SBA Hands Out Honors at Small Business Week Innoventor Inc., a St. Louis design/build engineering firm, was named SBA’s Prime Contractor of the Year in a ceremony at Small Business Week in Washington. Kent Schien founded Innoventor in the basement of his home in St. Louis in 1996. The company says it offers cross-industry experience and cutting-edge technology to provide innovative solutions for a variety of customer demands. Its customers include the government, aerospace, military, automotive, commercial, industrial, agriculture, food and beverage, medical, pharmaceutical and power industries. It has been a prime contractor at Warner Robbins Air Force Base, GA, for the cesium-based master regulating clock, a precision instrument that regulates secondary clocks in complicated systems, for the E-4B Advanced Airborne Command Post for the U.S. Air Force. The Small Business Subcontractor of the Year award went to J&P Khamken Industries Inc. of Montgomery, AL. The 8(a), service-disabled veteran-owned business was founded in 2000 by Pat and Jack Khamken, brothers who immigrated from Laos at the end of the Vietnam War. Khamken provides a wide range of services including manufacturing products for the defense industry, munitions, aircraft components and parts, machine products and assemblies and dockside ship repairs. The company says it has delivered more than 1,000 contracts with a 100% on-time or early delivery record. It has worked as a subcontractor to major defense prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin, BAE, Raytheon Missile Systems, General Dynamics and L-3 Communications. Other SBA award winners: Small Business Person of the Year: Rick Cochran, founder of Mobile Medical International. The Walden, VT, company manufactures mobile healthcare and diagnostic units. Cochran started the business in his basement and had grown to $14 million in revenue in 2010. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Excellence, recognizing large prime contractors that have excelled in utilization of small businesses as suppliers and subcontractors. The recipients are: •Watts Constructors, LLC of Honolulu, HI; Dennis N. Watts, president (Construction Category). •Babcock & Wilcox Technical Services Pantex LLC of Amarillo, TX; John D. Woolery, president and general manager (Manufacturing Category). •SAIC of McLean, VA; Babak Nouri, vice president, small business liaison officer and director of Small Business Programs (Research and Development Category). •AMEC Earth and Environmental Inc. of Plymouth Meeting, PA; Hisham Mahmoud, PhD, president (Services Category). The Gold Star Award, recognizing exemplary performance by federal staff who manage the aggressive goals and strategic initiatives that help ensure a role for small business in the federal marketplace. The recipients are: •Brandon Neal, director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization for the Department of Transportation in Washington. •Mark Oliver, director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization of the Department of Interior in Washington. The Frances Perkins Vanguard Award, honoring government and industry for excellence in the use of women-owned small businesses as prime contractors and subcontractors. •Glenn Sweat, CPCM, PMP, CCEP, general counsel of Environmental Chemical Corporation of Burlingame, CA. Surety Bond Award, honoring surety companies and bond producers. This year’s recipients are: •John Hughes, president, and Alice Thomas, secretary/treasurer, Construction Bonds Inc.