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Prof Abdulai wins Global Leadership Award
Prof David Abdulai, Unisa SBL’s Executive Director and CEO, was awarded the Global Strategic Leadership Award by the World HRD Congress during the recent Global HR Excellence Awards held in Mumbai, India, from 11 to 13 February 2010.
The World HRD Congress is the largest rendezvous of HR Professionals from across the world. The Congress brings several global personalities under one roof and acknowledges the best HR Professionals at the "Pride of HR Profession Award". The Congress is governed by a Global and National Advisory Council that guides the strategic intent of the event and leads it to its success.
This year’s theme was "The new HR challenge: innovative talent strategies for tough times". The focus was on the fact that the key challenge before Human Resources Professionals is shaping the future of their organisations through talent management and talent development. HR must and can play a crucial role in shaping careers and building an organisation on trust, values and a defined vision for the future.
Responsive and agile HR can make the organisation reach the top. "The award," comments Prof Abdulai, "speaks to the rural marketplace, especially with the type of work that is being done in training future leaders for the South African economy. Our institution has students from all over Africa and doctorate students from around the world. This award, received on behalf of my personnel, shows how well our programmes are being developed and implemented in Africa and beyond. It also shows that we take worldwide leadership into account."
The nomination and voting process was done through international recommendations and winners came from over 20 different countries around the world.
The keynote speaker of the event was His Excellency Jigmi Y Thinley, Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan. Notable presentations were also given during the ceremony by Prof David Ulrich of the University of Michigan and Prof Lynda Gratton of the London Business School.
The Unisa SBL has won three major awards during Prof Abdulai’s tenure: the Superbrands award where the SBL was granted prestigious status among leading global brands; the Eduniversal award for being part of the official selection of the best Business Schools internationally; and the current award. "We must be doing something right," Abdulai concludes, "and I must point out that people are seeing us differently. When joining Unisa, they are joining an institute of repute. That said, we are not going to rest on our laurels, there is so much to do and much more to be done, and we will not become complacent."
Prof Abdulai was later invited to an exclusive breakfast at the Taj Lands End hotel in Mumbai with His Excellency Jigmi Y Thinley, Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan and his delegation. During discussions, he was introduced to Mr Karma Yeshey, the Director of the Department of Adult and Higher Education of Bhutan to look into ways of operationalising the possibility of offering executive development programmes in Bhutan. | 
