Portland Business Alliance holds Top Ten Growth Awards

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), May 19, 2005 by Kennedy Smith

The Portland Business Alliance held its annual meeting and Top Ten Growth Awards Wednesday.

Being a top growing business is an honor in our community, said Mark Dodson, chair of the Portland Business Alliance. We received more applications this year than any other year, which is an indication that our local economy is improving.

Ten companies in three size categories received recognition. In the small business category, the recipients were Witham and Dickey Inc., Edelman, The Fruit Co. and Convergence Networks. In the medium- sized company category, the winners were Oregon Aero Inc., Oregon Financial Services Group, and Buena Vista Custom Homes. Large companies recognized for their growth in 2004 were Freightliner LLC, Umpqua Bank and Market Contractors Ltd.

Keynote speaker Tim Boyle, president of Columbia Sportswear Co., expressed longstanding concerns over recent actions of some local government bodies, particularly the city of Portland's attempt to acquire PGE.

Boyle asked the audience to consider whether it would invest in the city if it were a business rather than a government entity, and said that Portland should do what it does well, which doesn't include running an electric utility.

What would the City's prospectus say? he said. We're spending time and money learning a new business while cutting funding to schools. We can't afford to jail offenders, and we dropped out of a national anti-terrorism task force. Would you invest in this business?

Attendance for the event was at an all-time high, with approximately 1,000 attendees.