Emory honored with SBA award

By Eric Rangus erangus@emory.edu

Emory received the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Award of Distinction at a 20-minute ceremony in the board room of the Administration Building, Sept. 10. Mitchell Morand, the SBA’s acting area director, presented the octagonal jade crystal award to

President Bill Chace. Emory is the first educational institution to be recognized with an Award of Distinction, which is given to less than 2 percent of all eligible business, nonprofit or otherwise.
The award was initiated in 1985 to recognize large federal contractors with exceptional small business subcontracting programs.

“When we look at universities as a whole, Emory stands by itself as it relates to small businesses [SBs], small disadvantaged businesses [SDBs] and women-owned businesses [WOBs],” Morand said. “As far as goals and percentages awarded, you stand way above the rest.”

Many companies—universities included—set goals in the neighborhood of awarding 30 percent of their subcontracting dollars to SBs, SDBs and WOBs. Emory averages over 50 percent per contract.

The award essentially honors Emory for striving toward diversity, even in areas not normally considered in a cultural discussion, like purchasing.

“These goals are deeply a part of the University and what it aspires to do,” Chace said. “This is a wonderful day for us.”

Chace particularly lauded the work of Rex Hardaway, director of procurement and materials services, and Mary Ellen McClellan, assistant director of procurement and materials services. McClellan works with the Office of Sponsored Programs and various principal investigators to develop realistic goals for small business participation. She then monitors these contracts for compliance and reports all small business contract expenditures to the SBA.

Emory has relationships with dozens of subcontractors, procuring items such as office and medical supplies and services like printing, duplicating and even janitorial work.

One such Emory subcontractor is Cosh Healthcare, a distributor of medical and scientific laboratory supplies and furniture. Cosh’s owner, Karen Shinault, and her husband Ronald were also in attendance. Cosh, which qualifies as an SB, SDB and a WOB, has a 12-year relationship with Emory, and it serves as a prime example of the way Emory has developed mature and long-lasting ties with small businesses.

“We’ve been recognized as a viable, professional organization around campus, and we’ve been able to build on those relationships around campus,” Ronald Shinault said.

Small businesses, while they come in many forms, are generally defined as those with 500 or fewer employees.

Small disadvantaged businesses are those small businesses that are majority-owned by one or more individuals determined to be socially or economically challenged. African, Native, Hispanic and Asian-Pacific-Americans can be classified as socially challenged, and economically challenged individuals are those people “whose ability to compete in the free-enterprise system has been impaired due to diminished capital and credit opportunities,” as stated by the SBA.

A woman-owned business is one in which the majority owner or owners are female—they do not necessarily have to be SBs or SDBs.