More than 500 auto, equipment and asset finance professionals attended the largest asset finance awards to celebrate the many success stories in the industry, particularly during such volatile and challenging times.
Focusing on People, Planet and Profit, this year’s Asset Finance Connect awards were designed to showcase the very best in our industry, acknowledging those organisations, teams and individuals who have committed to making a real change, as well as highlighting excellence among the industry’s emerging talent and tomorrow’s leaders.
A total of 49 awards in 21 categories were presented during the course of the evening, and the STAR Group were shortlisted in three major ones, Equipment finance provider of the year, best auto or equipment finance organisation to work for, and Broker of the Year.
The evening culminated in the presentation of three prestigious awards: Rising Star, CEO of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Award, for which we were finalists in the first two, celebrating Jasmine Buller as our ‘Rising Star’ who has shone in her new role as Junior project manager. Jasmine has had huge input into the implementation of Leasepath, our new CRM facility, and on internal target operating model changes. Even though Jasmine didn’t win the award, we congratulate her for being such a driver for positive change and business transformation and continues to be a role model for others. Our CEO Jim Higginbotham also narrowly missed out on CEO of the Year.
The win of the evening was down to the group’s Director of group compliance, Sarah Cunningham, who has demonstrated repeatedly her commitment to ethical and legal standards with the implementation of effective systems, procedures, and controls.
Paul Slapa, Group Commercial Director for STAR said “It’s easy to look at compliance as the enemy in a business like ours. Compliance ultimately is the checkpoint on what is right and wrong, and in an entrepreneurial environment, that can create conflict and challenge
We are therefore VERY lucky to have an awesome compliance leader in Sarah Cunningham, and I’m over the moon to see her win this award. Sarah not only works relentlessly to get our ‘house’ in order, but also finds a way to enable our sales teams whenever possible.
No one in this industry is more deserving, so, well done Sarah, on behalf of all of us at STAR Asset Finance”.
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