Emirates Group honours top employees

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline and Group, has honoured 51 employees for their commitment to excellence, exceptional levels of dedication and exemplary performance and service to the company's customers and to their colleagues.
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Ten individual and team achievements were acknowledged during the ceremony with three of these stemming from outstanding levels of teamwork. 

Hundreds of colleagues, families and friends of this year’s winners gathered at the annual ceremony at Emirates’ Group Headquarters, as HH Sheikh Ahmed presented them with the Najm Chairman’s Award trophy and a monetary gift. 

Addressing the audience, Sheikh Ahmed said: “I know that many of you have been eagerly waiting for this day. The Najm Chairman’s Awards is the highlight of the Emirates Group calendar, as we celebrate your most amazing achievements.” 

The annual Najm (Arabic for ‘star’) Chairman’s Awards recognise the outstanding achievements of Emirates staff around the world. Hundreds of Emirates Group employees are nominated for the coveted award and after a rigorous selection process the winning candidates are named. 

He continued: “We saw major growth in 2014 across the business. We won many industry awards. And we welcomed over 9,500 new colleagues into the Emirates Group family. These success stories created headlines around the world. But today’s achievements come from people who have worked quietly behind the scenes.  They have shown commitment, courage and the will to succeed. It gives me great pleasure to award them in the presence of their family, friends and all of you here today.” 

This year, the Najm Chairman’s Award winners stories ranged from saving lives to forfeiting personal time to help passengers in distress,  working in challenging and dangerous environments, to professionalism in highly pressurised and difficult situations. 

Najm Chairman’s award winner  Hanane Senhaji literally went the extra mile when she travelled a staggering 1,053 extra miles to help a customer complete her Hajj journey. When an elderly lady from the Philippines was travelling to Jeddah to start her Hajj pilgrimage, she fell ill on board and had to stay in Dubai. When the woman’s health improved, she wanted to complete her pilgrimage but was not allowed to travel alone. Hanan travelled with the woman to Jeddah, so that this elderly customer could be reunited with her son and complete her pilgrimage.

 

Villajos Gary Almoite and Herald Mendoza Mateo, both coordinators for dnata in Singapore, saved the day when an incoming aircraft missed its assigned spot due to low visibility. Gary jumped from the belt loader in front of the aircraft and crossed his hands to indicate that the aircraft had  to stop. Herald worked in tandem to raise the air-bridge to stop an imminent collision with the aircraft