The National Small Business Persons of the Year are SBDC clients. Bobbie Jacobs-Ghaffar and Lesa Jacobs, co-owners of Native Angels Home Care & Hospice Agency, Inc. of Lumberton, North Carolina, are clients of the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center (SBTDC).
The State Small Business Persons of the Year from 12 other states, including Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, South Dakota, Virginia and West Virginia, are also SBDC clients. ASBDC congratulates each of these outstanding clients and the SBDC consultants and networks that assisted them.
SBDC Clients Win National and State Business Person of the Year Awards
Bobbie Jacobs-Ghaffar • Lesa Jacobs
Co-Owners • Native Angels Home Care & Hospice Agency, Inc.
4701 Fayetteville Rd., Suite C • Lumberton, NC 28358
(910) 735-1541 or (800) 718-1541
Sisters and members of the Lumbee Indian Tribe, Bobbie Jacobs-Ghaffar and Lesa Jacobs took their combined 40 years expperience and launched a homegrown healthcare business in 2000. They had only once cell phone, two patients and a Certified Nursing Assistant. Today, Native Angels Homecare and Hospice provides a broad range of services, employs 301 professionals and serves 760 patients daily. A new $7.2 million headquarters building is being financed with an SBA 504 loan.
Craig and Kristin DeMarco
Owners • Postino Winecafe
3939 East Campbell Avenue • Phoenix, AZ 85018
(602) 852-3939
Craig and Kristin DeMarco walked into the SBA's Maricopa Small Business Development Center in August 2000 with a dream of opening a combination restaurant and wine bar similar to what they'd seen in Italy. With help from the SBDC Craig and Kristin opened the Postino Winecafe in 2001 in Phoenix using $150,000 obtained through a second mortgage on their home. Postino how boasts 40 employees and $2.5 million in annual revenues.
Rod E. Vargas, P.E.
President • Apex Environmental Engineering & Compliance, Inc.
6824 Hanging Moss Rd. • Orlando, FL 32807
(407) 629-8180
Rod E. Vargas founded Apex Environmental Engineering & Compliance in 1997, with business partner Chris Parent, using personal savings of $12,000 and guidance provided by the SBA on securing a line of credit. Apex provides high quality environmental engineering, construction, environmental health and safety and waste management services. Certified in SBA's 8(a) Business Development program, Apex has 32 employees with annual revenues exceeding $5.2 million.
Ted Dennard
President • The Savannah Bee Company, Inc.
2604 Causton Bluff Road • Savannah, GA 31404
(912) 234-0688
In seven years, Ted Dennard has grown his Savannah Bee Company into a national brand of honey and related products sold in high-end stores like Williams-Sonoma and Nieman-Marcus. His Tupelo Honey was featured in Oprah Winfrey's "O" magazine last October. A year after the business opened, demand pushed sales through the roof. Ted got help from the local Small Business Development Center. In 2005, sales surpassed $500,000, jumping to $1.4 million in 2006.
Michael R. Boulet
President • Mainely Trussess, Inc.
P.O. Box 377, Truss Lane • Fairfield, ME 04937
(207) 453-4911
In 1992 Michael Boulet started on the "ground floor," working full time with his parents, John and Louise Boulet. The following year his father died, but thanks to Michael's leadership, Mainely Trusses is stronger and larger than ever. The company is recognized throughout Maine as a producer of quality commercial and residential roof and floor systems. With counseling from the Maine Small Business Development Centers, the company has evolved from three employees to 50.
Craig A. Bovaird
President • Built-Rite Tool & Die, Inc.
851 Sterling Road • Lancaster, MA 01523
(978) 365-3867
When he heard that plastics was the future, Craig Bovaird "broke the mold" and founded Mass Tech Molding Corp., which morphed into Built-Rite Tool and Die, Inc., and the Reliance Engineering Division in 1999. The company designs parts for many applications and manufactures precision plastic parts. Revenues have risen from $1.3 million in 1999 to $4 million in 2006, with some advisory assistance from Clark University Small Business Development Center.
Noel Cuellar & Ethan Barde
President & CEO • Vice President • Primera Plastics, Inc.
3424 Production Ct. • Zeeland, MI 49464
(616) 748-6248
Starting with just two machines and no employees, Noel Cuellar and Ethan Barde created Primera Plastics, a plastic injection company in 1994. Since that small start the company has experienced phenomenal growth and now has a staff of 140. The company secured an SBA loan for start-up, and obtained another five SBA loans to finance its expansion, with management advice from the Michigan Small Business and Technology Development Center along the way.
Tom Grones • Dan Rudningen
President & CEO • VP of Sales • GeoComm, Inc.
601 W. St. Germain Street • St. Cloud, MN 56301
(320) 240-0040
CEO Tom Grones, a former paramedic, formed GeoComm in 1995 to make saving lives easier. GeoComm is a communication, geographic information systems (GIS) and software development company. Its softwae merges voice and data communications with GIS mapping for 911 emergency response systems, allowing first responders to see on-screen text showing the name, address and phone number of the callers. In 10 years, annual revenues have grown from $250,000 to nearly $6.5 million.
Kent Frederick Schien
President & CEO • Innoventor, Inc.
3600 Rider Trail South • St. Louis, MO 63045
(314) 785-0900
Kent Schien founded Innoventor in the basement of his home in 1996 and it's been nothing but upward and onward since then. Innoventor has succeeded with improbable projects like building a non-invasive, magnetically controlled heart catheter machine and devising green technology to convert swine manure into energy. SBA provided four guaranteed loans, including a military economic injury disaster loan after key employee Commander James Muir was called to duty in Afghanistan, where he was wounded.
Donald Beeman • Robert Goodwin
Charles Richardson • Robert Bargatze
CEO • President & COO • Vice President R&D • Founder
LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
2155 Analysis Drive • Bozeman, MT 59718
(406) 585-2733
With a focus on responding to the increased threat of bioterrorism, LigoCyte Pharmaceuticals develops vaccines and therapeutic drugs for preventing or treating diseases. In nine years, the company has steadily grown from 10 to 47 employees. LigoCyte has worked closely with SBA's Small Business Innovative Research Program and expects to move four of its drug programs into human clinical trials in the next two years.
Mary Derby
President • pullUin software
15 S. Plum Street • Vermillion, South Dakota 57069
(605) 624-9792
Mary Derby established pullUin software, a division of South Dakota Health Technology Innovations, in 2000 to develop innovative educational software, including video games, training programs, and handheld and wireless applications for the healthcare industry. The firm used a grant from SBA's Small Business Innovative Research program to develop a software product, and was named a 2006 Tibbetts Award winner. The company also received the 2004 South Dakota SBIR Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
Mark T. Bogert
President and Executive Director • Intercept Youth Services, Inc.
5511 Staples Mill Road, Suite 102 • Richmond, VA 23228
(804) 440-3700
Mark Bogert applied his experience in social work to co-found Intercept Youth Service with his wife Penny in August 1996, with an SBA loan, personal savings, and loans from family members. Intercept operates 14 residential, therapeutic group homes for adolescent youth with emotional disabilities in foster care in Richmond, Staunton, Fredericksburg, and Tidewater. By 2006, the company had 200 employees, and had reached revenues of nearly $10 million.
Jay Reddy
CEO & Founder • ProLogic, Inc.
1000 Technology Drive • Fairmont, WV 26554
(304) 363-1157
Jay Reddy started ProLogic in 1995 with a simple dream: growing from a one-man IT shop into a successful American business. An immigrant from India, Jay provides quality software development, IT products, and systems integration and engineering. Participation in SBA's 8(a) Business Development program helped the employee-owned company find success in federal contracting, which has produced a 400 percent increase in employment and a 600 percent rise in revenues over the last four years.
