El Pasoan named Texas Small Business Person of the Year
An El Paso business owner has been named the SBA’s Small Business Person of the Year not just for the city, but for the entire state of Texas.
Von Washington owns IDA Technology, a defense contractor that evaluates and tests weapons on behalf of the U.S. Army.
Washington founded the tech company in 2007 after 25 years in the military. He was nominated for the state award by the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
The SBA, or the Small Business Administration, requires nominees to provide information about their company going back 10 years, including their outreach to the community. Washington told ABC-7 that winning the state recognition is a tribute to the community.
“We made the decision to stay here, to retire here, to build our business here. We’ve never been disappointed in that decision,” says Washington. “This is a fantastic group of people. Everyone who works for our team are local — either grew up here, educated here. It just shows there is great talent here in El Paso.”
According to its website, the vision is to establish a culture of excellence in every task, every relationship, every day.
Some of their most recent awards are The Minority Enterprise Development Week in 2013 and The El Paso State of Texas Best Practices Technology Firm of the Year in 2011.
