Daina Chen CIG boss, emerges Nigeria 2021 Auto CEO
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Paul Ogbuokiri
Chief Diana Chen, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Choice International Group (CIG), Chief Diana Chen, has been named as Nigeria’s Auto CEO of the Year.
This was announced during the 2021 edition of the annual Nigeria Auto Awards held in Lagos.
The Nigerian Auto Journalists Association gave the verdict at the ceremony, where Chief Ade Ojo, founder of Elizade Nigeria Limited fondly called Mr. Toyota, was honoured as Pillar of the nation’s auto industry.
Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, and Jelani Aliyu, Director General of the National Automotive Design and Development Council, were also named as Road Safety Personality of the Decade and Auto Personality of the Year (Public Sector) respectively.
Jacky Hathiramani, who is the chief executive officer of Dana Group, emerged as Auto Personality of the Year (Private Sector).
The CIG boss, whose firm represents the GAC auto brand in Nigeria, was given the CEO of the year award as a result of her continuous efforts in pushing the brand among the enterprising young people, lawmakers and senior government officials, raising the standard and image of Chinese products in Nigeria, according to the organisers of the event.
She was also praised for sponsoring a number of sporting and socio-cultural events as well as encouraging celebrities including young artistes to drive and identify with her brand.
Chen, while responding to the award, said she was excited and felt challenged to do more in the coming years.
She urged other major players in the industry, especially the CEOs, to come together and forge a formidable force that could move the sector forward.
“It’s when we come together that we can brilliantly generate ideas on how to improve the industry,” she stated.
Chen, who invited all the CEOs present at the award night to the podium, stressed that the auto industry holds so much power in transforming the national economy if given the right impetus.
She commended the organisers of the award for giving the industry stakeholders a platform to interact every year and promised to sponsor the 2022 edition so that it could be bigger and enable all CEOs in the industry and policymakers to attend.