March 24, 2009

Small Business Administration

2009 Nevada SBA Small Business Award Winners Include Carson City and Ely Honorees

Las Vegas, NV – The Nevada District office of the U. S. Small Business Administration has selected its small business award honorees for 2009, including two Northern and Rural Nevada residents.  They will be recognized at an awards luncheon to be held at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Thursday, May 7, 2009, beginning promptly at 11:30 am.

Rob Dorinson, majority owner and President of Evergreen Recycling, Las Vegas, has been named SBA’s Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Nevada.

Mary A. Kerner, Lending Administrator for the Rural Nevada Development Corporation, Ely, has been named SBA’s Nevada and Region 9 (Guam, Hawaii, California, Nevada and Arizona) Financial Services Champion of the Year.

 

John C. Holliday, Chief Scientific Officer of, Aloha Medicinals, Carson City, has been named SBA’s Small Business Exporter of the Year for Nevada.

 

Mr. Dorinson has been invited to attend SBA’s National Small Business Week activities in Washington, D. C. on May 17-19 to be recognized with all other state Small Business Persons of the Year. This year marks the 56th anniversary of the SBA, and the 46th annual proclamation of Small Business Week.

Others being honored at the awards luncheon in Las Vegas include:

  • Microenterprise Business Person of the Year: Lisa McQuerrey, Owner, Professional Writing Services, Henderson;
  • Small Business Journalist of the Year: Connie Brennan, Publisher, Nevada Business, Henderson;
  • Minority Small Business Champion of the Year: Janis Stevenson, Business Development Advisor, Nevada Small Business Development Center, Las Vegas;
  • Home-Based Business Champion of the Year: Shawn D. Lane, Owner, Cheyenne Marketing, Las Vegas;
  • Women in Business Champion of the Year: Carrie Michelle Henderson, President, BEST Agency, Las Vegas.

Page Two – SBA Awards

The nominees are judged by an independent panel of small business leaders on a variety of criteria, including staying power, growth in number of employees, increase in sales, current and past financial reports, innovativeness of product or service, response to adversity, evidence of contributions to community-oriented projects, and small business advocacy.

Rob Dorinson, Small Business Person of the Year for the State of Nevada, is majority owner and President of Evergreen Recycling. The company specializes in construction waste management, industrial recycling and commercial recycling services. Dorinson founded his company in 1997, and the company has grown from an initial five employees to seventy-six during 2008. In January 2008, Dorinson secured $2 million in financing through the SBA’s 504 loan guarantee program to construct a 50,000 square foot Material Recovery Facility in Las Vegas. Evergreen’s operation has been praised by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and remains the largest facility of its kind in Nevada, processing and annually recovering 120,000 tons of materials.

Mary A. Kerner, Nevada Financial Services Champion of the Year, is Lending Administrator for the Rural Nevada Development Corporation. Effectively creating and administering a $7 million loan portfolio with a less than 1 percent default rate would alone be worthy of recognition. However, Kerner has also consistently worked to insure RNDC clients receive the needed business acumen, technical assistance and advocacy required to achieve and maintain success both before and after they have received their funding through RNDC.

John C. Holliday, PhD, Nevada Small Business Exporter of the Year, is Chief Scientific Officer of Aloha Medicinals, Producing condition-specific dietary supplements for worldwide distribution and reformulation, Aloha Medicinals exports to over a dozen countries, with further international expansion being developed. Founded in Hawaii, the company moved to Carson City during 2007. The company has previously received the 2007 Governor’s Industry Appreciation Award, and the 2008 Nevada Excellence in International Business Award.

“This has been a very challenging economy for small companies,” said John Scott, SBA Nevada District Director. “All of our award recipients this year display a ‘can-do’ spirit when it comes to business staying power, and all have the ability to see beyond the challenges to develop solutions,” added Scott. “We look forward to recognizing their achievements at the special Small Business Awards luncheon on May 7.”

For reservations to join the SBA and business leaders for the Nevada SBA awards luncheon in Las Vegas on May 7, 2008 at the Orleans Hotel, contact Greenspun Media Group at: 702-990-2448 or sbaevent@gmgvegas.com. The cost to attend this event is $55 per person or $500 for table(s) of 10.

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For more information about all of the SBA’s programs for small businesses, call the SBA Answer Desk at 1-800 U ASK SBA or TDD 704-344-6640, or visit the SBA’s extensive Web site at http://www.sba.gov.

Nevada District Office, U.S. Small Business Administration

400 South Fourth St., Suite 250, Las Vegas, NV 89101.