Patti Penny, founder and CEO of Penmac Staffing Services Inc., won a Stevie Award for lifetime achievement in business services at the Stevie Awards for Women in Business held Nov. 12 in New York City.
The awards recognize women entrepreneurs and executives, as well as women-owned and women-run organizations worldwide. They are put on by the Stevie Awards, a business awards competition program.
Penny said the awards ceremony was an unreal experience.
"It was a wonderful thing," she said. "It was a nice, really touching event."
The awards, she said, gave her a fresh perspective of the Springfield business community.
"I'm just so appreciative really of my home town," Penny said. "We just have so much support here.
"I was sitting there thinking that Springfield is really a grand place to start a business. That's something that I hadn't really thought about until I went up there and listened to others' stories."
Penny won the award out of a group of four finalists, among them Teresa Poggenpohl, executive director of Chicago-based Accenture; Sue Burnett, president of Houston-based Burnett Staffing Specialists; and Sandra Lee, executive vice president of Minneapolis-based Plus Relocation Services, according to the awards
Web site.
Two other lifetime achievement awards were given out: one for advertising, marketing and public relations and one for all other industries.
Penny received Springfield Business Journal's
Lifetime Achievement in Business Award in 2009.
Penny founded Springfield-based Penmac Staffing Services Inc. in 1988. Now, the company operates in 11 states, has 26 offices, employs 111 in-house workers, and provides employment, education and training opportunities to more than than 20,000 associates annually, according to a news release.
Penmac sold the company to its associates Oct. 28, establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
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