Celebrating Minority Entrepreneurs, Transformative Partnerships
American Honda Motor Co. serves as Supplier of the Year event title sponsor for the 28th straight year.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6, 2018—The transformative power of supplier diversity was on full display at Southern California Minority Supplier Development Council’s (SCMSDC) 2018 Supplier of the Year (SOTY) awards celebration, starting with the 24 minority business enterprises (MBEs) nominated for their outstanding work with corporate members.
The MBEs were honored at the awards luncheon on July 25 at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach with American Honda Motor Co. serving as the event’s title sponsor for the 28th straight year.
CHARLES HARMON»
“Congratulations to all of our MBE nominees for their exceptional achievements and to the corporate members who nominated them,” says SCMSDC President Virginia Gomez, adding “these partnerships have delivered tangible results and economic impacts in the community. We’re also very grateful to American Honda for their SOTY title sponsorship year after year— it’s a testament to their commitment to supplier diversity and inclusion.”
“SCMSDC’s SOTY awards program began in 1984 and six years later, American Honda became the event’s title sponsor,” adds SCMSDC Chair Charles Harmon, senior manager, Administration Division, at American Honda. “Twenty-eight years have gone by and we’re as proud of our sponsorship today as we were back then. We’ve seen for ourselves the power of supplier diversity and inclusion.”
VIRGINIA GOMEZ»
Collectively, the 2018 SOTY award nominees have gross annual sales of more than $396 million and employ 1,327, of which about 686 are minorities. Nominated by corporate members, they competed for the award in four categories, based on gross annual sales of less than $1 million (Class I), under $10 million (Class II), under $50 million (Class III) and more than $50 million (Class IV).
SOTY award recipients
The following received 2018 SOTY awards:
Class I: Lindy Huang Werges, owner, Integritas Resources, Inc.
Class II: Jane Chiera, president, CEO, Athena Engineering
Class III: Jo Muse, chief creator officer, Muse Communications
Class IV: Hal Hays, founder, Hal Hays Construction Inc.
Runners-up in each category received Winners’ Circle awards. They included: (Class I) Genesis Professional Staffing, Inc.; (Class II) Décor Interior Design; (Class III) Blair, Church & Flynn Consulting Engineers and (Class IV) BCforward.
Other nominees were:
Class I: Tracey Stanhoff, AD PRO
Class II: Sky Kelley, founder, CEO, Avisare Corp.; Dana Hali, founder, Cetera Marketing; Daren Masten, founder, president, Clear Cloud Solutions; Yolanda Robles, founder, president, CulturaLink; Nancy Stasior, CEO, RICOM and Bianca Vobecky, president, Vobecky Enterprises Inc.
Class III: George L. Pla, founder, president, CEO, Cordoba Corporation; Jason Stone, president, CEO, Enterprise Resource Services Inc; Steve Aguilar, president, CEO, Far West Contractors, Inc.; Martha Daniel, founder, president, CEO, Information Management Resources; Mike L. Ireland, president, CEO, JKL Technologies; Andres Orci, president, CEO, Orci; Henry Perera, Jr., founder, Perera Construction & Design and Memo Kahan, CEO, PromoShop.
Class IV: Carl Satterwhite, president, owner, River City Furniture dba RCF.
Corporate nominators were American Honda, Anthem, Metropolitan Water District, Northrop Grumman Corp., SoCalGas, Southern California Edison, The Walt Disney Company and Toyota.
