May 14, 2012
The Tulsa Metro Chamber honored emerging entrepreneurs and Tulsa-area small business leaders at the 2012 Crystal Star Small Business Awards luncheon May 14 at The Tulsa Convention Center. Behfar Jahanshahi, CEO and president of InterWorks, Inc., was named Small Business Person of the Year.
“The small businesses in our region create two out of every three jobs and have an estimated economic impact of $1.4 billion,” said Billy Kulkin, chair of the Chamber’s Small Business Council and president of Cubic, Inc. “The entrepreneurial achievements of the Tulsa region’s emerging businesses and small business leaders make a significant contribution to our regional economy.”
The Small Business Awards luncheon featured a keynote speech by Paul J. Corson, acting director of the U.S Department of Commerce’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
The Crystal Star awards are presented annually following a rigorous nomination, application and judging process. Award winners potentially can go on to compete for state and national honors. The Chamber’s awards were created to recognize that small business is the foundation of the American economy. In the Tulsa area, 84 percent of all businesses are small businesses.
The state’s thriving oil and gas industry added 12,000 jobs in the last two years, according to a newly-released study commissioned by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board. Of those jobs, about a third were added in the Tulsa region.
Asbury United Methodist Church has been named the 2011-12 Partner of the Year for the Chamber’s Partners In Education program.
The Chamber hosted its 11th annual State of Education Address last week. The luncheon serves as an annual display of the Chamber’s commitment to education as part of its long-term strategic plan for the region.
The Tulsa Metro Chamber hosted a press conference May 9 at which dozens of regional partners and elected officials showed their support for a contract that would save jobs at American Airlines’ Tulsa MRO facility.
