Pennsylvania Recognizes Businesses, Entrepreneurs at Inaugural ImPAct Awards Ceremony

The State of Pennsylvania and Governor Tom Corbett today recognized companies and entrepreneurs that are creating jobs and making positive contributions to the state’s economy at the inaugural Governor’s ImPAct Awards.

The Corbett administration created the awards initiative to honor businesses in Pennsylvania that are creating job opportunities and contributing to the state’s economy.

“Today we honor the men and women who spend countless hours providing the leadership and care that it takes to run a successful business,” Corbett said. “You are the champions partnering with us to put Pennsylvania on the path of growth.”

The Governor’s ImPAct Awards recognized 50 companies from throughout the state in five categories: Jobs First, Community Impact, Small Business Impact, Entrepreneurial Impact and Export Impact. The awardees were chosen by an independent judging panel selected by the state’s partners, Team Pennsylvania Foundation and Journal Multimedia.

Nominations for each award were provided by the state’s regional economic development partners — the Partnerships for Regional Economic Performance (PREP) network. Each of the 10 PREP regions was eligible to submit up to five nominations per category. A total of 250 nominations were received.

The Corbett administration developed the PREP network to regionalize and coordinate local economic development services to businesses and entrepreneurs. The Department of Community and Economic Development provides grants through PREP to local economic development service providers that provide assistance and other resources to support local business expansion and growth.

“Each of you, in some way, is why we have added more than 125,000 private sector jobs to Pennsylvania’s economy since I took office,” Corbett said. “Thank you for investing in Pennsylvania and for joining with my administration in proving that Pennsylvania is open for business.”

The awards are being sponsored at no cost to the taxpayers by the state’s private sector partner, Team Pennsylvania Foundation, and are being coordinated by DCED, Team PA and Journal Multimedia. Representatives from the Team PA Foundation and Journal Multimedia evaluated the nominations and selected the award recipients

A full list of winning companies is available at www.newPA.com/impact-awards.