Our final recap of this year's Global Awards covers our Office Member of the Year and takes us to the ceremony itself, complete with a multi-course dinner at one of Kyoto’s most scenic restaurants.
Office Member of the Year
In many ways, our presenters and coaches are the face of Elevate, showcasing what we do in schools and coaching sessions across the globe. But just as vital to our business as our customer-facing team members, is our office-based colleagues. From Sydney to London, New York to Cape Town, the office and services teams work tirelessly to support our presenters and coaches and help the business to grow, evolve and run smoothly.
Our 2023 Global Office Members of the Year Nominees
Due to the nature of this award, this category included nominees from all over the business in a range of departments. Whilst their roles might all be completely different, each and every one of our winners showcase Elevate’s values day in, day out, by doing what they can to drive growth in the business and those around them.
Jess Soulsby
UK Team
Jess is ‘unbelievably supportive, caring and kind’, ‘brings amazing energy every day’, and ‘knows the answer to absolutely any question’ – no pressure there, Jess!
André Breytenbach
South African Team
André ‘has a natural ability to lead’ and ‘is one of the best humans anyone could ask for’
Alex Gall
Australian Team
an ‘absolute rock’, source of constant support – and reliable leftovers-eater
Emilie Hall
US Team
Emilie ‘has such a warm, inviting personality’, ‘her commitment is inspiring’, and she does everything ‘with such kindness and openness’
Our 2023 Global Office Member of the Year
Alex Gall
Australian Team
‘The Global Awards in Kyoto was the greatest representation of what makes Elevate such a great company - ambitious, creative, and talented people from all over the globe who genuinely care about students achieving their goals! It was an honour to win Global Office Member of 2023, but the real award (corny I know) was getting to spend 3 days with new-found mates. It reminded me of being a newbie presenter back in 2021 in Victoria, where everyone I met was so lovely and welcoming and are now some of my closest mates. The people and the values are what make Elevate truly one of the greatest companies to work for and this trip was a testament to that.’
You can hear everything the team had to say about the nominees here.
Now, onto the main event!
The 2023 Global Awards Ceremony
After an amazing 3 days, the Kyoto trip was sadly drawing to a close, but there was one final highlight for the team: The Global Awards Ceremony, held at The Thousand Kyoto Hotel Garden Terrace.
The ceremony kicked off with a presentation from each of the attending General Managers, covering their time at Elevate so far - where they’d started, where they’d been along the way and how they’d arrived at their current role. Adam Diprose, GM of South Africa, recounted how he began his time at Elevate by starting up the UK arm of the business before moving overseas. Lina El Rakhawy, our Australian GM, joined as a presenter and eventually made the move to Sydney to join the Aus office. And Charlie Rush, GM in the UK, reflected on how she’d never presented a day in her life!
Our CEO and Founder, Douglas Barton, followed up with a business update, sharing some exciting updates and developments on what is happening at Elevate globally.
After the introductory presentations, it was onto the awards themselves, where our fantastic – and well deserving - Global Winners were announced.
From there, it was then time for a celebratory set-menu dinner at Tsuruse, an incredible river-side restaurant serving world-class kaiseki cuisine made with seasonal ingredients.
Naturally, after dinner, the team headed straight for a karaoke bar, where Douglas performed his inspired rendition of a 1950s karaoke classic. If think you know what his song of choice might have been, comment your answer at the end of the blog!
And that concludes our Global Awards recap series!
Thank you all for joining us, and congrats once again to all our winners and nominees – your amazing hard work and contributions over the last 12 months are very much appreciated!
This is most definitely Sinatra!