AEI is proud to announce that Founder and President Bruce Ekimura was awarded the SBA Entrepreneurial Success of the Year Award for the County of Honolulu by the U.S. Small Business Association. According to the Hawaii SBDC Network, the award "recognizes the achievements of an accomplished small business person who started out as a small business and has since, with some assistance from the SBA, grown to exceed the small business size standards, or NAICs."

Bruce, who has served the Hawaii community for more than 20 years, was nominated by Lawrence Pai of Central Pacific Bank and honored at the 2016 Small Business Awards at Pomaika'i Ballrooms on May 6, 2016. The event was held during National Business Week, proclaimed by President Obama to be May 1-7, 2016. According to the proclamation, small business are "responsbile for creating nearly two-thirds of net new jobs in the United States each year and employing more than half of all Americans."

Congratulations to all of the small business award winners!