BEDP Turns 10

In June, the Business and Economic Development Program celebrated its 10th anniversary with nearly 500 alumni, friends, faculty, students, dignitaries, mentors and clients at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.

The keynote speaker, Lenny Wilkens, spoke of the good fortune, networking and perseverance that delivered him from humble beginnings in Harlem to becoming an NBA Hall of Fame player and coach, and now running a successful small business in Bellevue.

Other speakers, including Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Simms, celebrated the BEDP's maturation from a small initiative to help expand Seattle's inner-city businesses to a multi-faceted program that cultivates small and minority-owned businesses around Washington state.

The economic impact has been considerable. Since 1995, the work of 600 UW Business School students, advised by alumni and prominent Seattle business leaders, has helped 250 small businesses and non-profit organizations throughout Washington. The BEDP has helped create or retain 500 jobs, and sparked $14.5 million in new revenues in the Seattle area alone. In 2005, 90 students, 29 Rotary mentors and 24 alumni advisers worked with 15 businesses. The BEDP also sponsors the UW Minority Business of the Year Awards, the Minority CEO Summit and the Celebration of African American Business Achievement, and has developed the Colville Tribe Executive Education Program in conjunction with the Business School's Executive Programs office.

Proceeds from the program's 10th anniversary celebration support the Thaddeus H. Spratlen Endowment for the BEDP.

Return to August 2005 BA Alumni News