|
|
|
Our Own Top-Ten List: Standing Tall for Education
|
Business New Haven
1/26/1998
By: BNH
|
Having conferred our Business & Civic Awards for three years now, those of us who bring you this publication can safely conclude that the process and product of these awards has passed the test of time - mainly because the awardees themselves have passed the same test.
Honorees from previous years have continued to be leaders and even (to use an increasingly risky identifier) role models in the commercial and civic life of southern Connecticut. And we are confident that the Class of '98, whose exploits you will read of on these pages, will be no different.
That's not to say it's not a diverse group. There are few places where time-tested heads of large organizations such as People's Bank CEO David E.A. Carson, University of New Haven President Lawrence J. DeNardis or United Aluminum Chairman Robert Lapides rub elbows with bootstrapping entrepreneurs such as Brushworks President Alisa Bowens or the hotshot gene-splicers who are driving CuraGen's success.
One notable departure from our past awards was the splitting of our Corporate Citizenship award into four pieces. We did this because we wanted to spotlight the many contributions - and different kinds of contributions - made by so many area businesses to our educational institutions, the molders and keepers of our future workforce.
Like the proverbial saw about the weather, education is something many are quick to complain about but few are quick to do something about. Not so this group. In their respective fashions, Bayer, BHC, A-1 Toyota and AEP have demonstrated the courage of their convictions in improving the many lives their efforts touch.
Not to imply that they are the only ones; indeed, the point is that they are not. Larry DeNardis presides over one of the state's largest educational institutions. As chairman of one of the first companies of its kind to achieve ISO 9000 certification, Robert Lapides' United Aluminum Corp. is deservedly known as a company with very high training standards.
David Carson's People's Bank puts its money where its mouth is in contributing significantly to educational initiatives in Bridgeport and throughout the state, and provides major support for educational programming on Connecticut Public Television. Meanwhile, Carson personally puts his mouth where his bank's money is by regularly reading to schoolchildren as a Literacy Volunteer of America.
George Clarke of Clarke's Clean Control is a fellow known to take a chance on a job-seeker with a checkered past, providing that worker with training and something even more valuable - an opportunity. And CuraGen founders Greg Went and Jonathan Rothberg are unlikely candidates to argue the importance of an education; both have the letters “Ph.D” following their names.
In honoring these ten individuals and organizations and producing this special edition of Business New Haven, we learn many valuable lessons about excellence, innovation and commitment. But perhaps the most valuable lesson of all of those is how much more we all still need to learn to one day fill the giant footsteps our most outstanding leaders leave on their paths to greatness. BNH
|
Go FirstGo PreviousGo
NextGo LastGo
to Index
|
|
