NHBR awards salute business excellence
Thirteen owners and operators of small businesses in a range of industries were honored Oct. 13 at the second annual New Hampshire Business Review Business Excellence Awards.
The awards ceremony – held at The Event Center at C.R. Sparks in Bedford – attracted almost 250 people, on hand to honor the determination, industriousness, innovation and achievements of the nominees and winners.
The awards ceremony also included the induction of three long-serving and influential New Hampshire businesspeople to the New Hampshire Business Review Business Excellence Hall of Fame: Sylvio Dupuis; J. Bonnie Newman and John Swope.
The Business Excellence Awards themselves are given to owners and operators of businesses with 100 employers or fewer. The winners were picked by a panel of judges who deliberated over more than 60 nominations.
“All of the nominees should be proud of their accomplishments. It is businesspeople like these who help make New Hampshire the special place that it is,” said Sharron McCarthy, vice president of McLean Communications, parent company of the Business Review.
Jeff Feingold, editor of the Business Review, thanked the judges for their work in selecting the winners. “This year’s nominees had remarkable stories, and I encourage those who did not win to have their nominators submit them again next year,” he added.
Recipients of the 2004 Business Excellence Awards were:
• Excellence in Law – Scott Flegal, Flegal Law Offices
• Excellence in Retail – Donna Buxton, Buxton Oil Company
• Excellence in Technology – Benjamin Robinson, RH Laboratories
• Excellence in Business Services – Jeff Barstow, Favorite Foods Inc.
• Excellence in Media & Marketing – Laura Monica, High Point Communications
• Excellence in Non-Profit – Maureen Beauregard, Families in Transition
• Excellence in Health Care – Mike Hill, Foundation for Healthy Communities
• Excellence in Construction – Tedd Benson, Bensonwood Homes
• Excellence in Real Estate – Cindy Ronning, SunLite Reality Corp.
• Excellence in Financial Services – Tim Collia, Woodlands Credit Union
• Excellence in Hospitality – Ed & Robin Paradis, Moose Hillock Campground
• Excellence in Manufacturing – Don & Gail Brewer, Scotia Technology, Division Lakes Region Tubular Products Inc.
• Excellence in Public Service – Eliza Leadbeater, Belknap County Economic Development Council.
The 2004 NHBR Business Excellence Hall of Fame inductees — chosen separately by the editors of New Hampshire Business Review and outside advisers were:
• Sylvio Dupuis, currently interim executive director of the New Hampshire Historical Society and a special assistant to the president of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy
• J. Bonnie Newman, executive dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government
• John Swope, former president of Chubb Life Insurance, patron of the arts.
The judges who selected the 13 Business Excellence Award winners were:
• Steven Bolander, dean of the Whittemore School of Business and Economics
• Sylvio Dupuis of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and the New Hampshire Historical Society
• Julie Gustafson, executive director of Southern New Hampshire University’s Amoskeag Small Business Incubator
• Eileen Kennedy, business editor of The Telegraph of Nashua
• Fred Kocher of Kocher & Company and president of the New Hampshire High Tech Council
• Ken Lurvey, business development coordinator for the city of Concord
• Sean O’Kane, commissioner of the state Department of Resources and Economic Development
• Bill Phillips, New Hampshire director of the U.S. Small Business Administration
• Liz Ward, regional manager of the New Hampshire Small Business Development Center in Littleton.
Sponsors of the event were Public Service of New Hampshire, Fleet Bank (Bank of America), Independence Air and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care of New England.
Media sponsors were New Hampshire Public Radio, New Hampshire Public Television and The Telegraph of Nashua.
A portion of the evening’s proceeds were donated to Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, an organization that advocates in the best interests of New Hampshire’s abused and neglected children who are caught up in the child welfare and juvenile court system.
