Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Awards

Individuals on the photo from L to R they are: Freddie Dixon Sr., Tommy Wyatt, Brandi Smith (on behalf of Ada Anderson), Arthur Sauls, Carol Hadnot, Juanita Ross, and Natalie Madeira Cofield President/CEO CCAACC

Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce’s 2012 Awards Banquet, held at the downtown Omni Hotel, honored several local businesses and leaders for their dedication and contribution to Austin’s economy and civic engagement.
P.D. Morrison was awarded Small Business of the Year for their commitment to the community. P.D. Morrison accomplished much with his successful management coupled with strong strategic alliances and other thriving business entities within national and international industries. From buying his first company at the age 20, an auto detailing franchise to forming a $30+ million a year operation which continues to show solid growth potential of PDME. While cultivating other successful businesses in real estate investment and management, Morrison has also joined efforts with a Service Disabled Veteran to form a paper supply company known as DME. He offers mentoring and counseling to other MBE’s, WBE’s, and SDV’s, as well as general business consulting.

Xavier Clark, of Smithville, Texas was awarded TeenPreneur of the Year for his exemplified qualities of leadership, character, family life, religious activities and service, whose civic contributions have resulted in an impact to the greater Austin community. Clark is an ambitious high school senior who has held several leadership positions and taken on an active role within many organizations and volunteer initiatives through Captain of the Smithville High School National Forensic League Speech, Debate Teams, and Vice President of the National Honor Society. Clark was nominated and selected by the American Legion Post to attend American Legion Boys State where he was exposed to the operational aspects of government and elected to serve in the Texas House of Representatives. Xavier is also the Drum Major of the Smithville Tiger Band, Student Council Treasurer, Campus Peer Advisor, Leo Club member, and Drama Club member. This fall Xavier, plans to be a freshman at the University of Texas at Austin.

Pascal Nicolas, CEO, SaleVu is AustinPreneur of the Year, an Austin start-up business founded within the last 12 months that demonstrates exceptional potential for growth. After working at Dell, Nicolas acquired an Italian restaurant as an investment and was puzzled by the lack of mobile payment and SaaS Point of Sale software on the market. He decided to build his own cloud POS and mobile payment solution to ease the life of other business owners and in the process tripling sales for his restaurant business while helping small and mobile enterprises around the country.

Karen Box is the President of the Southwest Minority Supplier Development Council (SMSDC) whose mission is “To create opportunities and an environment for minority business enterprises to grow and to actively add value for corporate members through positive business relationships” and the 2012 Diversity Champion of the Year. As the former Director of Supplier Diversity for the Seton Family of Hospitals and Executive Director of the Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce, Box has demonstrated her passion for minority business development and advocacy by the engagement of both sides of procurement that encourages economic development through diverse business opportunities. As SMSDC performs its commitment to certification, connection, and development, MBEs and Corporate Members will develop and build relationship that will positively influences the bottom line.
SetonFamily of Hospitals was recognized as Corporate Partner of the Year based on their involvement in the Chamber’s programs and mission as an active advocate of the Chamber. The Seton Healthcare Family was recognized as the top-ranked health system in Texas by Modern Healthcare magazine and healthcare data consulting firm Verispan and among the year’s top 100 integrated healthcare systems in the nation for efficiency and performance. Seton has been a member of the Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce contributing talent, facilities and resources for more than six years. Seton’s engagement in the Chamber has helped to make signature programs such as the Black Elected Officials program and the Annual Awards program possible. Seton is represented by Ashton Cumberbatch who serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors for the CCAACC 2012-2014 Board.
Edward Kargbo, General Manager, Greater AustinTransportationCompany dba YellowCab is this year’s Emerging Business Leader for his involvement in the Chamber’s programs and mission through his support as an active advocate. Greater Austin Transportation Company (GATC) sells services to Independent Contractor Taxi-Cab drivers and maintains the Yellow Cab brand in Austin, Texas. Ed is a Board of Director with the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, past-President of the Austin Young Chamber of Commerce, and 2012 finalist for the Austin Under 40 Award in the Business and Entrepreneurship category. Kargbo is a graduate of Leadership Austin, a member of the Young Men’s Business League (YMBL) and volunteers with Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Central Texas (BBBS).

Carl Settlers was awarded Ambassador of the Year for his involvement with the Chamber’s programs and support. Carl has been instrumental in Capital City African American Chamber of Commerce’s recent relationships with GSD&M and SXSW. Carl received the 2011 SXSW Dewey Winburne Community Service Award and a proclamation from the Texas State Legislature. Recognizing the need for self-sustaining approaches to diversity Carl Settles, in coordination with the Texas Diversity Council, is dedicated to cultivating business, educational and community infrastructure that exposes underserved populations to a vast array of career paths.
As the VP of Cultural Diversity for the Austin Advertising Federation, Carl received 2 National Club Achievement Awards for Diversity & Multi-Cultural Initiatives. Settles co-founded the first ever Urban Media Symposium. He has worked extensively in educational publishing, software development, music, interactive media and advertising for more than 15 years with clients that include Dell, Liz Claiborne, Whole Foods, MPOWER Labs, Motorola, Applied Materials, Xerox, Harcourt Achieve, Walt Disney Records, Fusion Learning Systems, the University of Texas Distance Education Center, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, and EnviroMedia.
By Monica Pena

Posted by on Feb 23rd, 2012 and filed under Business, Community, In This Issue, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response by filling following comment form or trackback to this entry from your site

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