MERRILLVILLE | In the last 18 years, the Northwest Indiana Small Business Development Center has honored nearly 100 men and women who have built Northwest Indiana's economy. At Thursday's Entrepreneurial Excellence Award Luncheon at the Radisson Hotel, the SBDC recognized 18 companies and individuals who will help rebuild that economy.
Leigh E. Morris of LaPorte was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the SBDC, joining the ranks of past recipients including Denis Ribordy, Dean White, Mamon Powers Jr. and Barb Young.
Morris serves as deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Transportation for Toll Road Oversight and is chairman of the board of the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. He also was mayor of LaPorte from 2004 to 2008, and was president/CEO of LaPorte Regional Health System for 21 years.
In her keynote speech, Peggy Lewandowski noted that Morris reinvented himself as a regional leader at age 73. Lewandowski, director of entrepreneurial development for the Michigan-based Edward Lowe Foundation, said business and community leaders like those honored at the luncheon need to be revolutionaries.
As revolutionaries, she told the audience to think outside the box, to not wait until everything was perfect to find new markets or new products to sell, to create their own opportunities, to continuously reinvent themselves and to not let naysayers stop them.
Danny S. Jones, president of Security Industries in Hobart was selected Small Business Person of the Year. Jones formed his company in 2003 after more than 30 years as an industrial/heavy commercial contractor specializing in security, fencing and doors.
Others nominated in this category were America's Nutrition of Valparaiso, headed by Michael Hart; and Lakeside Wealth Management Group of Chesterton, jointly owned by Mark Chamberlain and Tim Rice.
Matt Saltanovitz, assistant business/topical editor at The Times received a NWI SBDC Champion of the Year award at the luncheon. He was recognized for his understanding and promoting of small businesses, and for the personal finance blog, "Cheap Guys," that he writes with fellow Times staffer Bowdeya Tweh.
Other SBDC awards went to the following:
* Andrea Pearman, publisher of "Building Indiana News" magazine -- Small Business Journalist of the Year/Champion Award
* Maggie Reister Walters with the Business and Professional Women -- Women in Business Champion of the Year
* Rex Richards, president of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce -- Small Business Advocate of the Year/Champion Award
* Rita Bacevich of HDW Commercial Interiors of Hobart -- Minority Small Business Person of the Year
* Gwen and Robert Shaver, owners of Riah Salon in St. John -- Emerging Small Business of the Year
* Johnny Mathis Jr., CEO of Livemercial in Valparaiso -- Entrepreneurial Success Award
* Carl and Lorrie Lisek of Legacy Environmental of St. John -- NWI SBDC Client of the Year
* Brian Rusin, vice president of commercial lending at Peoples Bank in Munster -- NWI SDBC Champion of the Year"
Entrepreneurs have been the core of every revolution," Lewandowski said. "Complacency is not an option in good time or in bad."
