MACAU (UCAN): A Jesuit think tank has constituted an award, recognising good business practices of small and medium enterprises [SMEs] in Macau and Hong Kong, in honour of prominent Irish Jesuit Father Alfred Joseph Deignan.
The Deignan Award for Responsible Entrepreneurship is a collaboration between the Macau-based Ricci Institute and Woofoo Foundation of Hong Kong. The award will be given to SMEs from next year for good environmental, social, management and governance practices.
Macau’s Portuguese-language Catholic weekly, Jornal O-Clarim, reported on April 22 that a committee comprised of an expert panel would choose enterprises based on compliance, corporate governance, social responsibility and business ethics.
“The prize obviously presupposes that the candidates must be diligent and act in accordance with public policies,” Father Stephan Rothlin, the director of the Ricci Institute, said.
Father Rothlin said that a key point is the ability to demonstrate that ethics and law are elevated to the status of key factors in business practices and are implemented at all levels in the company.
He said the award celebrates the great missionary life of Father Deignan, who served as a missionary in China for about 65 years until his death in Hong Kong in 2018 at the age of 91 [Sunday Examiner, 16 December 2018]. He was the superior of the Jesuit mission in Hong Kong from 1996 to 2002 and was also a pioneer in education and humanitarian activities tackling HIV/AIDS in the city.
Father Deignan was hailed for educating successive generations of students with a particular focus on values such as integrity, honesty, forgiveness and human dignity.
He also worked tirelessly to combat the rise of HIV/AIDS. He was a member of the Hong Kong Advisory Council on AIDS, member and vice-chairman of the Hong Kong AIDS Foundation, a member of the council of the AIDS Trust Fund, and chairperson of an expert panel for HIV-infected healthcare workers. In 1993, he received the Governor’s Commendation for Community Service Award.
“I had the opportunity to work with Father Alfred Deignan over many years on different business ethics projects and I have always felt that the example of this deeply compassionate educator, with a huge passion for sharing the key values of integrity, compassion and honesty left a significant mark in various circles of society,” Father Rothlin said.
