On the evening of December 17, from 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST, GlobalPittsburgh will stream its fourth annual Immigrant Entrepreneur Celebration and Award Ceremony. The event, completely virtual for the first time, will recognize influential individuals in the greater Pittsburgh region that are either immigrants themselves or are American-born and work with immigrant populations. These individuals have been nominated for their contributions to the greater Pittsburgh community. The event will be centered around honoring and thanking them.
● Thirty-three entrepreneurs and professionals from twenty-five countries around the world have been nominated for awards in eight categories.
● Pre-recorded performances from the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra will be featured throughout the event.
● Stefani Pashman, CEO of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, will provide an introduction about the significant impact immigrant entrepreneurs have on the Pittsburgh region.
● A distinguished panel of judges have selected the finalists for the eight awards:
Michael Matesic, Idea Foundry; Max Miller, Raise Your Spirits; Kit Needham, Project Olympus, Carnegie Mellon University; Greta Kriner, Grove City College’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation; Anne Flynn Schlicht, Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship, Chatham University; LaKeisha Wolf, Ujamaa Collective; Gina Winstead, Vibrant Pittsburgh; Leah Simoncelli, Innovation Works; Sara Noel, The Global Switchboard; Scott Wolovich, New Sun Rising; Al Aqra, ZeMaas Inc.; Reed McManigle, Carnegie Mellon University Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation; Eliada Griffin-El, Robert Morris University Massey Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation; Tony Torres, University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute.
This year’s award categories include Arts and Culture, Community Service, Food Industry, Health and Wellness, Organizational Diversity Champion, Resilience Champion, Rising Startup Business, and Technological Innovation.
The evening’s sponsors to date include: Dentons Cohen & Grigsby; German American Chamber of Commerce, Pittsburgh; Edgewood Symphony Orchestra; University of Pittsburgh Small Business Development Center; and American Councils for International Education.
REGISTER TO ATTEND
The event will be streaming on Zoom. Admittance is free, pre-registration is required (register here). Donations to the organization will be deeply appreciated. The Immigrant Entrepreneur Celebration was launched in 2016 to showcase the talent, tenacity and innovative thinking of the “newest newcomers” who have made Pittsburgh their home and helped to make it a world-class city. Twenty-three foreign-born business owners and professionals received awards between 2016 and 2018.
Since 1959, GlobalPittsburgh (founded as the Pittsburgh Council for International Visitors) has cultivated a local network of resources and created valuable contacts for the region worldwide through its work with federally-funded international professional exchanges. GlobalPittsburgh has a network of over 500 members, volunteers, and citizen diplomats who ensure that visiting leaders and expatriates feel welcome in the Greater Pittsburgh community. For more information about GlobalPittsburgh programs, please visit http://www.globalpittsburgh.org, call 412.392.4513, or send an email to nkessler@globalpittsburgh.org.
