After a day spent discussing strategies for the years to come, representatives of more than 70 finance houses, law firms, trade bodies and service providers gathered in Berlin’s Concorde Hotel to celebrate the leasing industry’s achievements in 2009.
This year’s Leasing Life awards, held on 10 December, set out to recognise companies and individuals that had excelled in a year of unprecedented difficulty, as judged by a panel of leasing experts, academics and consultants from around Europe.
UniCredit Leasing won the title of ‘European Lessor of the Year’ for the efficiency with which it had undertaken a year of change, while Deutsche Leasing was awarded ‘German Lessor of the Year’ for its stability and its contributions to German industry.
Amstel Lease was named ‘SME Champion of the Year’ after a year of standard-setting performance in customer relations, while IBM Global Financing won ‘Captive Finance Provider of the Year’ for its dynamic support of IBM.
The ‘European Vendor Partnership of the Year’ award was picked up by De Lage Landen after another year at the head of the vendor finance field, and law firm Shoosmiths took home ‘UK Law Firm Asset Finance Provider of the Year’ after an extremely busy 2009.
Personally recognised were Luca Lorenzi, managing director of UniCredit Leasing, and Leaseplan CEO Vahid Daemi, as ‘European Functional Leader of the Year’ and ‘Personality of the Year’ respectively.
Karel Schellens, the former head of De Lage Landen, received a ‘Lifetime Achievement’ award for his role in developing the business culture of European leasing.
Brendan Malkin, editor of Leasing Life, commented: “It is incredible to witness the support and enthusiasm for the awards, which have grown considerably since they were launched several years ago. This year, the ceremony has taken place with the recession having hit the industry hard, and the winners were those who have responded to that both effectively and intelligently.”
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Andrew Denton, CHOP Consulting: Bill stephenson, De Lage Landen |
Hans- Michael Heitmueller |
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| Karel Schellens, De Lage Landen | Joanne Davis, Shoosmiths |
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| Geoff Healey, GE Capital | Jens Hagen, Luca Lorenzi and Giuseppe del Gesso of UniCredit Leasing with Lesing Life’s Antonio Fabrizio |
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| John Howland-Jackson, ING Lease with Stefan Lechner and Frederik Linthout of UniCredit Leasing | The Amstel Lease team |
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| Making her point: Sonia Jordan of Salans | Vahid Daemi and the LeasePlan team |
