Kigge Hvid wins Hong Kong Design Leadership Award

In a gala award ceremony in Hong Kong on Friday evening, Kigge Hvid ended a year of pivotal growth for INDEX: by becoming the fifth recipient of the Hong Kong Design Centre's Design Leadership Award.

Several firsts are set in Kigge's acceptance of the signal award during Business of Design Week 2009 events in China:

• INDEX:, the Danish-based global frontrunner in applying design thinking to major world challenges, is the first non-profit organization to be honored by the Judging Panel and Board of Directors of the Hong Kong Design Centre.
• Kigge is the first woman recipient of the award, which singles out world business leaders "who have successfully combined strong corporate leadership and design excellence into a single concept."
• Kigge is the first European to win the Design Leadership Award, which is organized by the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government along with the Design Centre.

In accepting the award Friday night in Hong Kong, Kigge said, "I am very proud and honored to receive this prestigious award on behalf of INDEX:. Over the past seven years, the relatively small and very flexible INDEX: team has worked hard to put an international focus on the necessity to unfold the potential of design to improve people's lives substantially - reflecting Denmark's brand as the natural cradle of such a responsible approach."

In naming Kigge, Hong Kong Design Center Board Chairman Victor Lo said, "I cannot think of a better role model among international business leaders who understand design and support design so strongly and with such rigor as yourself."

The prestigious award was inaugurated in 2004 and is not necessarily given each year. It is conferred only when the Judging Panel - a blue-ribbon group of design professionals, design promoters and design academics from many parts of the world - determines that it has a candidate worthy of nomination and endorsement.

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