Banneker CEO wins R.I. minority business honors

PROVIDENCE – The U.S. Small Business Administration today announced it has named Cheryl Watkins Snead, founder, president and CEO of Banneker Industries in North Smithfield, the 2007 Rhode Island Minority Small Business Person of the Year.
“Ms. Snead exhibits a quality-minded and participative management style, which converted a failing machine shop into a world-class provider of supply-chain management services,” the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, Mass., wrote in nominating her for the award.
The first African American woman to earn a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, she went on to earn an MBA from Purdue University and receive an honorary doctorate in business administration from Bryant University.
Snead founded Banneker in 1991 as a machine shop specializing in precision machining of components for the defense industry. In 1994, the company was admitted to the SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program, giving it the opportunity to market manufacturing and supply-chain management services to all federal agencies.
“Cheryl Snead is a tremendously successful business owner who is an inspiration and mentor, especially to minority and women entrepreneurs,” Mark S. Hayward, director of the SBA’s Rhode Island District Office, said in today’s announcement. “[She] is truly deserving of recognition as the minority small business person of the year.”
Snead is one of seven minority entrepreneurs, advocates and SBA lenders who will be honored during an awards dinner Oct. 24 at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet in Cranston.
Also honored will be the participating lenders who made the most SBA loans to minority-owned small businesses in Rhode Island in fiscal 2007: Citizens Bank, receiving the Gold Award; Bank of America, the Silver Award; Sovereign Bank, the Bronze Award; and Westerly Community Credit Union, the award for Most Improved Minority Lending.
The dinner is just part of the SBA’s annual Minority Enterprise Development Week, Oct. 22 to 26, celebrating the outstanding achievements of small minority businesses and their contributions to the national economy.
The local minority enterprise week is co-sponsored by the SBA’s Providence office and the Rhode Island Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce. Besides the awards dinner, Ocean State MED events that week will include a networking reception; a half-dozen free professional development workshops; and a “matchmaker” fair where small business owners can meet individually with representatives of local, state and federal agencies, and with purchasing agents from major corporations.
Additional information about local Minority Enterprise Development Week activities is available from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Rhode Island District Office by visiting www.sba.gov/ri or calling 528-4561.