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Arizona Hispanic Chamber Of Commerce Names Recipients Of Second Annual Business Awards
Comercio — March 2005
For Immediate Release
March 21, 2005
| Contact: |
Joseph Ortiz Director of Communications Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (602) 279-1800 Josepho@azhcc.com |
PHOENIX, AZ — The Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (AZHCC) today announced the recipients of its Second Annual Business Awards to be presented at the chamber’s 47th Annual Black and White Ball to be held Saturday April 23, 2005 at the Arizona Biltmore, 2400 E. Missouri. The event annually draws more than 1,000 people including various dignitaries, business and community leaders.
The recipients are Daniel Villa Jr., Entrepreneur of the Year; Southwest Ambulance, Corporation of the Year; Gary Trujillo, Man of the Year; and Governor Janet Napolitano, Woman of the Year. The honorees were selected using specific criteria for each category and reflect each recipient’s contribution to the local Hispanic small business community.
In September of 1990, Daniel Villa Jr. began Villa Inc., a commercial and residential general contracting and concrete construction business, with just $5,000 in working capital. It took nearly 5 and a half months to land his first project. Villa Inc. now has its own facility in Glendale. Villa is also Chairman of the Associated Minority Contractors of America-Phoenix Chapter, a non-profit minority business trade association established to address and educate the needs and concerns of minority contractors.
In order to communicate more effectively with a growing Hispanic customer base, Southwest Ambulance has made concentrated efforts to identify and hire Spanish speaking Latinos in the last year. In the summer of 2004, Southwest Ambulance developed and implemented its first bilingual Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) Academy. Southwest Ambulance also created a development training course in “Emergency Medical Services Spanish” that seeks to train established EMT’s and paramedics in common words and phrases associated with family medical emergencies.
Gary Trujillo was born and raised in South Phoenix and is a fifth generation Arizonan. In 1990, he founded Southwest Harvard Group. As a venture capitalist, Trujillo has always believed in the concept of minority-owned businesses. Southwest Harvard helps corporations leverage the burgeoning Hispanic market and routinely partners with rapidly growing firms and major corporations to expand their products and services into the Hispanic market. Trujillo is a founder of the Roosevelt Education Foundation and the Be A Leader Foundation.
Upon her election, Governor Janet Napolitano saw the need to refocus the state’s resources and deploy them to help improve programs for small, minority and women-owned businesses. Governor Napolitano is committed to the multi-cultural landscape that makes Arizona unique and diverse. Increasing contracting opportunities for small, minority and women-owned businesses are just a few of the governor’s initiatives that keep Arizona moving forward.
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The Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (AZHCC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the efforts of the local business community, especially small business owners. Furthermore, the AZHCC provides a voice for Hispanic businesses in the Valley through advocacy efforts at the local, state and national level.