Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) Chairman and MD Nishi Vasudeva has been chosen CEO of the Year. Reliance Industries has bagged the CSR Award at the 17th annual Platts Global Energy Awards, often called the Oscars of energy. Spain’s Repsol stole the show as a triple winner — Energy Company of the Year. The Rising Star Individual” award has been given to Maria Victoria Zingoni, Repsol’s executive managing director of downstream.

Nishi Vasudeva

• Vasudeva is the first female head of a large Indian oil company, and one of only 14 women to helm a Global Fortune 500 company.
• An IIM-Kolkatta passout, she has strengthened the company’s primary distribution infrastructure, commissioning new depots and revamping facilities.
• Vasudeva exhibited strategic marketing and effective financial management skills, as well as consistent clarity of vision and sound judgment.

Reliance’s efforts, which judges called “diverse and comprehensive”, include supporting small farmers in order to bridge the gap between rural and urban India. Among other works mentioned were operating multiple medical care facilities including the area’s only private indoor facility for HIV/AIDS patients, sponsoring 14,000 corneal transplants for visually impaired, providing access to education for more than 15,000 children, creating exhibitions of Indian art, building parks, walkways and jogging paths, and even collaborating with NBA to bring the joy of basketball to more than 800,000 children.