Damian McKinney – CEO of the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation was awarded the 2011 Executive of the Year award for his achievements with his international business consultancy firm McKinney Rogers. The presentation was made by the Stevie Awards at the 9th Annual American Business Awards SM in New York City on June 21st.

‘’We congratulate Damian on his award and we think that this kind of strong leadership is necessary for the Barbados Entrepreneurship Foundation to execute their vision of making Barbados the #1 entrepreneurial hub in the world by 2020.’’ said Chris Harper, Programme Manager at the BEF.

The firm which McKinney co-founded in 1999 has become the premiere global consultancy specialising in business execution, having offices on every sub-continent. Using a unique Mission Leadership philosophy inspired by the military, in which McKinney served for 18 years, McKinney Rogers has handled many multinational companies such as Walmart, Bacardi, Barclays and HBO and continue to recruit more clientele, gaining the NFL and J.P. Morgan in the past year.

‘’I have been absolutely inspired by mission leadership, which we use on a daily basis. It means truly aligning an organisation so that everyone knows what they have to do’’ McKinney told The Sunday Times about his leadership strategies. His Mission Leadership approach is focused on delivering highly effective execution despite changing environments. It is also the mind-set encouraged to all the members of the BEF in the handling projects, especially the current 11:11:11 ON mission to make Barbados the first island in the world to have free Wi-Fi access across its territory “from bus stop to rum shop” by November 11th, 2011.

McKinney is also the founder of the MR Foundation, which supports and empowers disadvantaged young people to become future entrepreneurs throughout East Africa.

The American Business Awards, the premier business awards program in the United States, recognises the significance of both organisations and individuals in a widely diverse number of categories from marketing, human resources to advertising, websites, video and other media and more.

With over 40 categories presented including Executive of the Year, Chairman of the Year, Best New Product of the Year and Best Overall Company of the Year, The Stevie Awards received more than 2,800 applicant entries from organisations both big and small world-wide for consideration.