Achal Agarwal of Kimberly-Clark named Asia Business Leader of the Year

SINGAPORE, 23 November 2016 - CNBC, the world's leading business and financial news network, today announced the distinguished winners of the 15th Asia Business Leaders Awards (ABLA) at a gala ceremony held at the Hotel Mulia in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The annual awards recognize the region's top business leaders for their vision, competence and achievement in six categories. The 2016 winners are:

Asia Business Leader of the Year Award
Achal Agarwal of Kimberly-Clark Asia Pacific Pte Ltd

Asia Disruptor of the Year Award
Maximilian Bittner of Lazada Group

Asia Talent Management Award
Rohana Rozhan of Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad

Corporate Social Responsibility Award
Somchai Lertsutiwong of Advanced Info Service PLC

Lifetime Achievement Award
Liu Chuanzhi of Legend Holdings/Lenovo

Indonesia Business Leader of the Year Award (joint winners)
Muhammad Arif Wibowo of Garuda Indonesia and;
Taswin Zakaria of Bank Maybank Indonesia

Reacting to his win, Achal Agarwal, President Asia-Pacific at Kimberly-Clark said: "I am honored to be awarded the prestigious CNBC Asia Business Leader of the Year 2016, and delighted that Kimberly-Clark Asia Pacific is being recognized for its leadership in innovation, talent and sustainability. It is deeply gratifying to provide solutions to our consumers that make their lives better every day. A leader is only as good as his team and I owe this to my team whose contributions made this award possible."

Speaking at the awards gala, KC Sullivan, President and Managing Director at CNBC International, said: "Over 15 years, the Asia Business Leaders Awards have recognized and celebrated the region's best. I congratulate this year's winners for their outstanding achievements and welcome them to the ABLA alumni circle."

To be awarded an ABLA, nominees go through three judging phases: The first includes a quantitative data analysis of company performance. In the second, judges conduct face-to-face interviews to assess the candidates' leadership capabilities before the third and final round where overall winners are selected by an expert panel.

The presenting sponsor of ABLA 2016 is Six Capital and the event sponsor is Astra International.

Profiles of the ABLA winners and shortlisted candidates are available at abla.cnbc.com/candidates