Susan Hart was recognized as the 10th recipient of the Debin Benish Outstanding Businesswoman Award on June 18, 2014 at the 2014 Columbia Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting & Awards Banquet.
Dave Benish and Steve Powell pose with most of the previous Debin Benish Outstanding Businesswoman Award winners
This award is designed to honor a Columbia Business Woman who:
• Exhibits leadership in supporting small business
• Has a record of volunteering in the community
• Is a mentor to other business women, and
• Owns or is employed by a Chamber-member business, preferably a Women’s Network member
With the support of Steve Powell, the current owner of Delta Systems, and Debin’s husband, Dave Benish, Women’s Network continues the encouragement of Debin’s smile with this memorial award, an engraved picture frame, and $1,000 grant.
Mary Ropp, the 2013 winner, presented the award to Hart and shared the following kind words:
“Our achiever this year is my friend. Her nominator feels she is a mentor a coach and a leader in our Chamber and community. When our chamber decided to audit themselves, she was chosen as chair and worked tirelessly to successfully accomplish the chamber mission.
Our achiever is a giver. Freely giving her time to the Jazz Series, Rotary, North Village Arts, Habitat for Humanity…and we could go on.
Our achiever is renowned in her industry. She earned her accounting degree from Central Methodist University. She worked for Deloitte Consulting in ST Louis and here in Columbia for Mr. Gerding. She joined Huebert Builders in 1991 and the rest is history. Her nominator is continually impressed with our achievers capabilities to work in a male dominated environment and manage large construction projects! She is just like Debin Benish.
Above all is the joy and pride she enjoys with her family. She is a dedicated mother full of compassion, integrity and love for her boys.
Her dear friend shares if you look up friend, volunteer, businesswoman, commitment, dedicated, giving, loving, smart, beautiful, funny and honest in the dictionary there would be a picture of Susan Hart next to each word.
Please help me congratulate the 2014 Debin Benish business woman of the year Susan Hart.
About Debin Benish
Debin Benish started Delta Systems Group at a time when women were not encouraged to venture out on their own, not to mention in a technology field. During her 18 years in business, Debin and her staff trained thousands of people in Mid- Missouri on many different software programs and provided computer network support to hundreds of companies.
In addition to achieving great success in her company, Debin was actively involved in the Chamber and Women’s Network. She served on the Chamber Board of Directors, Accreditation Task Force, Business Conference and Showcase Committee, Government Affairs, Education, Leadership Columbia, Women’s Network Business Owners Committee, and Ambassadors.
Debin had a philanthropic heart. She and the Delta Systems staff quietly assisted many charities and non-profits with their technology needs, such as the Central Missouri Food Bank, as she served on countless technology committees and boards. Among the most noteworthy accomplishments is the revolutionizing of the registration process for the biannual MU blood drives by creating the system that is still used to this day to assist in minimizing donor wait times. For all these reasons and her corporate mantra of providing excellent customer service and caring for projects, the Chamber honored Debin and Delta Systems as the 1992 Small Business of the Year.
Ten years after we lost Debin to cancer, Delta continues the tradition of excellence she laid out. This has resulted in being named a Small Business of the Year Finalist in 2005 and again in 2013; that same year Delta was named a Blue Ribbon Award Winner by the US Chamber of Commerce.