This country’s biggest corporate sport event attracted over 550 guests
A record-high number of guests attended the Business Leaders Olympics, this country’s biggest corporate sport event. Over 550 managers and staff members and their families took part in BBLF’s event held this year the patronage of Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova. The Business Olympics that the Forum organised for the 12th consecutive year took place on 27 June 2015, kindly hosted by the Anglo-American School in Sofia.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone for the beautiful day! It is your generous support, unwavering sporting spirit and gusto that's made it such a success!
The event took off (more or less) on time, under a warm sun (the drizzle had just disappeared) and with a short formal opening. Mayor Fandakova thanked BBLF members for their support for the city of Sofia. She emphasised the breast cancer screening project that BBLF backed with half of the amount raised at the Annual Ball earlier this year. „The event today is quite fascinating, it is impressive to see business leaders not only support various social, cultural, sport event but also take part in them too motivating other to do the same, children in particular,” Fandakova said (video).
And while some of us heard that Youth and Sport Minister Krasen Kralev had sent in his regards, others continued to flood the courts.
BBLF Chairman Iravan Hira welcomed staff members of over 40 companies, members and friends of BBLF’s responsible business community: „It is a pleasure to have you all here today in a ties-out and sport-enthusiasm-in event. The Business Olympics celebrates our values: care for staff’s wellbeing, fair play, team spirit”.
Next came the tournaments in all 15 fields. To catch up with what followed please watch the video.
The games surely had their champions. Hewlett Packard is this year’s Mtel Football Cup champion. Dundee Precious Metals Chelopech and CEZ ranked second and third, respectively outdoing the remaining 14 corporate football teams.
CEZ players won the much sought-after AstraZeneca Basketball Cup leaving behind Hewlett-Packard and Razvitie Corporation. Popular basketball coach Titi Papazov was on the latter’s team.
A CEZ team triumphed in the CEZ Volleyball Cup. The Anglo-American School in Sofia and United Bulgarian Bank took the silver and bronze medals.
Wilson Learning Men’s Tennis Cup champion is Momchil Belchev from Mtel, and Vasilena Goranova from Penkov, Markov & Partners grabbed the Women’s Cup.
The Siemens Table Tennis Cup went to Aleksandar Galabov from United Bulgarian Bank. Spas Spasov from Shell is the Speedy Darts Cup Champion, and M3 Communications Group’ Stefani Toneva won the Walltopia Climbing Cup. Artificial wall climbing was part of the games for the third year with the kind support of Walltopia, the top global manufacturer of artificial walls.
Dundee Precious Metals Chelopech’s players were the total winners of the arm wrestling tournament. Other winners include staff members of Curtis/Balkan, United Bulgarian Bank PricewaterhouseCoopers, AbbVie, TNT and many more.
Respect to our champions! Please see a full list of winners here.
The Business Olympics was designed 12 years ago as an informal event for rest and recreation, and we try to live up to it. Some of our guests had their first salsa session under guidance from professional dancers. Popular TV host Evelina Pavlova took care of the good vibes of all. And it seemed everyone tried their fortune for some 100 raffle prizes provided pro bono by BBLF members and supporters. The super prize – a Grandstand Formula 1 ticket for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest in July, went to AstraZeneca’s Mario Iliev.
Please check out some pics from the event in the gallery below as well as on our Facebook and YouTube pages. More pics are available for download here, here and here.
The Olympics was reported on by Focus news agency, ManagerNEWS, b2bMedia.
We thank our great sponsors for helping to make the Business Leaders Olympics an extraordinary and memorable experience for all participants!
General Sponsor: Mtel
Sponsors: AbbVie, AstraZeneca, CEZ, Hewlett Packard, Siemens, Speedy, Walltopia, Wilson Learning
Partners: Armfight, Coca Cola, Danone, Dat’s Tasty, J Point, Kamenitza, Nestle, Pain D’Or, Tandem, TNT, Walltopia
Raffle prizes provided by: Actavis, Adipharm, AIMS Human Capital & Dale Carnegie Training, Allied Pickfords, Belvedere Distribution, BNP Paribas, Ecopharm, Eltrak, Hilton Hotel, Mtel, Nestle Bulgaria, Queisser Pharma, Rubaiyat, Shell Bulgaria, Swag Bag, TNT, Unique Estates, Wilson Learning Bulgaria.
