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2009 Sponsor of the Year, Diageo

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On the afternoon of Saturday 23 January 2010, in front of a packed Old Trafford crowd there to witness the Manchester United FC vs. Hull City AFC English Premier League game, the identity of the third annual Robert Burns International Foundation Sponsor of the Year was revealed: Diageo Hungary Ltd.

Attila Erdei presenting a gift to Sir Alex Ferguson

The award is officially called the Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Sponsor of the Year Trophy. It features a football crafted from copper, made by a Scottish artist and presented to Erzsébet Puskás in honour of her late husband, the legendary Hungarian footballer, and was handed over to Attila Erdei, the Commercial Manager for Diageo in Hungary and Croatia, by Sir Alex, the Honorary President of the RBIF.

Diageo, headquartered in Budapest on Soroksári út, has been involved with the Burns Supper for more than a decade. Supper Chairman Stuart McAlister explained what it was that made the drinks firm such champion sponsors, worthy of recognition in Manchester United’s Theatre of Dreams stadium.

“Diageo typically provides 70 bottles of Johnny Walker whisky for the Burns Supper, as well as two bottles of malt whisky for the auction/raffle. The company also provides a whisky tasting promotion every year, with the help of Csaba Gulyás, the ‘Whisky Ambassador’. Finally, Johnny Walker himself is always present at the Burns Supper so he can be a part of the presentation and the addressing of the haggis.”

The 42-year-old Attila Erdei, married with two daughters (aged 19 and 11) has worked for Diageo for almost two years. He said the decision to sponsor the event had been an easy one to take, the reasoning behind it straightforward.

“The goal of the Burns Supper [to raise funds for sick Hungarian children] is a great thing, and it is one of the few charity events we have supported over a long period of time,” he explained. But had the recent – and ongoing – global recession forced Diageo Hungary to scale back its sponsorship? “No, it is not a question,” Erdei insisted. “We will continue this sponsorship in the future as well.”

That’s good news for patrons of the supper, and, indeed, the organising committee that McAlister leads. Above all, though, it is good news for the children the supper supports.

By Robin Marshall

2008 Sponsor of the Year, Starwood Hotels

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If you want a perfect example of the international scope and reach of the Budapest Burns Supper and the Robert Burns International Foundation, look no further than this year’s winner of the Sponsor of the Year award: Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

The group, whose brands include Sheraton, Westin, and W Hotels, among others, is represented in Budapest by Le Méridien, whose GM, Adrian Gray, is deeply involved both in the supper and the RBIF. Significantly, however, the award is going to Starwood, and not just the local hotel, because of a truly international fundraising campaign.

“In 2007, there was a Starwood conference here in Budapest, and a large number of delegates came from all over Europe,” explains Gray. The conference programme included an element of Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR), and the delegates spent some time at the Semmelweis hospital (which has always had close links with the Budapest Burns’ Supper), painting furniture and walls, and breaking ground and laying mulch for a park area in 42°C heat. But that proved to be only a beginning.

“Due to the reorganisation of the hospital system by the state, Semmelweis had taken on an oncology department, which needed complete redevelopment, and it had run out of money,” says Gray. “The shortfall amounted to EUR 20,000, and the delegates took it on themselves to go back and raise the money. Hotels from Europe, Africa and the Middle East were involved in individual fund raising projects, and eventually raised EUR 23,000. The oncology department is now operational.”

Gray himself was instrumental in helping reorganise the Burns’ Supper committee, and sits on the RBIF’s Curatorium. His hotel organises St Andrew’s and St Patrick’s balls, as well as the annual Budapest Waiters’ Race, all of which generate funds for the RBIF (the 2008 Waiters’ Race raised HUF 52,500, around EUR 200).

He gets involved with the events, which he is keen to stress are, by now, as much Hungarian- as they are expat-orientated, partly because he is a good Scot. (Interestingly, that was also one of the reasons Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of Manchester United Football Club, gave for agreeing to become the RBIF’s Honorary President in January 2007.) But there are wider, deeper issues too.

“I think all the hotels here are quite heavily involved in the life of Budapest. This is a way of giving something back to some of those who wouldn’t necessarily be involved at the five-star hotel level. When we first started doing this, we were in a country that faced a lot of challenges, and here was something we could do to help.”

The award is officially known as the Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Sponsor of the Year trophy, and features a football crafted from copper. It was made by a Scottish artist and presented to Erzsébet Puskás in honour of her late husband, the legendary Hungarian footballer. She, in turn, gave it to the RBIF in the hope it could be put to good use. It has.

Although, at the time of writing, the final details have still to be arranged, the Sponsor of the Year award is due to be presented in January to Gray by Sir Alex at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground. It is known, appropriately, as the Theatre of Dreams. Starwood, and other major sponsors like them, are ensuring both operating theatres and children’s dreams can become reality.

 

By Robin Marshall

2007 Sponsor of the Year, Corinthia Hotel

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January 2008 saw the inaugural presentation of the Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Sponsor of the Year trophy, given to the organisation judged to have made the most significant contribution to the work of the Robert Burns International Foundation during the course of the past 12 months. Deservedly, it went to the host and co-organizer of the Budapest Burns Suppers since 2003, the Corinthia Grand Hotel Royal.

“The management and staff of the hotel work very hard each year to make the Burns Supper such a success, to maximize the amount of funds raised and to make the various arrangements as simple as possible for the volunteers who put the event together,” explained Stuart McAlister, chairman of the 2008 Burns Supper organising committee. “These factors made the hotel the clear choice as inaugural recipient of the sponsor of the year award.”

A very special guest, Puskás’ widow Erzsébet, handed over the trophy to the Corinthia’s general manager Adrian Ellis at the 11th Budapest Burns Supper on Saturday, 26 January 2008. But it wasn’t the first time he had laid eyes on the specially crafted copper ball.

During a visit to Budapest in 2007, Manchester United Football Club manager Sir Alex Ferguson, a self-confessed aficionado of Robert Burns, had agreed to become Honorary President of the RBIF. But with his “day job” leading one of the biggest football clubs in the world keeping him busy most weekends, it had proved difficult to invite Sir Alex over to the Burns Supper, leaving the committee looking for ways in which he could fulfill his duties each year, explained Jock MacKenzie, chairman of the RBIF.

The logical conclusion was that he would present the award to the sponsor. 
“Sir Alex kindly agreed to this, and even suggested that the sponsor… be presented with the trophy at Old Trafford, Manchester United’s ground before a match,” MacKenzie added. And so it was that five minutes before kick-off at Old Trafford on Saturday, 12 January 2008, Fergie presented the trophy to Ellis, in front of a full house, the little matter of some 75,000 people.

By Robin Marshall

For more on the Ferenc Puskás – Sir Alex Ferguson Sponsor of the Year trophy, click here.