President of BEST Shipping and Best Express has been nominated as a finalist in the 2005 International Leader of the Year Award.

David Sousa joins the prestigious company of finalists including Ghassam Al Sulaiman, the President of Shassan Ahmad Al Sulaiman Company in Saudi Arabia, Naja Kjeldsen, the Chief Executive Officer of Startos Bio in Switzerland, David Levy, the Director of Quality Control Services, Ltd., Hong Kong, Carla Cico, the President / Chief Executive Officer, Brazil Telecom, S.A., Brazil, Bermuda's Environment Minister, Neletha Butterfield, Malcolm Martin, the Founder of Tanglewood in Barbados, Mohamed El-Sabaa, the Vice-President and General Manager of Task Aviation in Egypt, Geoffrey Hooper, the CEO and chairman of Winterbotham Trust Company Limited in the Bahamas and Neslyn Watson-Druee the MD of Beacon Organisational Development, Ltd. in the United Kingdom

The winner of this year's award will be selected from then ten finalists at the Annual Awards Banquet tonight at the Annual Leadership Conference at the Half Moon Resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Mr. Sousa said yesterday that he was proud to have been nominated by such an organisation and honoured to be amongst such people.

"BEST Shipping has grown over the years due not only to my efforts, but also the hard work and effort of my partners and of course all our staff. We are proud to be able to provide the BEST service to our clients and to contribute to the wellbeing of the Bermudian community as a whole," he said.