Daily Business Report-April 18, 2017

Michael Bilodeau is owner and CEO of IO Environmental and Infrastructure, the SBA’s  national Subcontractor of the Year.

San Diego SBA District Office

to Salute Small Business Award Winners

The San Diego district office of the U.S. Small Business Administration will salute SBA Award winners at a May 4 luncheon at the San Diego Marriott in La Jolla.

Among the winners to be feted will be Michael Bilodeau, CEO of IO Environmental and Infrastructure — the Region IX and national Subcontractor of the Year. Bilodeau’s company, headquartered on Adams Avenue in San Diego, does environmental cleanup and remediation and habitat restoration.

The “I” in the company name stands for Ian, Bilodeau’s 16-year-old son attending San Diego High. The “O” is for Olivia, his 14-year-old daughter attending the Academy of Our Lady of Peace.

Other SBA Award winners:

• Small Business Person of the Year (San Diego District and California Winner): Lars Herman, president, Herman Construction Group Inc.
• Small Business Exporter of the Year (San Diego District and Region IX Winner): Jeff Silver, president and owner, Rough Draft Brewing Company
• Family-Owned Small Business of the Year: Carol Neyenesch Bentley, CEO, Cliff Neyenesch, chairman of the board, and Kandy Neyenesch, CFO, Neyenesch Printers.
• Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year: Sayed Ali, president, Interpreters Unlimited Inc.
• Veteran-Owned Small Business of the Year: Bernard Mercurio, senior adviser, Storehouse Trading Inc.
• Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year: Michelle Smith McLeod, president, Southwest Boulder& Stone Inc.
• Anthony Vigil Award For Company Growth Despite Adversity: Elizabeth Valenzuela Banker, CEO/president, Shore Solutions Inc.
• Financial Services Champion of the Year: Helen Johnson, VP/SBA business development officer, Pacific Western Bank.
• Minority Small Business Champion of the Year: Anthony Singleton, chief small business officer, UC San Diego.
• Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year: Lilia Smith, small business liaison officer, ViaSat Inc.
• Women In Business Champion of the Year: Karen Linehan and Alma Banuelos, outreach program managers, San Diego Unified School District.
• SBA Resource Partner of the Year: Sudershan Shaunak, director, North San Diego Small Business Development Center.
• SBA Director’s Award for SBA Mission Support: Paul Hollenbach, volunteer counselor, SCORE San Diego.
• SBA Director’s Award 
for Her Commitment to Helping Small Businesses Work with SANDAG: Elaine Richardson, Manager of Small Business Development, SANDAG

Read more…

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Petco Acquires PetCoach Digital

Services Company in Pennsylvania

San Diego-based Petco has acquired PetCoach, a digital services company in Wayne, Pa. that connects pet parents with experienced veterinary professionals for personalized answers to health and well-being questions about pets.

As part of the acquisition, Brock Weatherup, PetCoach co-founder and CEO, joins the national pet specialty retailer as executive vice president, strategic innovation and digital experience. In this new role, Weatherup will be responsible for driving Petco’s growth through innovation and enterprise-wide, consumer-focused digital initiatives.

“Nurturing powerful relationships for better lives together is at the heart of all we do,” said Petco CEO, Brad Weston. “As we continue evolving our value proposition — helping pet owners wherever and however they want to improve the health and well-being of their pet — we believe that an entrepreneurial and digital leader of Brock’s caliber will help Petco exceed the ever-changing digital expectations of the modern pet parent.”

In recent years, Weatherup has been engaged in the Philadelphia startup community as an angel investor, mentor, and community leader, including serving as volunteer president of Philly Startup Leaders. He will be relocating his family to San Diego.

Before co-founding PetCoach, Weatherup served as venture partner of tech accelerator ICONYC Labs and managing director of his angel investment fund, Atai Ventures.

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Shea Homes San Diego Acquires Carlsbad

Acreage for $26.5M for Mixed-Use Center

Shea Homes San Diego has acquired 17.7 acres of undeveloped land in Carlsbad to construct a new mixed-use specialty center located in the city’s Bressi Ranch area. The property consisted of lots 29 through 32 in Bressi Ranch and sold for $26.5 million.

The new specialty center is to include 125 for-sale luxury condominiums, a food market, a drive-through drug store and other retail shops on the site located along Palomar Airport Road. The retail center will feature a Main Street-like entry leading to new shops, services, and restaurants, all anchored by a specialty market and accented by patios, plazas, terraces, and courtyards designed to serve as gathering places for Bressi Ranch residents and guests.

According to Kevin McCook of Shea Properties, the condominiums will sell at prices beginning in the $600,000 range, while negotiations are currently in process with multiple tenants for the commercial center —although no official leases have been executed.

The property is bounded by Palomar Airport Road to the north, El Fuerte Street to the east, Gateway Road to the south, and the Colt Place cul-de-sac to the west. It sits directly across from Bressi Village retail center featuring a Trader Joe’s, a Stater Brothers, some restaurants, offices and other businesses, as well as Mulberry at Bressi, and is adjacent to Staybridge Suites.

Aric Starck and Dennis Visser of Cushman & Wakefield’s Carlsbad office represented the buyer and seller in the transaction.

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Report: Credit Unions in San Diego

County Generate $1.95 Billion Impact

Credit unions serving members in San Diego County generated a $1.95 billion annual impact to the region’s economy, which supported 12,560 local jobs and also produced $132 million in savings to those members according to a special report released Monday by the California Credit Union League.

The economic impact of both locally-headquartered and non-local credit unions serving members across the county in 2016 also contributed to the industry’s total statewide impact across California, which was $17 billion.

The 32 credit unions were serving more than 1.3 million members across San Diego County through a mixture of online and mobile banking channels, as well as a network of 171 branches that members can visit in person.

The report was commissioned by the League and independently completed and published by ECONorthwest, an economic research and consulting firm in Portland, Ore. The study looked at balance sheet, regulatory “call report,” and operational data to come to its conclusions. ECONorthwest completed an independent analysis of credit unions surveyed and used a “multiplier-effect” model to extrapolate its economic conclusions.

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Cubic Receives ‘Military Friendly Employer’

Award from Victory Media

Cubic has been selected by Victor Media as a silver-level Military Friendly Employer award recipient for 2017 in the more than $1 billion revenue category.

The company received the designation for its efforts to create job opportunities as well as hiring and retention programs for transitioning service members and their spouses who seek civilian employment, Cubic said.

Victory Media designated more than 200 companies as “military friendly” in 2017, including 154 employers that were recognized for excellence in different revenue categories.

Darryl Albertson, chief human resources and diversity officer of Cubic, said this is the fourth consecutive year that the company is included in the list.

Albertson added more than 40 percent of Cubic’s current workforce have served in the military.

Companies designated as a military friendly employer need to complete a 2017 Military Friendly survey to qualify for the awards program.

Awardees are scored based on three sources of data, publicly available company data, personal opinion of military employees and proprietary survey data.

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General Atomics Gets Contract to Provide

Battery System for Underwater Vehicle

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems has been awarded a contract to provide its Lithium-ion Fault Tolerant battery system for the Semi-Autonomous Hydrographic Reconnaissance Vehicle (SAHRV), a small, portable underwater vehicle.

The company is part of a team working with the Department of Defense to design, fabricate, deliver, and conduct at-sea testing of the LiFT battery system for use on the SAHRV platform. The SAHRV UUV is intended for shallow water surveillance to scan, detect and identify mines and other obstacles.

“Our modular, flexible LiFT battery systems are designed for integration into a wide range of platforms, and have been successfully tested for use on a manned submersible,” said Scott Forney, president of GA-EMS.  “The goal of this new contract is to provide a safe, fault-tolerant, high energy density system that achieves the safety certification approvals required for an unlimited ship carry-on capability and to provide the energy needed to maximize mission assurance whenever and wherever the SAHRV is deployed.”

GA-EMS’ LiFT battery system is designed for use on manned and unmanned underwater vehicles and platforms. LiFT’s single cell fault tolerance prevents uncontrolled cascading cell failure. This ensures the safety of on-board personnel and keeps systems operational through faults to enable mission completion, according to the company.

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Grossmont College Awarded $410,000 to Bolster

Apprenticeships in High-Demand Careers

Grossmont College has been awarded a $410,000 state grant for an innovative outreach program preparing hundreds of high school students and adult learners from diverse East County communities for much-needed apprenticeships.

The project aims to boost awareness about apprenticeships and improve students’ math and English literacy that are needed to succeed. The centerpiece of the program is a Pre-Apprentice Mobile (PAM) Lab that will serve as an outreach and education vehicle at career fairs, high schools, and adult schools in an effort to spread the word about apprenticeship opportunities and begin preparing interested students to become apprentices.

“Grossmont College has long played a key role in the economic development of our region.  This grant will advance our ability to connect up to 500 traditional learners and digital natives to pre-apprenticeship training in underserved communities,” said Grossmont College President Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh. “The award will allow us to broaden our educational and skills offerings to a larger audience and continue to offer high-quality career-technical education leading to sustainable, well-paid careers.”