Last month Emory presented awards to two individuals for their significant contributions to globalization. On April 27, Thomas Remington, professor and chair of political science, received the Marion V. Creekmore Award for Internationalization; on April 30, the Sheth Distinguished International Alumni Award was presented to Hamish Taylor (’84MBA), CEO of Vision UK.

Established through a gift from Marianne and Claus Halle, the Creekmore Award is given each year to a member of Emory’s faculty or staff who excels in advancing the University’s commitment to internationalization. Remington, an expert on the development of representative institutions in post-communist Russia, has been a leading voice for internationalization and scholarship with an international focus since his arrival at Emory in 1978.

He was founding director of Emory’s program in Russian and East European studies and contributed foundational guidance and formative ideas to the Halle Institute for Global Learning. As Halle Distinguished Professor from 1997–2002, he organized yearly seminars focused on international topics, involving more than 40 Emory faculty participants and scholars from other institutions.

Remington led three Halle Research Seminar delegations to international conferences in Ghent and Brussels (Belgium), Budapest (Hungary) and Istanbul (Turkey), and has organized other international conferences on the Emory campus.

Remington was selected from a 26-member pool of impressive individuals from across the University. The five-member selection committee, chaired by Holli Semetko, vice provost for international affairs and director of the Halle Institute, included Harriet King, senior vice provost for academic affairs; Tom Arthur, dean of the School of Law; and three previous award recipients: professors Ken Stein and Kenneth Walker and former Halle director Marion Creekmore, for whom the award is named.

Taylor, recipient of the 2004 Sheth Award, directs the United Kingdom arm of Vision, an innovative technology and business-design company with major clients around the world, including Time Warner, General Motors and Citibank.

Now in its third year, the Sheth Award was established by a gift from Mahdu and Jagdish Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in Goizueta Business School. The award seeks to recognize Emory’s international alumni who have distinguished themselves in service to universities, governments, private firms or nongovernmental organizations.

Taylor thanked the Sheths for establishing the award and for “building the profile of Emory within the international community,” and also commented that “there is a big population of international alumni, and I know they share my enthusiasm for Emory.
If we can tap into them, we really can build the reputation of this University in places where it’s not so well known.”

Before joining Vision in 2002, Taylor spent two years as CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank. From 1997–99, he served as managing director of Eurostar (UK) Ltd. and later as CEO of the Eurostar Group, the organization that oversees Eurostar’s business in the UK, France and Belgium. From 1993–97, he was head of brand management at British Airways with responsibility for the airline’s passenger brands, including the Concorde. In addition to his Goizueta MBA, he holds a master’s degree in economics with honors from St. Andrew’s University in Scotland, where he was a recipient of one of the prestigious Bobby Jones scholarships.

The six-member selection committee for the 2004 Sheth Award, also chaired by Semetko, included President Jim Wagner; Eugene Bianchi, director of the Emeritus College; Kent Linville, dean of academic affairs at Oxford College; Bob Pennington, vice president of alumni affairs and special programs; Jonas Shulman, executive associate dean of medicine; and Thomas Aaberg, professor and chair of ophthalmology.