Three women and one local corporation have earned “Women of Influence” Awards 2006 in recognition of their achievements and enlightened management.

Organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong in association with the South China Morning Post, the awards seek to recognize and honor the best that Hong Kong has produced and to provide inspiration to other women.

A judging panel of top professionals has chosen the following women for the three individual categories awards:

The CEO of Xinhua Finance Ltd., Ms Fredy Bush – Entrepreneur of the Year, who is demonstrating outstanding success in running her own business;

The founder of WE Worldwide Partners, Ms Viveca Chan – Professional of the Year, who has successfully become an influential and leading practitioner in her chosen professional field;

Managing Director, Chairman, China Equities at JPMorgan Securities, Ms Jing Ulrich – Young Achiever of the Year, who is under 40 and has achieved inspirational business success.

The Best Company for Women Award goes to FedEx Express, which has shown outstanding achievement in supporting the development of women in business and providing innovative work life programs to enable women to pursue careers.

Steve DeKrey, who has been judging the same awards for three years and heads this year’s judging panel, said he has always been impressed with the caliber of the candidates.

“This year, the competition is even stronger and we judges were forced to make difficult choices,” he said.

He said they settled on a single winner in each category through a very comprehensive review.

DeKrey said the Women of Influence Awards contest is very appropriate for Hong Kong as the leading World City in Asia.

“Our hope is that the cultures in the region who are missing out on half the world’s talent will recognize the importance of open talent searches and balanced promotion processes.

“Certainly our winners prove how important this is,” he added.

A record number of nominations to the awards were received from March to June this year.

The panel of six judges includes:

Associate Dean, Director of MBA/ EMBA/ MSc Programs, Adjunct Professor, HK University of Science & Technology & AmCham Vice President

South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd./ SCMP Group Ltd.

For inquiries, please contact Ms Pamela Ngai, Press Affairs Manager of AmCham, on 25306915 or This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .