Two Southern California execs awarded top SBA awards

Two Southern California execs awarded top SBA awards Rob R. Ukropina, founder and chief executive of Overnite Express, an Orange County regional package delivery service based in Irvine, has been named 2007 California Small Business Person of the Year, according to the Orange County Register.
   Ukropina, a graduate of USC’s Marshall Business School, started Overnite Express in 1992. The firm now delivers more than one million packages a year within California and Nevada.
   He and 52 others (one from each state plus the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands) will compete for National Small Business Person, to be named during SBA ceremonies in Washington in April.
   The SBA also said Friday that John O’Connor, founder of Santa Ana-based Shamrock Supply Co. Inc., has been named as the district and Region IX 2007 family-owned business of the year. The SBA Region IX covers California, Arizona, Hawaii and Nevada.
   Founded in 1975, Shamrock is a distributor of industrial products to the utilities, aerospace, manufacturing, financial services, leisure/entertainment, and municipalities/schools/airports sectors throughout Southern California.
   The national winners in these categories will be announced in April.