This one was worth staying up for! Late last night I got a text message with the news that Cartus had won the EMMA from the Forum for Expatriate Management for Best Vendor Partnership with our client, GE – and another of our clients, Dell, had won awards in two categories.  The message came from Mike Brannan, Cartus senior vice president and general manager, who, with several of our clients and staff, was attending the dinner in Chicago where the EMMAs – the Expatriate Management and Mobility Awards – were presented.

Cartus and GE have been working together for more than 30 years. This recognition is particularly gratifying to me, as while I date myself here, one of my first jobs at Cartus back in the ‘70s was working on the GE account, and I could not be more proud of the great relationship our two companies have developed. As GE’s business has evolved, we have worked closely with the GE team to modify their relocation program, service delivery model, support functions, and supplier management practices, and build the capabilities necessary to support the expansion efforts to countries all around the globe.

Lisa Vanderminden, manager, customer service at GE, said, “Over the last 30+ years, GE and Cartus have partnered effectively to improve the GE program, by focusing on service, quality control, and defect analysis, to the point that the GE program has become what we consider to be world class. We are gratified that winning this award adds the external validation of our program and shows what we can achieve when working with a great partner over a period of time.”

I am proud to say that this is the second consecutive year that Cartus has won the Best Partnership Award in FEM’s U.S. awards segment. Last year, we won for our relationship with Textron. We also were presented a Best Partnership Award in 2010 from the European EMMAs for our work with Citi. As you know, one of our company’s values is collaboration and it is great to see our emphasis on this quality recognized.

I would also like to congratulate Dell for winning the Global Mobility Team of the Year Award in the category of 250-1,000 assignees. Dell won the team honor for its success in managing the numerous suppliers across the globe required to support a mobility program that has employees in 38 countries. It also received the EMMA for Most Effective Relocation Management Strategy.

 Email this contributor at kevin.kelleher@cartus.com.