BNP Paribas' wealth management arm has honoured two outstanding figures from around the world in the area of philanthropy.

French banking group BNP Paribas honoured two
leading philanthropists and their organisations at a gala awards ceremony in Paris last night, putting
a spotlight on the work this French banking giant says it is doing to help
guide clients in the philanthropy area.

In its sixth year, the Paris-listed bank’s
wealth management arm, the world’s seventh-biggest private bank by assets (€272
billion) recognised what a panel of judges regard as outstanding achievement. (To view an entirely separate story about high-level Asia appointments at the bank announced today, click here.)

"Our commitment as members of the [judging panel] jury is to identify and honour philanthropists who are identifying and working in ways to change the world for the better," Suzanne Berger, president of the jury and Dorman-Starbuck professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told attendees at the presentation in BNP's Paris offices.

Winner of the 2013 “Grand Prix” award was Shiv
Nadar, the founder and driving force behind the Shiv Nadar Foundation, while
the 2013 Jury’s Special Prize was awarded to Charles Slaughter, founder and president
of Living Goods.

The winners were
chosen by an independent jury made up of major figures from business and
charitable organisations, along with experts from the arts, humanitarian
and public sectors. The jury is chaired by Suzanne Berger, who is professor
of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. In studying the
profiles of all the nominees, the jury made their decisions based on various
criteria, such as the social impact of their philanthropic initiatives, the
philanthropists' personal and financial investment, and the professionalism,
viability and transparency of the projects, BNP Paribas said in a statement.

Describing both award winners, the bank said that Shiv Nadar set up his
eponymous Shiv Nadar Foundation in 1994, creating institutions such as a highly
rated engineering college; the organisation drives education programmes through
which more than 13,000 students have been affected over the past 17 years.

In the case of Slaughter, the California-based entrepreneur started his
Living Goods organisation in 2007, an organisation that “empowers micro
entrepreneurs to deliver life-changing products to the doorsteps of people in
need”, BNP Paribas said.

Besides Berger, judges on the BNP Paribas Awards for Individual Philanthropy
were:

Yann
Arthus-Bertrand, photographer and Chairman of the Good Planet Foundation;
Bernard Faivre d’Arcier, president of the Lyon Biennial Contemporary Arts
festival and of the Metz en scène
concert organisation; Michael Golden, vice-president of the New York
Times Company; Lorenz von Habsburg, banker and board director of several
listed companies; Leena Labroo, entrepreneur and director of the
Mahindra & Mahindra Educational Trust; Maria Nowak, founder and president
of the Association pour le droit à
l'initiative économique; Louis Schweitzer, former Chairman and CEO
of Renault Automobile Group, former chair of the Haute Autorité de Lutte contre les Discriminations et pour l'Égalité; Amartya
Sen,
Professor of Economics and Philosophy at the University of Harvard, winner of
the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics.

In
addition, the 2012 winners of the BNP Paribas Awards for Individual
Philanthropy were invited to sit on the jury for the 2013 Awards:

Vivianne Senna da Silva Lalli, founder and president
of the Instituto Ayrton Senna in Brazil
(Grand Prix winner 2012), and Michael de Giorgio, co-founder of the
Greenhouse Charity (Jury’s Special Prize winner 2012).

The Grand Prix honours an
individual or family for their overall philanthropic activity, recognising the exemplary
ethical nature of their actions as well as impact and their long-term
commitment. BNP Paribas publishes a book on behalf the winner as a means of
highlighting their dedicated initiatives and the book on this year’s winner
will be added to the catalogue of publications promoting past winners.  .

The Jury's Special Prize recognises
a committed philanthropist who has initiated an original project and has been
working on the ground to implement it. The project must have been running for
at least three years but still be in its development phase or at a critical
stage. The Special Prize confers €50,000 (around $80,000) for the furtherance of the
philanthropist’s project.