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Presented by First Commercial Bank, this event was created to unveil and honor Huntsville/Madison County’s outstanding employers whose benefits, policies and practices are among the region’s best. More than 100 businesses were initially nominated for the award.

Winners were determined based solely on a survey completed by employees and tabulated by an independent third party, Quantum Workplace, a research partner for the nationwide Best Places to Work™ competition. Quantum Workplace administers more than 5,000 employee engagement surveys each year. Winners were selected in three categories: organizations with between 25 and 74 local employees; organizations with between 75 and 249 local employees; and employers with 250 local employees or more.

Chamber Board Chair Irma Tuder opened the event and praised the companies and their employees for helping to make the community an economic gem that is being recognized nationally and internationally.

“At a time when many in the world are experiencing an economic downturn or outright recession, our dynamic community continues to stand tall,” Tuder said. “Such economic growth and recognition is not possible without great employers with great employees.”

Bryan Cordell, a well-known radio personality in the Tennessee Valley and the founder of Miccheck7 Productions, served as master of ceremony for the event and told attendees that being named a best place to work in a community full of great companies and organizations was a great accomplishment.

“It is obvious that there are much more than 15 best places to work in Huntsville/Madison County, in fact there are probably hundreds,” Cordell said. “But for the next year, 15 of these best of the best can enjoy the honor and the privilege of being recognized as one of the community’s Best Places to Work.”

The top 15 ranked companies include a diverse group of businesses and organizations in the Huntsville/Madison County community. Continue »

The winners of the second annual Best Places to Work competition know that it takes more than hiring good people to be a best place to work in this community. It requires developing programs that help retain employees and maintain high levels of employee satisfaction.

The company is the creator and manufacturer of a large inflatable antenna that is easily deployable and far cheaper than conventional static antennas. The company’s product has been used by the military and disaster relief agencies in places such as the mountains of Afghanistan and in New Orleans in the immediate wake of Hurricane Katrina.

During the last five years, GATR has grown from a two-person research effort to a multi-million dollar company, employing some 20 full and part-time employees and bolstering many other local companies with material and technical subcontracts.
Don Nalley, chair-elect of the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County Board of Directors said that the company is representative of the businesses in Huntsville/Madison County.

“In a time of national economic downturn, GATR truly represents the best of what our community has to offer – entrepreneurial spirit and the creation of technology that can be traced back to working in the nation’s space program,” said.

Brenda Martin, Director of Multicultural Affairs for the City of Huntsville, congratulated the company on its achievements on behalf of the City of Huntsville.

“GATR Technologies is an excellent example of the kind of company that thrives inNorth Alabama,” Martin, said. “Using an innovative approach to solve a common and persistent problem in military, humanitarian and industry communications, Paul Gierow leveraged a great idea, this community’s talented engineers and technicians, Redstone Arsenal’s contracting resources, local expertise and technical facilities and his own hard work and dedication.”

GATR founder and president Paul Gierow said that the company’s success allows for more humanitarian efforts such as bringing communications capabilities to rural areas. He also described the “secret sauce” of success in Huntsville.

“The secret sauce for being a successful business in Huntsville is not only having the technology, but it is our government customers. It takes the risk of government employees to use your product,” he said.

“Our technology is cool, but we have proven that our technology also works,” said Gierow.

It took Frank Caprio, Chamber board member and TRC vice chair, several minutes to recognize all of the volunteers who are making this year’s campaign the most successful ever. More than 50 volunteers were called out for their efforts.

More than 100 drivers are involved in the 2009 Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville Madison County TRC “Chase for the Championship” and are off to a record fast start. To date more than $930,000 has been raised during the race, with “Repeat O’ Fenders” team captain Joe Green (SAIC) leading the charge for the first week of open racing.

The overall race leader is Carrie McCrillis with more than $70,000 raised to date. Drafting behind her is Lee Lester, Regions Bank. The team in the lead with 11 drivers is “Bandit and the Dames of Thunder” led by Lisa Lane, owner of Savvy gifts. The rookie driver of the week was Stephen Hall, Bradly Arant Boult and Cummings. Unlike a real NASCAR race (such as the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway held on April 26 where the competition was so fierce it led to several high-speed wrecks that took out numerous cars) the TRC drivers are having fun with a competition designed to help the businesses in the community maximize their targeted marketing opportunities. Several key sponsorships have sold out already so organizations are encouraged not to wait until the final lap to learn about other sponsorship opportunities. Contact Loren Traylor today at 535-2028 or email her at Ltraylor@hsvchamber.org for more information.

“We are honored to receive this award,” stated Rey Almodovar, CEO of Intuitive. “We value our customers and strive to provide the best services and products. This award is also a testament to our employees and their outstanding performance. ”

Every year the SBA honors small businesses that have provided the federal government with outstanding goods and services as prime contractors. Prime Contractor of the Year nominations are judged on the following criteria: overall management, financial strength, labor relations, customer interface, technical capabilities, resource utilization, cost performance, delivery performance, quality performance, special achievements, and exceptional results.

Within each of the 10 regions, the SBA chooses one regional business for this award. Intuitive won for Region IV, which includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Intuitive will compete with other Regional winners for the National Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year Award to be presented at Small Business Week 2009, May 18-19, 2009, in Washington, DC.

The campaign, “Dream It. Do It (DIDI),” was formed to address the issues of workforce shortages in the nation’s manufacturing sector. The program is currently being implemented in Mobile.

DIDI surveyed manufacturers and found that that 80 percent of them had a “moderate to serious” shortage in the workforce. Among the problems found was that young people had an “outdated” image of manufacturing. The campaign aims at promoting manufacturing jobs as jobs that pay well and are engaging.

“This launch is the culmination of three years of preparation and planning. Its purpose is to enlighten 16-26 year-olds, their parents, counselors and teachers about exciting, challenging, high-wage careers in manufacturing,” said Ronnie Boles, the campaign’s chair and owner of General and Automotive Machine Shop.

The launch of the Tennessee Valley Initiative of DIDI will be held May 5 at SciQuest.
For more information about the campaign, visit www.sci-quest.org/home/special_events/career_quest.phtml.