Tuesday 20th June 2017, Cyril Camus, President of the Cognac House of the same name founded by his great-great- grandfather in 1863, was voted Top Family Business Leader at the 6th European Families in Business Awards organized by Campden FB in association with Société Générale Private Banking.
The awards ceremony was held at the end of a gala dinner for 100 guests that concluded the first of a two-day conference attended by Europe’s most prestigious family owned enterprises. Set in the magnificent 16th-century Lobkowicz Palace, in Prague, Czech Republic, the 31 finalists were chosen from a shortlist of 200 nominees. Nicholas Moody, editor of Campden FB, was a member of the jury of family business experts. He indicated that the standard was “extremely high”, making the job of the judges “a very difficult one”.
Invited back by Campden FB as a speaker at the Conference, Cyril Camus was surprised and very moved to receive this award. He stated that being a family business is an inheritance, and means putting “social impact before purely financial growth”. He added that his personal satisfaction as President since 2003 of the CAMUS Company which employs some 300 staff all over the world, lies in knowing that the Company is “better off through my actions”.
This new distinction comes just a few months after the 154-year-old Company received the Living Heritage Enterprise label and Cyril Camus was received into the French National Order of the Legion of Honor.
Other European Families in Business Awards winners included: Top Next-Generation Entrepreneur, Galahad Clark of VivoBarefoot, UK; Top Non-Family Director, Michaela Doll-Lämmer of Europa-Parks, Germany; and Top Family Business, Elisabetta Fabri of Starhotels, Italy.