ARIZONA COMPANIES Minority-owned, ranked by 2013 revenue
1 Arrowhead Advertising
Tran Tran, Axis Employment Services, LLC
16155 N. 83rd Ave., Suite 205, Peoria, 85382 • 623-979-3000 • arrowheadadv.com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $269 million PRINCIPAL Kyle Eng, president, CEO FOUNDED 2003 AZ EMPLOYEES 85 HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Michelle Shepherd, CFO
2 Sunwest Employer Services
3707 N. 7th St., Suite 300, Phoenix, 85014 • 602-778-9856 • sunwestes.com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $47.5 million PRINCIPALAND HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Rebeccah T Sotelo, president FOUNDED 1991 AZ EMPLOYEES 2,500
3 Spirit Electronics LLC
23910 N. 19th Ave., Suite 26, Phoenix, 85085 • 480-998-1533 • spiritelectronics.com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $35.4 million PRINCIPAL AND HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Vickie Wessel, president FOUNDED 1979 AZ EMPLOYEES 11
Concrete Placement Co. Inc. 4 Hardrock
4839 W. Brill St. , Phoenix, 85043 • 602-2333334 • hrconcrete.com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $29 million PRINCIPAL Lee Lopez, president FOUNDED 1989 AZ EMPLOYEES 250 HIGHESTRANKING WOMAN Cindy Kennemer, vice president
CEO FINDS RICHES IN AMERICA MOST LITTLE GIRLS spend time play-
ing outside, riding bikes, climbing trees. But when employment specialist Tran Tran was 9, she had other things on her mind. “(My family) fled Vietnam two weeks before the fall of Saigon,” she recounts. “We were in the very first wave of refugees to come to the United States in 1975. We had nothing but the clothes on our back.” The refugees stayed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., until a family in Arizona sponsored them. “There was culture shock in the way people lived in America,” Tran says. “Our sponsor lived at the Biltmore. I thought we’d been sponsored by a king! I’d never seen that kind of wealth in my life. I came from a third-world country, and shared a single bedroom with five brothers and sisters. I thought everyone here is so rich!” She made the transition from refugee to resident within a few months. “I spoke no English,” she says. “I was put into an English-as-second-language class. By the end of that year, I’d won the class spelling bee. I was on the fast track in school from then on.” After earning a degree in business communication, Tran worked at cable news stations in California. She soon discovered she really didn’t like it. Through a chance encounter, she found herself
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working at a staffing company. “I fell in love with the industry, being able to meet different people every day, being able to do a matchmaking service and get rewarded for it,” she says. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the company she was working for closed. Tran decided that was a good time to strike out on her own. She started Axis Employment Services, offering fullservice staffing, temporary, temp-to-hire, direct hire and executive searches. Even though she’s the CEO, she still remembers the very first placement she made. “I got a call from the woman I placed,” Tran recalls. “She asked me what my favorite food was. I told her eggplant Parmesan. A few days later, she showed up at the office. She baked me eggplant Parmesan and brought her kids to meet me. You can’t beat that high.” Tran uses that as an example of how important she feels it is to affect the lives of other people. “We get a chance to make an impact on someone else’s life,” she says. “It’s my job to connect people with the right organization so that they’re happy, and can stay there and be fruitful employees. I wake up every morning and say to myself ’I want to affect the life of one person today in a positive way.’ I don’t care what it is, I just want to affect one person.”
5 Solugenix Corp.
14605 N. Airport Drive, Suite 217, Scottsdale, 85260 • 602-334-4550 • solugenix.com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $26.3 million PRINCIPAL Shashi Jasthi, president, CEO FOUNDED 2004 AZ EMPLOYEES 17 HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN No designee
6 DP Electric
6002 S. Ash Ave., Tempe, 85283 • 480-858-9070 • dpelectric.com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $24 million PRINCIPAL Dan Puente, president FOUNDED 1990 AZ EMPLOYEES 134 HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Maggie Puente, treasurer/secretary
7 N'Genuity Enterprises Co. Inc.
8901 E. Pima Center Parkway, Scottsdale, 85258 • 480-595-6872 • ngenuity.net 2013 GROSS REVENUE $22.5 million PRINCIPAL AND HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Valerie LittleChief, president FOUNDED 1996 AZ EMPLOYEES 2
8 At Your Service Cos.
9226 N. 5th Ave., Phoenix, 85021 • 602-943-6318 • atyourservicecompanies. com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $7.3 million PRINCIPAL Joe Lizarraga, manager FOUNDED 1988 AZ EMPLOYEES 15 HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Jean Lizarraga, CFO
9 Axis Employment Services LLC
1500 E. Bethany Home Road, Suite 110, Phoenix, 85015 • 602-242-2626 • axisemployment.com 2013 GROSS REVENUE $2.1 million PRINCIPAL AND HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Tran Tran, founder, CEO FOUNDED 2002 AZ EMPLOYEES 75
10 Data Doctors
1400 E. Southern Ave., Tempe, 85282 • 480-921-2444 • datadoctors .com 2013 GROSS REVENUE DND PRINCIPAL Ken Colburn, founder and president FOUNDED 1988 AZ EMPLOYEES 248 HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Melinda Verrilli, director of finance
CHRISTOPHER GEOFFREY MCPHERSON
WHO’S WHO IN BUSINESS 2014
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5/28/14 6:48 PM