Awardees include:

GOLD

Mr. Steve Killelea, Executive Chairman and Founder of Integrated Research and of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), has shifted the paradigm in how the world thinks about peace. Using data-driven research, Steve shows that peace is a positive, tangible and achievable goal. The World Bank, the United Nations and many others use IEP’s research which has helped, among other things, dispel misconceptions about religion’s role in conflict. Steve also funds a growing number of projects advancing interfaith understanding and peace.

Mr. Mark Woerde, Founder Havas Lemz and LetsHeal.org, believes he can make the world a better place through advertising. This year his team advanced interfaith understanding and peace in a global campaign featuring the world’s most prominent religious leaders – from Pope Francis to Ayatollahs, Chief Rabbis and Hindu Swamis – making a joint appeal to “Make Friends Across Religions.”

Mr. Leardo Ravaioli, CEO of lighting company Ghisamestieri, worked with Italian Rotary Clubs and faith leaders to bring sustainable sources of water, food, education, and light (through solar power) to people of all faiths in Sierra Leone after its civil war. His interfaith commitment continues as his company sponsored Italy’s first annual interfaith festival in 2017.

Mr. Bambang Ismawan founded Bina Swadaya, which through its 15 companies and training arms has helped about one million Indonesian Community Based Organizations, each with membership of 25 people or more, become self-reliant. Working across faith lines, Bambang Ismawan has built the largest network of people and organizations working to eliminate poverty, build interfaith understanding and peace in Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.

The Global Business & Peace Awards also included business leaders from South Korea who have worked to build positive ties with North Korea, selected by high level government officials:

The late CHUNG Mong-hun was a pioneer in cooperation between South and North Korea. He opened the door for business cooperation between the two Koreas through significant projects between the Hyundai Group, which he led, and North Korea. Receiving the GOLD Korean Peninsula Business and Peace Prize in his honor was his wife Mrs. HYUN Jong-en, Chairman of Hyundai Group.

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CHEH Que-bok, Chairman and President of Yuhan-Kimbery, is committed to keeping Korea green – both North and South of the DMZ. The North has especially faced deforestation, and he has set up a nursery enabling hundreds of thousands of trees to be grown and planted in North Korea. Mr. CHEH received the SILVER Korean Peninsula Business and Peace Prize.

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CHUNG Ki-sup was instrumental in setting up and making successful the Gaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea that allowed tens of thousands of North Koreans to work in factories financed and managed by South Korean firms. Mr. Chung received the SILVER Korean Peninsula Business and Peace Prize.

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GLOBAL EMPOWERMENT AWARD

Former Dell Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Ms. Ingrid Vanderveldt, has the audacious goal of by 2020 empowering a billion women from all faiths to work together to achieve more, give more and accomplish more. She believes that the relationship between women in business and this mission is sustainable and helps women leaders worldwide to pursue unity, love and peace.

March 7th/8th/9th 2018 Seoul, South Korea

The Global Business and Peace Symposium welcomed the “Olympic Truce” between Seoul and Pyongyang and the opportunity for contact across the DMZ.

The Global Business and Peace Awards were presented at a ceremony held at the Grand Hilton Hotel in Seoul. This is the second Global Business & Interfaith Peace Awards. The inaugural awards were given the day before the opening of the Rio Paralympics in 2016. The 2018 Awardees and Symposium delegates held high level meetings at the Korean National Assembly (Parliament), the Presidential Blue House, and with the Mayor of Seoul. Delegates from the conference were also welcomed by senior politicians at the Korean National Assembly, where RFBF President Brian Grim was awarded the Main Prize at the World Peace Prize Ceremony.

This pioneering peace initiative was started by RFBF and is a collaboration with the Global Compact Network Korea, the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC). The Awards began after H.E. Ban Ki-moon established the Business for Peace platform in 2013 within the UNGC, the world’s largest corporate member organization committed to the Sustainable Development Goals, which notably include SGD 16 (Peace) “Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”