InterContinental Dubai Festival City’s director of procurement Stelios Damianelis bagged the Procurement Person of the Year award at the Hotelier Middle East Awards 2016.
He won thanks in part to his role as a key influencer in in the clusters bottom line, successfully negotiating multiple key contracts leading to significant cost savings.
Speaking on the night of his success, Damianelis said: “It is awesome, this is an incredible feeling and my second year being shortlisted; no one else from our properties were shortlisted in 2016.”
The nominees for this category included: Jumeirah International director of supply, chain & logistics Gaurav Malhotra, Time Hotels corporate director of materials Muhamed Shan, Hyatt Hotels Dubai director of procurement Owais Rehman and Anantara The Palm DubaiResort purchasing manager Pamela Muthukrishna.
Highly Commended in this category is Ashley Succor Francis Lobo from InterContinental Abu Dhabi.
RELATED: See all the shortlisted nominees here
Commenting on his success as a procurement director, Damianelis said: “It was quite difficult as it involved long processes, it was all about challenging the status quo of our suppliers. People tend to get into comfort zones – so to try and challenge these people, there is always going to be resistance.”
He added: “Overcoming this and bringing suppliers on board requires making them see you are improving everything, including the bottom line.”
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Judges were particularly impressed by his team’s adherence to an environmentally conscious procurement policy which supports fair trade vendors.
Damianelis commented on future ambitions to become more sustainable, saying: “Looking ahead we are trying to improve our sustainability procurement, so we set a demanding target of buying 30% of our purchases from post-consumer material, which is considered impossible, but our objective is to get as close to that target as we possibly can.”
The Procurement Person of the Year award was sponsored by Unilever and presented by managing director Zaid Maleh at the old Hollywood glamour-themed event at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC on October 26.
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