Nine business owners were honored Oct. 2 for excellence in small business in the 11th annual Wells Fargo Copper Cactus Awards. Additionally, Todd Hanley, of the Hotel Congress, was honored as the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s small business leader of the year.
Nearly 600 people attended the awards presentation at the Westin La Paloma Resort and Spa.
 Todd Hanley. Kadie Pangburn photo |
Winners were honored in three categories: best place to work, business growth and community service. To qualify for an award, a business must have 250 or fewer employees and be locally owned and operated, profitable and in operation more than two years.
This year’s award winners were:
Best place to work
• One to 30 employees: BodyCentral Physical Therapy, 3124 N. Swan Road and 8327 N. Oracle Road.
• 31 to 75 employees: Pepper Viner Homes, 5633 E. Grant Road.
• 76 to 250 employees: Veterinary Specialty Center of Tucson, 4909 N. La Cañada Drive.
Business growth
• One to 30 employees: Pace Technologies, 3601 E. 34th St.
• 31 to 75 employees: Scientific Technologies Corp., 4400 E. Broadway, Suite 705.
• 76 to 250 employees: AGM Container Controls Inc., 3526 E. Fort Lowell Road.
Community service
• One to 30 employees: Film Creations Ltd., 2021 E. Broadway.
• 31 to 75 employees: Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, 259 N. Meyer Ave.
• 76 to 250 employees: Beach, Fleischman & Co., 1985 E. River Road, Suite 201.
Larry Finuf, regional president for Wells Fargo in Tucson and Greater Arizona, recalls that when the awards were first started in 1997, there were 72 nominations.
“This year, despite challenges in our economy, our 43 finalists were selected from more than 535 nominees,” Finuf said.
Attendance at the awards ceremonies has also grown, as was noted by Raymond Baer, manager for Wells Fargo Business Banking in Tucson, who said this year’s audience of nearly 600 was triple those who attended the first awards.
The emcees for the awards ceremonies were radio personality Bobby Rich, of Mix-FM KMXZ 94.9-FM, and Chuck George, chief meteorologist for KOLD 13.
In conjunction with the Copper Cactus Awards program, Wells Fargo awarded $2,000 scholarships to Aleena Astorga, Khoi Vo and Joseph Altamirano, who are studying business-related fields at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. So far, the Wells Fargo Copper Cactus scholarship program has awarded $78,000 to Eller students.
The judges for this year’s Copper Cactus Awards were Dorothy Finley, former chairwoman of Finley Distributing; Sharon Foltz, community relations director of Tucson Electric Power; Sherry Hoskinson, director of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship in the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona; Mark Irvin, managing member of Mark Irvin Commercial Real Estate Services; Joe Snell, president and CEO of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities; and Jonathan Walker, president and CEO of the Metropolitan Tucson Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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