Thursday, February 27, 2014

Washington Business Journal Minority Business Leaders Award 2014

In its 7th year, the Washington Business Journal recognizes the Washington region's top 25 minority business owners and leaders in the Minority Business Leader Awards. I was honored to be list for 2012 and here is my story.



  • 2014 Minority Business Leader Awards

    When:
     Thursday, March 20, 2014,
    6:30pm-9:30pm Add to my calendar
Here are this years 2014 Minority Business Leaders Honorees
Mario Acosta-Velez
Verizon
Brian E. Argrett 
City First Bank of D.C.
Andre Banks
Forest City Washingto
Alex Barron
Walmart U.S.
Kenneth J. Brewer Sr.
H Street Community Development Corp
Timothy Chi
WeddingWire Inc.
Kris Collo
MicroPact Inc.
Valarie  Dock
Bolana Enterprises Inc
Al Espinoza
Innotion Enterprises Inc.
Andres Gonzalez
Finesa Real Estate Group
Carl Hairston
M&T Bank
Randy Hayman
District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (D.C. Wate
Linnie Haynesworth
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Sonny Kakar
Sevatec Inc.
Clayton Lawrence
Lawrence Executive Alliance of Professionals (LEAP) LLC
Yoon-Young Lee
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Michael Marshall
Marshall Moya Design LLC
Bo Menkiti
The Menkiti Group & Keller Williams Capital Properties
Paola Moya
Marshall Moya Design LLC
Dolly Oberoi
C² Technologies Inc. 
Cassandra Pinkney
Eagle Academy PCS
Deborah Scott Thomas
Data Solutions & Technology Inc.
Venkat Subramanian
Angarai International Inc.
David Thomas
Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business
Joseph West
Minority Corporate Counsel Association Inc.

Location:

Ritz-Carlton Washington DC
1150 22nd St NW
Washington, DC 20037
Time:
6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
  • Where: Ritz-Carlton DC
    1150 22nd Street NW Washington DC 20037

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Who is the Microsoft CEO following on Twitter?

Microsoft's new CEO Satya Nadella promises to be more social. Soon after he took over as the CEO of Microsoft this week, his Twitter bio was immediately changed and he posted this updatre on Twitter" first commitment as CEO

According to the Twitter Counter blog Satya Nadella whose Twitter id is @SatyaNadellawent from 1,500 to 80,000 in less than 48 hours!. He has 119k followers at the time of writing this post.
Who is Satya Nadella following? What interests can we ascertain from the people Satya Nadella follows. We used a tool called Wordle (Wordle.net) pasting the profiles of the 29 people he is following and got this word cloud. Business, Technology, CEo, helping learn were the words that were top of mind for us on seeing this word cloud I created on Wordle.
As a business person who do you follow on social media. What do you think your world cloud shows.

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

America should be proud of Satya Nadella becoming the CEO of Microsoft


Today (Feb 5th 2014) Satya Nadella started as the CEO of Microsoft. 46 years old,  Nadella was born in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. We share the same roots, I was born in the same state and have lived all over the world. 

This is a triumph for America.  Satya Nadella made it by his inspiration and hard work. As long as he delivered no one cared about where he came from. I look at my own journey moving careers and then Soedning.almost 11 years in Network Solutions. I progressed  from Customer Service to Head of Social Media at Network Solutions and am now VP of Digital Marketing at Bozzuto . Every day I meet many entrepreneurs, many of them migrants  and watch them succeed through hard work, innovation and the will to succeed. That is what it takes to succeed in the US, not how you look or where you came from.

Congratulations! Satya Nadella.


Sunday, February 02, 2014

Stay Positive. The World is Full of Good People : Photo Diary of the Emergency Landing of UA 3759

In brief : On Wednesday January 29th 2014 I was flying to Boston on United to attend an event at Bozzuto's  brand new apartment community in Boston Atmark Apartments.I  take a lot of photos chronicling interesting places, events, food and most things that are interesting to me and my audience. In this instance the flight (UA 3759) had issues and had to make an emergency landing in Wilmington,  Delaware. Taking photos and sharing was natural.

Here is my story in pictures (heads-up it's a long post)
  1. Washington Dulles Airport: January 29th 08.32 a.m. I take this picture for my son who like me likes planes as we are taxiing to the runway.



2. Washington Dulles Airport  08.40 a.m : Since it is very cold we stop for the plane to get DeIced : 


3. Somewhere over Pennsylvania ( I am guessing) 9.26 a.m - There is a bang and the oxygen masks drop

4. 09.27 a.m - We don't grab the masks and I look around to see fellow passengers calm and composed and some also taking pictures. The crew make an announcement for us to put on the masks.

5. 09.28 a.m - I tell my colleague Kevin Fawley that we won't get an opportunity again so we take this now famous selfie.


6. 9.32 a.m The pilot announces that we will be returning to Washington and I take a photo of the ground just in case. 


7. 9.37 a,m  We notice smoke coming from the vents. By now the crew has told us that it is safe to remove the oxygen masks. You cannot make out from this picture due to light and there is a burning smell. We tell the crew who inform the captain. they come back again and see that more people are seeing the smoke. The cabin crew ( not the captain)  make an announcement that we will be making an emergency landing.
8. 9.38 a.m I tell Kevin we should take a selfie with a smile so that we can be remembered that way in case things went south. 

9. 9.41 a.m we passed a lot of water at which point I was worried that we may make a water landing ( I am thinking maybe so that we don't crash or land in a populated area) Now we are descending fast. I wish we get information on where we will be making the emergency landing. They ask us to put on the oxygen masks again. I have a Google Glass in my bag under the seat in front of me. I decide not to take it out and focus on getting out of the plane as quickly as possible.



10. 9.49 We land here, I don't know where but it does seem to be an airport with a runway. The crew lets us know we will be exiting through the door ( no slide) and not to take any bags with us. 
11. 9.50 a.m - After the plane lands, the doors open quickly  and I am the 6th out of the door. The co-pilot and the cabin crew are assisting passengers out of the door. I get down and call my wife saying first " I am safe" and then " We had to make an emergency landing in Delaware". The log of my Samsung Galaxy S3 shows I made that call at 09.50.The first person we see on the ground is a gentleman in a fire suit asking us if everything was Ok. it reminded me of the tailhook landing on the USS George HW Bush that I  experienced last November, courtesy of the US Navy.



12. 09.50 a.m  It seems like a long time. My first pictures after I call home and take my phone out again. The Fire marshal tells us we are in Wilmington, Delaware and medics go around asking if we are all OK. I call my boss Jamie Gorski ( SVP Marketing at Bozzuto) letting her know we are safe. I also post the photos on Twitter and start getting messages from friends who are glad that we are safe. @united asks me for the Flight number. 







13.  10.15 We help the crew get all the hand luggage down the steps. I help for some time and then as it is very cold let another fellow passenger take my spot. The National Guard brings two buses to take us to the terminal building. By now I have my Google Glass that I have been experimenting with and took this video.



14. 10.20 a.m The buses arrive at the terminal building of Wilmington Delware's New Castle airport.



15. 10.41 a.m . This is a small airport and United does not fly here. Only Frontier Airlines flies here. I know this from a friend on Twitter who also gives me the Airport's Twitter id @FlyWilmILG. Still no word from United. All of us look for power outlets and folks share their chargers with each other. There are only vending machines and once again people collaborate to share their change for the vending machines.



16. 11.11 a.m The aircraft is brought closer to the terminal but no word from anyone on what's next. @United Twitter id is also silent on that. Most people have their memebrs calling United and relaying the information back to us. 


17. The captain and the airport director come to the terminal to brief us. They tell us a relief plane is on its way and will arrive at 2 p.m to take us to Boston. The United crew cannot tell us if we will get lunch. The Wilmington Airport Director Stephen Williams steps in and says if United does not provide lunch , the airport will. 


18. 11.59 My friend Whitney Hoffman arrives at the Wilmington Airport  to see if I need a ride or other help.How wonderful is that. I am lucky to have friends like Whitney
19. 12.29 David Wade from WBZ Boston interviews me by phone and tweets
That is picked up by Steve Garfield

20. 1.24 p.m Wilmington Airport Director Stephen Williams treats us to Pizza


21. By this time I see that a lot of news outlets want to use the photograph, and I give them permission under Creative Commons. I learn that the photo made it to the Today Show the next day without any credit.

22. The reporters covering the story are very friendly and care.


23. 3.44 p.m We board another plane with the same flight number UA 3759 to take us to Boston


24. 5.31 p.m  @JoshbNECN takes this keepsake pic of a relieved Kevin Fawley and me at Boston Logan Airport


We arrive a little after 6 to the opening event at Bozzuto's Atmark Apartments to some great music by Boston's own YouTube Violinist Rhett Price


Thank you SteveGarfield for this Storify summary of the Atmark event and the day's happenings.
Here is my Storify story with other links

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