Ben Tam has been presented with two awards from the Institute of Water

Ben Tam, of Isle’s UK business has been awarded the Institute of Water ‘Continuing Professional Development’ Award and the ‘Eastern Area Committee Member of the Year’, 2018.

Professionals from across the water sector came together to celebrate a year of success and innovation.

The Institute of Water’s President’s Dinner and Awards – a formal dinner event sponsored by Morrison Utility Services and Morrison Data Services – is the most prestigious social event of the year for its members and partners. Held on the 21st June, nine awards were handed out to individuals and organisations, who have demonstrated excellence in development, outstanding performance and innovation.

This year the Dinner was hosted by newly-elected President, Douglas Millican, Chief Executive of Scottish Water, and set within the splendour of Glasgow City Chambers.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is one of the components of a successful career and our Corporate Members have given an undertaking to maintain their competence throughout their career. Each year the IoW ask a sample of those members for evidence of their CPD and the best submissions are considered for our Annual CPD Award which is also open to members of any professional body to enter.

The winner of this award was Ben Tam. Not content to end things there though, a few months later Ben was given further recognition by the IoW as Eastern Area Committee Member of the Year, 2018. The IoW wrote:

The Institute would like to express our sincere gratitude to Isle Utilities for supporting Ben in his role on the Eastern Area Committee. Ben has dedicated a lot of hard work and time to the Committee and in turn the Institute of Water and the impact he has made is clear to see from the nominations he received from his fellow committee members. We have included a copy of Ben’s nominations below.

Ben has been an outstanding committee member, from ‘rising star’, though out Anglian Water and now Isle Utilities, he continues to make an outstanding contribution to the Institute of Water.

With a move to an international facing role within Isle Utilities, Ben has continued to put his IoW commitments as a priority, he approaches all IoW Chair duties with a clean and unbiased approach. Able to facilitate discussion, he can evaluate and bring an outcome with the full backing of the Committee.

Ben has been instrumental in facilitation of the Eastern Area event calendar and ensures an equal burden of actions across the committee, giving appropriate recognition for contributions.

Acting as a role model, Ben attends the majority of organised events, promoting the benefits of membership to non-members. He is equally as happy addressing an audience to help extend numbers.

Ensuring local funding is appropriated in the most cost effective way, he is not averse to trying new things but ensures arguments to get the best ‘band for buck’ is achieved – from promotional merchandise, IoW stand, though to combining events with sponsors in order to minimise financial impact.

Ben is able to communicate with people from all levels, engaging senior management within stakeholder companies, as well as ensuring there are activities which promote the IoW values of inclusivity.

Ben recently stepped down at our AGM as Chairman of the Eastern Area Committee having been the Chairman for nearly 4 years. During that time he has led the Committee really well ensuring that we continue to put on strong events and grow our membership. In particular he was one of the team who have been instrumental in getting our Dragon Den’s Innovation event up and running and we have now a format that really works in the Eastern area and is our annual show case event. He was first involved whilst working in the Innovation team at Anglian Water bringing his expertise and contacts into the team. He was also our Chairman when last year (2017) we won the President’s cup for most new members, supporting the committee and me personally as the membership secretary, on ideas for new membership.

Ben is now a member of the management team at Isle Utilities and although his new role takes him all round the world he has continued to commit to the Chairman role including interviewing perspective rising stars and working with our President’s as well as keeping the committee on track. He is also a pleasure to work with and really understands and is enthusiastic about the benefits of being a member of the Institute of Water which he shares with all he meets. I hope you will consider him for this award.

Without the support and hard work of our Area Committees the Institute of Water simply wouldn’t be possible, they are a vital part of the operation and Ben is a great ambassador for your company.

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