Together TT Club and FIATA celebrate the achievements of young freight forwarders working for logistics companies around the globe at the FIATA Annual Congress each year. As announced at the World Congress in Dublin, the winner of the 2016 Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year (YIFFY) Award representing the Asia-Pacific region was Shanon Gould from Australia.
Mike Yarwood, claims manager at TT Club, insurance provider to the international freight transport industry and sponsor of the award for the last 18 years, was on hand to announce the winner and present the award. Yarwood emphasized the achievements made by FIATA and its members to train the future freight forwarding and logistics professionals. Commenting on the outstanding quality of the work presented to the judges this year Yarwood said, “From a bewildering, yet highly professional array of entries the YIFFY Steering Committee selected a shortlist of four regional finalists. These four young professionals were then invited here to the FIATA World Congress to present their dissertations to the judges. Congratulations to all four finalists for their hard work and excellent presentations and especially, of course to our winner, Shanon.”
In addition to Shanon the regional finalists were:
- Lorraine Zhou, Zimbabwe - Africa/Middle East region
- Evgeny Kapustin, Canada - Americas region
- Kostiantyn Hapii, Ukraine – European region
The entries this year were, as ever of a high standard and drew from a wide range of dissertation topics. The work of the entrants demonstrated the complexity of processes carried out within the global supply chain and the logistics skills required to service it.
Among the diverse subjects covered by the dissertations prepared by this year's entrants are the shipping of cotton bales; the challenges of transporting tires and turbines and the solution to moving a 40-foot-tall fire breathing dinosaur robot across continents.
The TT Club sponsored award is presented in recognition of operational excellence in the logistics field and was established by FIATA with the support of TT Club to encourage the development of quality training in the industry and to reward young talent with additional valuable training opportunities and enhanced visibility. The TT Club has been a sponsor of the award since its inception and remains firmly committed to the importance of individual training and development within the global freight forwarding and logistics community, which is regarded by FIATA as a strategic important cooperation.
Speaking on behalf of TT Club, Yarwood said, “We are pleased to be continuing our sponsorship of this unique award, with the finals to be held at the FIATA Congress next October in Kuala Lumpur. Once again, we hope that the competition will prove to be successful in terms of attracting outstanding candidates from across the globe to improve even on the record entry of twenty-seven this year. Despite the high volume, the quality of the dissertations and presentations were of a consistently exceptional standard and it was clear that a lot of research, planning and hard work had gone into their preparation.”
The Advisory Body Vocational Training Chairperson, Thomas Sim, said, “I am delighted with the level shown and that this investment has been through the years the best way to ensure that FIATA of the future professionals is well mounted in our today's programs. The YIFFYA has an in-built gender balance nature which comes naturally as networking does in Dublin.”
