Business Achievement Award Recipients - 2020

The Business Achievement Award honors individuals for significant achievement in business through the traditional corporate route. The achievement may be demonstrated over a career or by a singular achievement that has advanced the field of business and contributed to a community and to humankind.

Help us congratulate this year's recipients:

Ibukun Awosika

Founder & CEO, The Chair Centre Group

Nominated by Lagos Business School

Ibukun Awosika is an award-winning entrepreneur and chairman of First Bank of Nigeria Limited. She is also the founder and CEO of The Chair Centre Group, which includes companies involved in manufacturing, retail and bankway security systems services.

Awosika chairs a number of corporate and not-for-profit boards, including The Convention on Business Integrity, House of Tara International and Afterschool Graduate Development Centre. She sits on the boards of Cadbury Nigeria Plc., Imperial Gate School and Peniel Apartments Limited.

Awosika holds a chemistry degree from University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in Nigeria and is an alumna of the Chief Executive program at Lagos Business School; the Global Executive MBA program at IESE Business School; and Global CEO programs at Wharton, IESE and China European International Business School.

Awosika is a co-founder and past chairman of Women in Business, Management and Public Service. In 2008, was awarded the prestigious International Women's Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) Award; in 2019, she was appointed to serve the IWEC as its president. She is also an ordained pastor and the founder of the Christian Missionary Fund.

As a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, Aspen Global Leadership Network, Institute of Directors and Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria, Awosika aspires to raise entrepreneurs to create jobs for Nigeria’s unemployed youth. She is a member of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, served on the National Job Creation Committee, and sits on the international advisory board of IESE Business School and the governing council of Pan-Atlantic University.

Jennifer Morgan

Co-CEO, SAP
Nominated by James Madison University

Jennifer Morgan is co-chief executive officer of SAP, the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software with nearly 100,000 employees and more than 437,000 customers across the globe. Before being named Co-CEO of SAP, Morgan served as president of SAP’s Cloud Business Group, where she was responsible for the company’s cloud lines of business and spearheaded SAP’s aggressive shift to the cloud.

In 2017, Morgan became the first American woman ever appointed to the SAP Executive Board when she was named president of the Americas and Asia Pacific Japan. As president of SAP North America from 2014 to 2017, she helped build a culture that earned SAP North America its first ever listing on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.”

Morgan is the first female CEO in SAP history and the first woman to serve as CEO of a company on the German DAX 30 index. She has been named multiple times as one of Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women in Business and by Forbes as one of the Most Powerful Women in the World. She is a proud graduate of the James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and serves on the college of business’ board of advisors.

Peter Simons

President and CEO, La Maison Simons

Nominated by Concordia University 

Peter Simons is the president and CEO of La Maison Simons. Mr. Simons began working at La Maison Simons in 1986, and he was the fifth generation to lead the family business in 1996.

Under Simons’ leadership, La Maison Simons experienced unprecedented commercial growth and territorial expansion—moving from one store in Quebec City to 15 throughout Canada (admired for their award-winning interiors and architectural designs). The company has more than 2,500 skilled employees, over 50 buyers, an ultramodern distribution center for the merchandise equipped with cutting-edge technology and an e-commerce center that is constantly pushing to innovate.

Since Simons first started working at La Maison Simons in the 80s, the company went from $12 million in annual revenue to more than $400 million, all while championing good working conditions. Mr. Simons is a strong vocal advocate for fair fiscal and social practices.

Simons was recognized as a Knight of the National Order of Quebec and the Order of Mecenas of Quebec City in 2008. In 2018, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada by Governor General Julie Payette, and Personality of the Year by the French language newspaper La Presse. In 2019, he was presented with an honorary doctorate from Concordia University in Montreal for his leadership in the highly competitive retail world.