Aishwarya Dhall named Young Professional of the Year

Although this marked the fourth year in a row that the Young Professional of the Year Award has been organized, it was the first time that all of Capgemini Nederland took part in the competition. This fact was also clearly reflected in the record number of applications received this year. A whopping 87 young professionals were nominated by their manager or colleagues.

Out of all the applicants, 24 young professionals submitted a motivation statement. After all, only those who expressed their motivation could truly have a chance at taking home the €10,000 grand prize. Based on these motivation statements, the ten-member jury eventually narrowed the field down to eight candidates. In making its decision, the jury examined each candidate’s development over the past year as well as their contribution to projects and any additional efforts beyond their normal work activities. Quite a big task, as you can imagine.

This year Aishwarya Dhall, Erdem Tekin, Guillaume Boog, Jannes de Haan, Jelle Scholtens, Mazin Inaad, Menno Bruijn and Tim van Galien were chosen as the “lucky eight” who would battle it out during the pitch round. Under the watchful eye of the audience, each of the competitors had five minutes to convince the jury of why they deserved to be the winner. After much deliberation by the jury, only three of them made it through to the final.

During the question round, the three remaining finalists – Aishwarya, Mazin and Tim – had one more chance to shine. Only this time it wasn’t up to the jury, but to the audience to select the winner. For a long time the vote totals were the same across the board, as was the tension among the finalists. Yet it was Aishwarya who came out ahead of all seven of her male competitors in the final and, filled with joy, collected the check for €10,000.