Trimega CEO wins 2010 Business Leader Award
Trimega Laboratories CEO, Avi Lasarow, has won the the 2010 Business Leader of the Year award at the inaugural SA Business Awards in London. Run by the SA Business Club, the awards seek to celebrate and reward South Africans doing business in the UK who, in the words of SA Business Club director, Mary-Anne Anderson "...are accomplishing remarkable things."
The SA Business Club put out a public appeal for nominations for the awards in November, with the only criteria for candidates being that they had to be South Africans currently doing business in the UK.
International cross-border presence
Lasarow, who commutes between the UK and South Africa, is founder and chief executive of Trimega Labs, a multinational and gold standard DNA and substance abuse testing company. It is headquartered in Manchester, with facilities in South Africa, the US and Germany.
Anderson continues: "Too often we've found that excellence within the South African business community in the UK goes completely unseen and unrecognised."
There were only three categories: Entrepreneur of the Year, Innovator of the year and the main award - Business Leader of the Year.
Lasarow impressed the judges with his success story of commercialising Hair Alcohol Tests and dominating the UK market in substance abuse testing, having only established Trimega Labsin 2005. Other noticeable achievements this year include having been shortlisted for the National Business Awards for the third consecutive year and launching the company's Disaster DNA service, which enabled Trimega Labs to coordinate DNA analysis on the remains of passengers who died when Afriqiyah Airways Flight771 from Johannesburg crashed in Tripoli.
Contributing to global economy
Lasarow commented: "Increasingly since the recent SA presidential visit to the UK, there has been a stronger emphasis on creating a bilateral working relationship between the two countries. By increasing trade, this initiative is bringing together South Africans with friends of South Africa and making a significant contribution to the global economy. It's a fascinating insight to be growing a business in the UK and also back home where we have an excellent maturing democracy with a leadership that has a clear vision to give everybody a brighter future."
