Carlsbad Chamber honors business leaders

CARLSBAD — The Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce celebrated its 90th anniversary and presented business awards to some of its most successful members at the annual Business Awards dinner March 23 at the La Costa Resort and Spa.To mark the milestone anniversary, the pool of finalists for this year’s business awards was made up of past annual awards winners. The winners this year received special “Of the Decade” awards.

During the event, the chamber presented awards in the following categories:

— Businessperson of the Decade – Greg Lucier, chairman and chief executive office of Life Technologies Corp.

— Entrepreneur of the Decade – Christine Davis, Coolest Shoes in California

— Small Business of the Decade (1 to 15 employees) – Isaac’s Catering

— Medium Business of the Decade (16 to 99 employees) – Marrs Maddocks & Associates

Insurance Services tied with the Museum of Making Music

— Large Business of the Decade (100 or more employees) – Legoland California.

In addition, the Chamber gave Longevity Awards to the following long-standing Chamber members: Ofie Escobedo and Connie Trejo (Lola’s 7-Up Mexican Market & Deli); Jim Smith (Jim Smith Realty); John Haedrich (TipTop Meats/European Deli); Ted Vallas (California Pacific Airlines).

The chamber also presented the American Spirit Award to Cpl. Amber L. Fifer, Sgt. Anthony Arriaga, Sgt. Gary D. Brewer, Sgt. Tanner Lindley and Staff Sgt. Mark Zambon, five Purple Heart recipients from the U.S. Marine Corps. These men demonstrated superior leadership in battle, selfless courage, sacrifice and commitment to the Marines and to the United States of America.

The chamber also presented awards to SDG&E and Wells Fargo for their support of Boots in Business, the chamber’s military mentoring initiative with U.S. Marine Cops Base Camp Pendleton.

For more information, call (760) 931-8400 or visit carlsbad.org.