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Utah Minority-Owned Businesses Nationally Lauded

Published in The Salt Lake Tribune

By Glen Warchol

A half-dozen Utah businesses, including a black-owned software company and a woman-owned digital media firm, made a national list of outstanding businesses owned by minorities. Heading the Div500 list for Utah is Salt Lake City-based EnvironMax Inc., a $3.8 million software company that aids industries in tracking, documenting and reducing the use of hazardous materials.

DiversityBusiness.com, an online service that links minority-owned businesses with major contractors and each other, Friday announced its fifth annual list of 500 top American firms owned by women, blacks, Latinos, American Indians, Asian Americans and other minorities.

“It is no longer just the right thing to do business with diversity suppliers,” said Kenton Clarke, founder of DiversityBusiness.com and chief executive of Computer Consulting Associates International. “Because of recent economic and demographic trends and changes, major corporations are realizing that having a diverse supplier list positively impacts their business.”

Mike Zumwalt, chief financial officer of EnvironMax, emphasized that although his firm was founded by an African-American, Robert Craig, that is coincidental to its success. “We have no contract that requires a minority to own the business,” Zumwalt said.

Kim Jones, owner of Verite Inc., which produces digital training and marketing materials, said the annual diversity list reminds contractors that minority-owned businesses can meet their needs. “The list provides an outlet for quality minority-owned businesses to get the word out that they are sources for these services.” glenwarchol@sltrib.com

Top diversity-owned businesses in Utah

Company	Principal	City	Diversity Category
EnvironMax Inc.	Robert F. Craig	Salt Lake City	Black-owned
Verite, Inc.	Kimberley A. Jones		Woman-owned
The Power of 1	Steven Martinez	Ogden	Black-, Latino-owned
Conust-Net	Joe Net	Draper	Woman-owned
FYVE Star Inc.	Cleste Gleave	Layton	Woman-owned
McKinnon-Mulherin, Inc.	Kate Reddy, Shauna Bona	Salt Lake City	Woman-owned