Verslo Žinios – the only business newspaper in Lithuania – has selected the CEO of the Year to recognize the manager who created the most value for employees, shareholders, and society over the year. This year, the award went to Viktoras Gurgždys, head of the Lithuanian branch of the U.S. programming services company Devbridge.

The past year was marked by significant events for Devbridge. In late 2021, Devbridge merged its software product engineering and service capabilities with Cognizant and became part of the global giant. In addition, new offices were opened in Warsaw and Vilnius.

The company’s main goal will continue to be creating cutting-edge software in order to provide invaluable tools to help global companies, industries and business organizations grow successfully.

The organization is currently united by a community of more than 700 professionals working in five countries around the world. The company’s strategic goal is to help clients look at business processes through the prism of creating innovative digital products.

Mr. Gurgždys emphasized that if a business is growing faster, the most important thing is to maintain the culture. And this can be done through educating people, accumulating their experience, and empowering them to do more.

“After a short break, this nomination has returned to the information technology sector. Receiving this award is an honor. It goes to a team that does amazing things,” said Mr. Gurgždys when accepting the award.

This year, 812 companies participated in the CEO of the Year elections. The CEO of the Year is elected over several stages. First, companies that finished 2021 with a profit and whose manager has been running the company for at least two years are selected from the VŽ TOP 1000. Companies in the financial sector are additionally included. Companies that took first place in the Lithuanian Sector Leaders ranking are also added to the list.

In the second stage, cooperating organizations (Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists, Ministry of Economy and Innovation, Association “Lyderė”, Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Infobalt, Unicorns Lithuania, Investors’ Forum, ISM University) and Verslo Žinios each submit three candidates from the TOP 1000 list, backing their opinion with strong arguments.

In the third stage, the list of companies and their managers is evaluated by the Verslo Žinios editorial board. The nominations submitted by cooperating organizations are taken into account, the merits of the candidates to shareholders, employees, and the public are analyzed, and then a vote is taken.