and mentoring, both at work and by coaching young adults, veterans and out-of-work seniors. He works with several nonprofits, formerly chairing the board of two. In 2016 Tom started a new nonprofit called The Hire Target, dedicated to helping veterans successfully navigate transitioning into the workforce.
For the first time this year, we expanded our nomination process to teams, and both team winners this year were philanthropic committees, each of which perfectly embody our values of giving back to our communities. Here are the winners in that category:
Mexico City: members include Gerardo Sánchez, Patricia Martínez, Andrea Murillo, Fany López, Ofelia Rodríguez, Diana Díaz, Julio 
Camarillo, Monserrat García, Rodolfo Hernández, Christian Ramírez, Víctor Hugo Sánchez and Norma Ramos. This team demonstrated our values of community and giving last year when Mexico experienced two significant earthquakes that damaged several states and directly impacted our associates and surrounding communities. They raised money and delivered food, including sending 300kg of aid to Morelos, three pallets of aid to Oaxaca, and filling more than 30 pantries for families in Xochimilco. Each year, our Mexico City Philanthropic Committee also makes the dreams of orphaned children come true by organizing an event that partners associates with the children to give them toys and celebrate King’s Day.
Irvine: members are Milton Acosta, Alyssa Lahham, Wen Huang, Aaron Franko, Kendra Angier, Constanze Duke, Colby Dyer-Tait, Cristina 
Merino and Rochelle Breedon. This team partners closely with our local Community Relations and CSR teams to ensure that giving efforts and volunteer events align with Ingram Micro’s overall vision and strategy. The Irvine Philanthropic Committee does an excellent job building and maintaining relationships with outside organizations such as local non-profits, OneOC, NGOs, United Way and many others to provide meaningful giving opportunities in which our associates can participate. On average, they organize 25-30 philanthropic events each year for our Irvine headquarters, which translates to roughly 350 volunteers and over 600 volunteer hours.
Congratulations to all our recipients!