DePaul Industries is excited to announce its expansion of services to Baltimore, Maryland—another step in our demand-driven geographic expansion as outlined in our five-year Strategic Plan.
As always, we’re pulled by customer demand: We’ll be providing contracting support services for the United States Coast Guard in and around the Baltimore area, starting with Fire Watch services (a subset of our Security division) for Coast Guard shipyards and dry docks…
We’re thrilled to announce that our CEO Dave Shaffer has been named a semifinalist for the second year in a row in Ernst & Young’s 2012 Entrepreneur of the Year® Awards.
Now in its 26th year, the award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Of the 2011 Finalists last year, Dave was unique in representing one of the very few nonprofit organizations honored for its entrepreneurial thinking.
Dave is a firm believer in the notion that solving business problems is the most effective way to solve the large social problem of the lack of employment opportunities for people with disabilities. By focusing on meeting or exceeding business expectations, Dave holds himself and the organization to a high standard of accountability: If the business is not viable, the mission won’t be, either.
By restructuring the way DePaul Industries represents itself as a social entrepreneurial organization—between business and nonprofit—Dave has had to weigh risks of alienating constituents in the nonprofit world or the business world, or in both. This is a delicate balance of communicating, and delivering, the benefits of a combination of these worlds. Dave is keenly aware of this organizational pull in both directions and has been persistent in embedding DePaul right in the center. His ability to recognize the ‘money vs. mission’ conflict as an omnipresent ‘check’ on operations has launched DePaul into the forefront of the social entrepreneurial space.
Finalists will be named in May with awards being presented at a special gala on June 15, 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue. Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored in the United States by SAP America and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. In the Pacific Northwest, local sponsors include ADP, Puget Sound Business Journal, Scherzer International, The Big Picture Video Film & Arts, and Union Bank.
Who’s entrepreneurial in your organization? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts about how forward thinking has created positive change in your industry.
We’re excited to be featured in the April 2012 issue of NISH Workplace magazine for our Administrative Services AbilityOne™ contract at Fort Huachuca Army Base, staffed with 100% U.S. Veterans.
The contract, based in our newest location in Sierra Vista, Arizona, has been thriving since last fall and is especially unique to AbilityOne, as it requires workers with higher-functioning skills for jobs such as administrative assistants, supply and warehouse technicians, and mail couriers—not to mention its 100% U.S. Veteran staff.
AbilityOne is a Federal initiative to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and as such the majority of employees employed under the Administrative Services contract at Fort Huachuca have a documented disability. Of the disabled veterans, DePaul Industries Branch Manager Lenore Derrick says, “They’ve had to change their career path due to a disability, but they come pre-equipped with all of this specialized knowledge, skills, and discipline. In addition, they’re motivated and want to work. Who wouldn’t want a worker like that?”
Government knowledge and specialized military skills are rare and extremely helpful to possess when seeking quality employees to work on a military base, and the transition from active-duty service veterans to administrative work on site makes perfect sense. We’re committed to making hiring veterans as clear of a case across the entire employment spectrum: Through our ‘Vets First’ initiative, DePaul Industries will continue to leverage disabled veterans’ knowledge base for employment efforts across the board—public or private, government or non-governmental.
Click here to read the article, or visit DePaul Staffing to learn more about what we do. Many thanks to NISH, Sarah Patton, and the AbilityOne employees at Fort Huachuca for the great work on the article.
We’re proud to announce that DePaul Industries has been named one of Oregon’s 100 Best Companies to Work For by Oregon Business magazine for the second year in a row—and are one of the few not-for-profit organizations on the list.
This honor is particularly important to us, of course, being in the business of employing people. Scoring high marks from employee evaluations in categories such as work environment, management & communications, and decision-making & trust is something we take very seriously and with great pride. Our CEO used last year’s survey results to implement some of the changes suggested by employees, and our workplace scored even higher in this year’s survey results.
Moreover, we’re proud that the business approach we take in serving our customers in our Staffing, Security, and Food Packaging & Contract Manufacturing divisions is particularly evident in our ranking here among nearly all for-profit companies. Our significant expansion plans are borne out of demand from our customers wanting to work with us and create more jobs. Having a great workplace with dedicated people on board is how we’re going to do it.
There’s also a great piece on our plans for growth in the same ’100 Best’ Oregon Business magazine issue by reporter Amanda Waldroupe. Read it here.
Want a peek into our workplace from the 2011 ’100 Best’ video? Watch it online, or the DePaul-specific spot below:
Want to know how to drive the economy through social enterprise? DePaul Industries’ CEO Dave Shaffer, a 2011 Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, will be a featured speaker at this year’s Social Enterprise Ecosystem and Economic Development (SEEED) summit.
The SEEED summit is a national conference that celebrates the growth of social enterprise, with a particular focus on its role as an economic development driver. Held on March 16-17, 2012at Brown University, it brings together experienced leaders from around the country to share best practices in the rapidly growing field of social enterprise. Dave will be speaking about the DePaul Industries integrated social venture model of employing people with disabilities by driving business success, and will be joined by other high-profile speakers from organizations in the social enterprise sector, such as Ashoka, Keen Design Studio, Network for Good, and Social Enterprise Alliance.
Interested in attending this one-of-a-kind conference? Register now >>>
Want to learn more about the “marrying of market forces and social change?” Watch this brief introductory video about SEEED 2012:
Here's where we'll feature news & updates from DePaul Industries, connecting customers to business solutions, outsourcing news, and social entrepreneurial ideas.
DePaul Industries is excited to announce its expansion of services to Baltimore, Maryland—another step in our demand-driven geographic expansion as outlined in our five-year Strategic Plan.
Want to know how to drive the economy through social enterprise? DePaul Industries’ CEO Dave Shaffer, a 2011 Ernst & Young’s 
