The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) announced today the successful completion of its first ever Corporate Business Leadership Challenge that identifies and awards budding business talent from across industry sectors. Teams of accounting, finance and business professionals from across the GCC were invited to Dubai to participate in a competition designed to test their business management, financial management and financial accounting acumen. The challenge was supported by COTY, Dubai Duty Free and Jumeirah Group Restaurants as key sponsors.

Ten teams comprising of 20 professionals competed in the finals of the challenge, after having qualified through a two-month intensive course on technical and business knowledge. The finalists represented reputed organisations including Unilever, Royal Dutch Shell, Mace Group, Arabian Power Company and GlaxoSmithKline among others. The qualifying course covered topics such as project and relationship management, advanced management accounting and advanced financial reporting.

For the competition, each team presented their response to a business case study and were evaluated by a high power panel of judges. The judges included Rajiv Ramani, Controller - Middle East & Africa, COTY; R.K. Ananthan, Vice President – Finance, Dubai Duty Free; Deepa (Aidasani) Tekchandani, Director of Finance at Jumeirah Restaurant Group; James Tobias Durkan, SVP and Controller – Asia, Middle East and North Africa (AMENA) Sector PepsiCo; Lakshit Mittal, Finance Director, Seafood International; Vimbai Hungwe Mhlanga, Finance Director, SchoolApply AG; and Kamlesh Manek, Head of Finance, DLA Piper Middle East LLP.

The winners were Meka Nwabuko and Gokhan Tekiner from Royal Dutch Shell and the first runner-up team were Ryan Restell from Mace Group and Laveena Hotchandani from GlaxoSmithKline.  

All 20 candidates that qualified for the finals will take the CIMA Management Case Study exam this month and on passing the test, will be awarded with the globally accredited CIMA Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting and global designation CIMA Adv. Dip MA.

Presenting the award to the winning teams, Geetu Ahuja, Associate Director for Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan of CIMA, said: “We are pleased to announce the winners of the CIMA Corporate Business Leadership Challenge. This new type of competition, combining interactive learning, teamwork, vocational study, and a senior directorate employer led live-judged presentation has proven to be the best way to identify all-round business acumen and fortitude needed to drive regional companies forward. We look forward to the next phase in the growth of these regional business leaders.”

The CIMA Corporate Business Leadership Challenge forms part of the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) qualification. Entrants are encouraged to continue with the course and become a chartered qualified management accountant.

© Press Release 2017