During a heightened period of activity -- triggered by ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, a rise in remote working and government lockdowns -- Ben and his team led from the front to innovate on the go at Foodpanda. Chiefly through the deployment of two key offerings -- Pandago and Pandacare.

Firstly, to help businesses adapt quickly to new consumer habits as countries move in and out of lockdowns, Pandago was launched as a new Logistics-as-a-Service (LaaS) offering in late 2020.

The last mile delivery solution allows vendors ease of access to Foodpanda’s extensive fleet of riders, ensuring that deliveries are completed within 25 minutes and billed on a pay-per-use model to manage fluctuating demand during peak periods.

This is in addition to Pandacare -- a new in-house customer support system built to seamlessly integrate all back-office services used by support agents into a one-stop platform.

Ben was also honoured as CIO of the Year (Leadership) for using virtual employee hackathons to help solve common business challenges.

As a direct communicator and collaborative thinker, Ben continues to empower his team by offering the autonomy to explore, innovate and learn from their mistakes.

In April, Ben launched a virtual hackathon for employees to help solve common business challenges. With an open theme to encourage creative freedom -- over 170 employees signed up and were exempted from work for 2 days to fully immerse themselves in the activity.

As a result, the hackathon produced a compelling solution to a COVID-19 specific problem: solving a laborious registration system for employees who needed to return to the office.

The bot -- which rolled out in August -- helps employees keep track of COVID-19 restrictions in the workplace, check available dates and reserve seats seamlessly. A simple and effective way to solve business challenges, create a culture of collaboration and build meaningful employee relationships.