CLEWISTON, FL – U.S. Sugar held its 2007 Annual Awards ceremonies on January 22 with a celebratory luncheon hosted by the senior management team at the Clewiston Country Club. The annual awards were presented to a group of employees who have shown exemplary efforts, contributions and innovative ideas. “Our annual employee awards program honors and rewards employees for extraordinary contributions through their efforts in communication, innovation, excellence and respect,” said Ann Marie Pilling, Human Resource Manager. The highest honor, the President’s Award, was presented to Mike Irey and Pearl Mai (Technical Operations) and to Derek du Plooy (Sugar Manufacturing). This top award is presented to an employee who has demonstrated company values and a professional approach to performance excellence recognized throughout the Company. This is the first time there have been three recipients of the President’s Award.
In earning the President’s Award, these employees each received a US Sugar MasterCard valued at $2,500 and a personalized crystal statue.
A number of additional annual awards were granted focusing on teamwork, process improvement, safety, change, leadership and community service. Each of these Annual Award recipients receives a generous US Sugar MasterCard valued at between $500 and $1,000 plus a personalized crystal statue. The Excellence in Team Playing Award was earned by Jennifer Bain from IT. This award has been designed to recognize an employee who:
Bain managed the IT Help Desk and provided administrative support for IT and the SAP project as well as the agriculture department. She was responsible for transferring 125 cell phones to Nextel hybrids in a three-week period, providing excellent customer service to those involved in the switch-over. Bob Cox (IT) received the Excellence in Continuous Work Process Improvement Award. Cox developed an internal, custom-built program for the Railroad to monitor the railroad cane car fleet. This replaced a vendor-supplied program that was costly and difficult to use. The RAILS program Cox developed uses “real time” information, is extremely user friendly and saved the company nearly $200,000 in annual costs. The Excellence in Continuous Work Process Improvement Award recognizes an employee whose actions and ideas have resulted in significant cost savings for US Sugar by:
The Excellence in Safety Award was presented to Steve Mammen (Sugar Manufacturing) and Maureen Cheston (Southern Gardens Citrus) which recognizes an employee or team who have demonstrated outstanding efforts to prevent accidents, injuries and damage to property. Mammen was recognized for his efforts in upgrading the fire protection system at the Clewiston Sugar Manufacturing facilities. Mammen took over maintenance responsibility for the system in July 2006 and systematically worked through the entire system, repairing and replacing equipment as needed. He implemented an intensive inspection program to monitor and perform needed repairs. Mainly as a result of the work he carried out, FM Global presented Sugar Manufacturing with their prestigious “Highly Protected Risk” award for the facility’s achievement and ongoing commitment to property loss prevention. Cheston developed and implemented safety training for citrus processing plant employees and revitalized the Southern Gardens Emergency Response Team by merging the First Responder and HazMat teams into one highly functional team for all purposes. She also developed additional training modules in both English and Spanish and delivered this training to more than 150 employees during the 2006-07 season. The Excellence in Change Award was presented to the Sugarcane Operations Reliability Team for their efforts in the process design phase of the Reliability Excellence initiative. This included analysis of current processes utilized, review of best practice or benchmark processes, and design of new processes to be implemented in Sugarcane Operations. Members of the team receiving this award: Heather Banky, Nick Bain, Paul Boese, A.D. Coley, Ron DeStefano, David Edmonds, Jesus “Joe” Hernandez, Scott Manning, Tony Navarrete, Marion “Sparky” Sparks, Trinidad Reyes, Ruben Rifa and Mike Walker. The Excellence in Change Award recognizes an employee or team who provides outstanding leadership, motivation and organizational skills to the development of a process or project that results in significant change throughout the company:
Ping Sun (Southern Gardens) was presented the Excellence in Leadership Award which recognizes an employee who:
Sun implemented the USDA QAD program at Southern Gardens and improved the processing plant’s Juice HACCP processes and procedures that resulted in a successful FDA audit conducted in November. He also leads the Quality Core Team and motivates it members to meet their goals and build their personal capabilities. The Excellence in Community Service Award was presented Bert Collins (Southern Gardens Citrus Processing). This award was designed to recognize an employee or team who have made a significant contribution to the community through volunteering their time to worthy causes. Collins was Team Captain for Southern Gardens’ two American Cancer Society “Relay for Life” teams. Although he lives in Palm Beach County, Collins team efforts benefit the residents of Hendry and Glades counties. He devoted personal time and effort to accomplish the team’s goals. Collins did so with honesty, integrity and enthusiasm. This year, a Special Recognition Award was presented to Bobby Shearer and Andy Esposito. This new award recognizes an employee or employees for valuable contributions which may not have been recognized by the formal nomination process. The contributions must be significant enough to warrant this recognition. Shearer and Esposito made great strides in reducing injuries and accidents and increased safety awareness by leaps and bounds. Their hard work and perseverance led to a dramatic decrease in the number of work-related injuries and accidents throughout the operations. “We are extremely proud to have many employees who are making contributions, but these recognized here are the best of the best this year. The individual excellence and teamwork displayed in earning these awards have improved our operations and made U.S. Sugar a stronger company and a better place to work,” said Robert H. Buker, Jr., President and CEO. ###
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Mike Irey and Pearl Mai received the award in recognition of their efforts in establishing the laboratory analytical program and conducting testing for citrus greening disease, both internally for Southern Gardens Citrus and externally for independent growers’ samples. In its first full year of operations, the lab processed 33,628 samples. To put this in perspective, the lab run by the state ran approximately 8000 tests over a two-year period with a larger staff. Both Southern Gardens and the citrus industry at large have benefited from these efforts.
The other Presidents Award recipient was Derek Du Plooy who was honored for his work in establishing and managing the engineering team responsible for the 2006 and 2007 phases of the Breakthrough Project. In this effort, Du Plooy welded together a disparate group of engineering professionals and led them to successfully engineer the majority of the new Clewiston facility. His strategic planning efforts enabled the new facility to start up on time and seamlessly transfer operation to the new plant. He also facilitated the Operational Excellence initiative in Sugar Manufacturing and developed a new format for annual budgeting.