Peregrine Corporation, owner of OTR convenience stores, has won the 2016 Governor’s Multicultural Award for a private sector company.
The South Australian family company, formed in 1984, when the late Fathi (Fred) Shahin, a Palestinian migrant, moved his family to Adelaide. It has now grown to become South Australia’s largest private employer and one of the biggest investors in the local economy, employing more than 3300 staff.
As the winner of the award, Peregrine was recognised in creating and maintaining a truly diverse and multicultural South Australian private sector organisation.
Peter Piliouras, Chief Operating Officer for OTR said, “We are humbled and thrilled to win this award to be recognised as an organisation that creates and maintains a truly diverse and multicultural workplace.”
“Our team members boast a society of people from richly diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds. We believe in giving everyone a fair go, irrespective of age, cultural background, gender or religious belief,” continued Peter.
“A great example is our talented Training and Recruitment Manager, Rosemary Pesch, who is proudly of indigenous descent. She is responsible for training and recruiting the OTR team members who serve South Australians every day.”
“We have over 25 different nationalities working for us with 1 in 10 of our employees over the age of 50, it is a fair place to work where everyone has the opportunity develop a compelling, long term career.”
“This award is also dedicated to the hard work of the Directors Charlie, Dr Sam and Yasser Shahin who share a strong vision to embrace diversity and foster a culture of acceptance.”
This award continues on from the great work of Charlie Shahin, who recently was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to business and commerce, to philanthropy as an advocate for corporate social responsibility, and to the multicultural community.
“Our commitment to the South Australian community is to continue to lead the way when it comes being a diverse, multicultural and non discriminatory employer we are excited about 2017 and our plans to invest $60M into projects creating 400 jobs for South Australians,” concluded Peter.
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