ORNL Small Business Impact Award winners, pictured, left to right: Jeremy Shoop, City-State LLC; T.J. Kocak and Roger Claiborne, Pellissippi Investors LLC; Cindy and Michael Hollander, Innovative Design Inc.; Vicki Dyer and Wendi Arnold, Scientific Sales Inc.; Elizabeth Vacanti, ORNL; Beau Scherer, Scientific Sales Inc.; Barry Stephenson, Materials and Chemistry Laboratory Inc. (MCLinc); Gabe Beck, City State LLC; Debbie Pohanka, Scientific Sales Inc.; and Brittany Voigt, Innovative Design LLC. (Photo courtesy ORNL)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory recognized local and regional companies with annual Small Business Impact Awards on March 27 at the weekly meeting of the East Tennessee Economic Council in Oak Ridge.
The companies were honored in categories emphasizing their specific capabilities.
The Above and Beyond Award went to the small business Pellissippi Investors LLC. The company is the landlord for ORNL’s National Transportation Resource Centers I and II, which house several highly advanced research laboratories. Pellissippi Investors was instrumental in ensuring that tenant improvements to the facilities were executed properly despite demanding research schedules and tight budgets.
The Innovator Award was given to Materials and Chemistry Laboratory, or MCLinc. This commercial applied research firm is a small business located in Oak Ridge. MCLinc developed a unique method used for the analysis of filters from the cooling system at the Spallation Neutron Source, despite a challenging analytical scenario.
The Partnership Award went to a large and small business working together as a team on an ORNL project. This year’s winners are Innovative Design Inc., a small disadvantaged, women-owned business located in Knoxville, and the U.S. ITER project. Innovative Design has provided design and engineering support to ORNL, and uses creative solutions to assist the Laboratory in finding the right fit for positions, even if its own employees have to step in to work quickly and cost-effectively to complete a job.
The Rising Star Award recognized City-State LLC, a HUBZone firm located in Knoxville. The company has been an outstanding participant in the ORNL Mentor-Protégé program for three-and-a-half years. City-State has worked in waste management and other project support areas throughout the U.S. Department of Energy. At ORNL, the company has been instrumental in supporting the DOE Critical Materials Institute. The company also provides wastewater transportation and management, while generating significant monetary savings for ORNL.
The Marketplace Award went to Scientific Sales Inc., in Oak Ridge. This small disadvantaged, women-owned business provides scientific equipment and laboratory supplies through hundreds of major brands. Sales are now conducted through the ORNL Marketplace, through which employees can “shop” for supplies. The company uses its expertise and exceptional customer service to support ORNL and several other DOE sites, including Savannah River, Sandia, Hanford, Lawrence Livermore, and others.
The ORNL Small Business Advocate Award for 2015 went to ORNL staff member Elizabeth Vacanti, subcontract administrator in the Business Services Directorate, for her support of small business through outreach and subcontracting activities.
UT-Battelle LLC procurement operations are led by LeAnne Stribley, director, Acquisition Management Services Division, which resides in the Business Services Directorate, headed by Chief Financial Officer Scott Branham. Cassandra McGee Stuart manages the Small Business Programs Office.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov/.
