Annual Nunn-Perry Awards honor outstanding mentor-protege teams: three San Diego-based businesses recognized at ceremony in Temecula

San Diego Business Journal, April 23, 2007 by Pat Broderick

The Department of Defense Mentor-Protege Program has been hooking up big corporations with small businesses since 1991 to help navigate them through the labyrinth of the prime contracting and subcontracting world.

In 1995, the DoD presented its first Nunn-Perry Awards, named for former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and former Defense Secretary William Perry.

According to the DoD, the program has proven to be quite lucrative for its participants. In 2006, the average annual revenue for the proteges who had won Nunn-Perry Awards rose by $1 million, with three winners increasing their annual take by more than 100 percent. Overall, the nine mentor-protege winners that year created a total of 224 new employees, with an average of 32 new employees per company, said the DoD.

The latest awards, which recognize outstanding mentor-protege relationships, were given out March 7 at a ceremony in Temecula.

Three of the eight proteges honored were from San Diego-based businesses: Epsilon Systems Solutions Inc., and Geodetics Inc., mentored by Lockheed Martin MS2's Undersea Systems; and Hi-Tech Electronic Manufacturing Inc., teamed with Northrop Grumman Corp.

Previous San Diego-based winners have been Delphi Research Inc., mentored by Joint Test, Tactics and Training LLC, Edwards Air Force Base, 2005; Consulting Group, with Tetra Tech EM Inc., San Francisco, 2004; and Technology Management Inc., with the Boeing Co., 2000.