Each year, since 1986, the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce choses a Small Business Person of the Year.

Here’s a look at where the 12 past winners have taken their businesses and careers since they accepted their honors.

1986 winner — Harvey J. Coleman, Coleman Management Consultants

Since becoming the Atlanta chamber’s first Small Business Person of the Year, Harvey J. Coleman has published a book, “Empowering Yourself,” produced a video series on managing diversity and doubled his human resources consulting firm’s revenues.

Back in 1986, the firm assisted executives in developing people-sensitive management techniques. Today, Coleman said the firm does a lot of management and employee training and provides corporate environment and climate studies. But his biggest accomplishment, Coleman said, is that his company is still around.

“Like many small businesses, surviving is something to be proud of.”

1987 winner — Jean Albert Mori, Mori Luggage & Gifts

Jean Mori opened the first Mori Luggage & Gifts store in Northlake Mall in 1971. By 1987, when he was named Small Business Person of the Year, there were 13 Mori Luggage stores.

Mori Luggage now has 27 stores throughout the Southeast, including three stores in Lenox Square.
1988 winner — William “Max” Carey Jr., Corporate Resource Development Inc.

Corporate Resource Development Inc. (CRD) started as a sales training company. It began customizing sessions and eventually evolved into both a consulting and training company that develops marketing strategies for companies facing the commodity pressures of increasing competition and decreasing margins. Today, the company has 30 employees and $5 million in revenues. When it made the Inc. 500 list in 1987, its revenues were just under $1 million.

Despite that growth, Carey said he’s made every mistake in the book. And that makes him an expert entrepreneurial, according to the national business press. He’s been written up in Fortune, Forbes and Inc. magazines.

1989 winner — Bianca Quantrell, Quantrell Mullins & Associates Inc.

Since arriving in Atlanta in the 1960s, Quantrell founded Quantrell Mullins & Associates Inc., which she co-owns with husband Henry Mullins, in 1974.

In 1997, Quantrell Mullins ranked 24th among the city’s largest commercial interior design firms, according to Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Book of Lists.

Quantrell Mullins continues to serve the architectural interior planning and design needs of the firm’s national and international clientele. Now, however, the firm handles total design process management, which takes a project from its inception and strategizes with clients on growth and space needs.

Quantrell also became the first female and first foreign-born president to assume the helm of the Society of International Business Fellows in 1996. She now serves as the group’s chairman.

1990 winner — Sunny Park, General Building Maintenance Inc.

Seven years after Sunny Park started General Building Maintenance (GBM), he was named Small Business Person of the Year. Then, GBM had 250 employees and $7.6 million in revenues. Move forward another seven years, and GBM’s employment has more than doubled, with 578 employees, and revenues have grown to $30 million. GBM also has established 12 branch offices from Baltimore to Dallas.

1991 winner — Charles David Moody Jr., C.D. Moody Construction Co.

After being named Small Person of the Year in 1991, Charles Moody, a former Morehouse College quarterback, made it to the Olympic Stadium. His firm was part of a joint venture that the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games awarded the job to designed the Olympic Stadium. Moody was also named Minority Small Business Advocate of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration for 1995. In 1997, his firm made Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list. C.D. Moody Construction’s revenues have grown from $4 million in 1991 to about $20 million.

1992 winner — Jeff Blauvelt, Threshold Productions

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Threshold has grown from $1.2 million in revenues in 1991 to revenues of more than $3 million. The staff has expanded from 14 to 28. Threshold provides crews to shoot news and sports events, and corporate promotional and marketing tapes.

The company’s work has been seen on Cable News Network, the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, PBS, The Nashville Network and Entertainment Tonight. Corporate clients include BellSouth Corp., Kodak and AT&T Corp.

Threshold is the parent company of Peachtree Post. Peachtree Post handles the editing side of the business. That was new for Blauvelt in 1992, but today it has grown to dominate Threshold’s services.

His wife, who also is his business partner, was pregnant with their second child when Blauvelt accepted the Small Business Person of the Year Award.

His biggest accomplishment, he said, has been keeping the business afloat while raising their children, now 5 and 8.

1993 winner — Livia Whisenhunt ,Petroleum Source & Systems Group Inc.

By delivering catered service that big national competitors can’t, Livia Whisenhunt has placed Petroleum Source & Systems Group among Atlanta’s fastest-growing private companies for 1997. Petroleum Source’s revenues grew from $16 million in 1993 to more than $38 million, placing the natural gas and liquid fuels distribution company at No. 15 on Atlanta Business Chronicle’s pacesetters list.

1994 winner — Raymond Margiano, Heel Quik

Margiano had built Heel Quik into an international operation with 400 outlets in 19 countries the year he won Small Business Person of the Year. By

1997, Margiano intended to have 1,000 franchise operations.

Well, he didn’t quite make it, but as of 1997, Heel Quik had 700 stores in 26 countries and has grown to a $60 million shoe repair, alteration and monogram franchiser.

Margiano recently received the Blue Chip Award from MassMutual and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

1995 winner — Donald Whitney, Corporate Sports Unlimited

In 1995, Corporate Sports was a business that incorporated fun and games into corporate picnics, team-building outings, health clubs and a variety of corporate events. Corporate Sports still does that, but now it also is the largest corporate health club operator in the Southeast.

Whitney, who founded the U.S. 10K Classic road race in Cobb County four year ago, is working on a new project. He is developing an international mission center to house and care for between 200 to 500 abused and hungry children from across the United States and overseas. The facility is expected to cost between $20 million and $50 million to build.

He ultimately would like the new venture to be associated with a “strong” pediatric center, such as ESR Children’s Health System, created recently by the merger of Scottish Rite Children’s Medical Center and Egleston Children’s Hospital at Emory University.

Completion is set for 2001 or 2002.

1996 winner — Robert L. Brown Jr., R.L. Brown & Associates Inc.

Revenues and employment have remained steady for R.L. Brown & Associates since Robert L. Brown took home the Small Business Person of the Year Award two years ago. What has changed are customer expectations, Brown said. “Clients want things faster and better,” said Brown, CEO of the Decatur-based architectural and construction management firm. To deliver, Brown said he has completely automated his entire office.

1997 winner — Charles Brewer, MindSpring Enterprises Inc.

We’ll let the numbers do the talking in Charles Brewer’s case. On May 1, 1997, when Brewer got up to claim his award, which he accepted on behalf of the MindSpring staff, the company’s stock had closed at $8.75. Less than a year later, on April 20, the company’s stock was trading at nearly $75 a share. By the end of 1997, MindSpring’s revenues had soared to $42.6 million, up from $18.1 million in 1996. Brewer started the Internet service provider in his Ansley Park condominium in 1994 and took the company public in 1996.