WELLESLEY, Mass., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (A.S.A.P.) announced the presentation of its 2005 Alliance Excellence Awards to BlueCross Blue Shield of Florida, VeriSign, Inc., Quintiles Transnational Corp., and Availity, L.L.C. A.S.A.P.'s Silicon Valley/NorCal Chapter was the recipient of the Chapter of the Year Award for the second time in a row. The ceremony, attended by some 190 people from the US, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Japan and the UK was a part of A.S.A.P.'s 7th Global Alliance Summit held February 7 - 9 at the Westin Stonebriar Resort in Frisco, Texas. Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Company, Hewlett-Packard Company, Pfizer and SAP sponsored the Summit.
Snehal Desai, Chairman of A.S.A.P.'s board opened the proceedings with a brief business meeting where he recognized the tireless efforts and contributions of outgoing A.S.A.P. Global Board members, Brian Monbouquette of Gallagher, Flynn and Co., Larraine Segil of Vantage Consulting, and Mike Nevin of CVN Alliances. He then went on to welcome incoming board members V. Bala (treasurer) of Reuters New York, Jane Dancer of Shell International based in the UK, Tarkin Maner of Computer Associates in New, Jersey, Alain Mignot of Cisco Systems based in Australia and Norma Watenpaugh of Phoenix Consulting in California. In announcing A.S.A.P.'s newest Global Sponsors Computer Associates, Microsoft Corporation, Siemens and SAP AG, Mr. Snehal remarked that A.S.A.P. is truly becoming a global corporation with some 1600 members worldwide.
Stepping up to the podium. William Lundberg, A.S.A.P.'s Founding President and Executive Director thanked the awards committee, which is made up of leading academics, thought leaders, consultants and media representatives with extensive experience and insight into strategic alliances, for its diligent and excellent choices in awards recipients saying, “Strategic alliances have become central to the strategies of most leading organizations today, including many top-ranking NASDAQ and NYSE-listed companies. The recipients of today’s awards are those that are models of business success through the effective management of their strategic alliances.”
Renee Finley, Principal, Business & Alliance Development, BlueCross BlueShield of Florida, accepted the Overall Management Excellence Award on behalf of her team. The Emerging Alliance Star Awards went to VeriSign, Inc., in the IT/Communications Sector, and was accepted by Steve Gibson, VeriSign’s Director of Strategic Alliances. Rick Mazzetti and Rob von Alten received the award for Quintiles Transnational Corp in the Bio/Pharma/Life Sciences Sector. David Johnson, Director of Marketing with Availity, L.L.C. accepted the Alliance Innovation Award.
Prior to presenting the Chapter of the Year Award, A.S.A.P. Senior Vice President, Gabrielle Saylor gave a quick update on the increasing number of chapters. Four will soon be up and running in Europe under the A.S.A.P. (Europe) Limited umbrella -- France, Germany, Netherlands and the UK; one in Asia/Pac based on Sydney, Australia, and seven in the US -- Atlanta/Southeast, Boston/New England, Chicago/Midwest, DC/MidAtlantic, Pacific NorthWest and SiliconValley/NorCal. The newest chapter, NY/TriState with Founding Sponsors Bank of New York, Factiva, NASDAQ and Reuters was launched on January 13th in New York with A.S.A.P. closing the NASDAQ, followed by a meeting hosted by Reuters, attended by some 225 people. Ms. Saylor recognized and thanked the board members present from the European and US Chapters and then went on to the present the Chapter of the Year award for the second year in a row to The Silicon Valley/NorCal Chapter. Chris Bledsoe of Apple Corporation, present Chapter President, and Leslie Sutherland of Sutherland Corporation, Immediate Past President accepted the award.
About A.S.A.P.: The Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (A.S.A.P) http://www.strategic-alliances.org/ based in Wellesley, MA, is the first non-profit professional membership organization dedicated to the practice of strategic alliances. Global Sponsors of the organization include Accenture, Alliance Vista Corporation, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Computer Associates, Delphi Corporation, Cisco Systems, Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett-Packard Corporation, IBM, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, SAP, Siemens, Starbucks Coffee Company, The Dow Chemical Company, The Warren Company and Unisys Corporation.
Media Contact: Gabrielle Saylor, Senior Vice-President, A.S.A.P.
Email - gabrielles@strategic-alliances.org
Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (A.S.A.P.)
CONTACT: Gabrielle Saylor, Senior Vice-President of A.S.A.P.,gabrielles@strategic-alliances.org
Web site: http://www.strategic-alliances.org/