Bloomfield Hills CEO Wins Business for Peace Award

OSLO, NORWAY -- Bloomfield Hills CEO Lori Blaker was chosen as a winner of the 2018 Business for Peace Award — often called “the Nobel Prize for business.” Blake’s selection was announced Tuesday in Norway at Oslo City Hall. According to the Business for Peace Award Foundation, the award recognizes global business leaders who are role models to peers, who stand out as advocates for ethical practices and who “earned the trust of stakeholders” in communities where they develop businesses.

As the CEO of TTi Global, Blaker oversees a staffing, recruiting, and consulting business with more than 2,000 workers that operates on five continents. In addition to her work in the United States, Blaker has also built businesses in India and Afghanistan. In 2016, she founded the Automotive Service Center and Training Center in Kabul, a facility that offers work and job training to women and men, and allowing Afghan women to learn skills that help support them and their families in an industry that's typically off limits to them.

“Businesses can be crucial in identifying issues and challenges in their communities both socially and economically,” Blaker said in a statement. “It’s important, especially in today’s political climate, that we use this knowledge to drive change and growth in our world. To me, this recognition is a validation of the effort and conviction that TTi Global has indeed been on the right path.”

The Business for Peace Foundation says its mission is “to support, inspire, and recognize the global business leaders who are positively changing the face of business.” Honorees are chosen by an independent committee of Nobel Prize Laureates in Peace and Economics. Committee members include Nobel Peace Prize winners Shirin Ebadi, Leymah Gbowee, and Ouided Bouchamaoui. Economics laureates on the panel include Finn Kydland and Eric S. Maskin. Past Business for Peace award winners include Sir Richard Branson and former General Electric CEO Jeffrey R. Immelt.

The awards ceremony takes place May 16 in Oslo.

File photo by TTi Global