CMDC's Managing Officer Named U.S. Small Business Administration Oklahoma Minority 'Small Business Person of the Year'
September 20, 2005
<< BackStephen R. Benefield has been chosen as the U.S. Small Business Administration's 2005 Oklahoma Minority Small Business Person of the Year. Mr. Benefield is the managing officer and chief executive officer of Choctaw Manufacturing and Development Corporation (CMDC), a tribally owned corporation of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma with manufacturing plants in Hugo and McAlester, OK.
Mr. Benefield began his tenure with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma in 1998. His first assignment was to re-start and lead the ISO9001 quality certification process at the newly formed company. Within seven months, he and his team achieved this certification in record-breaking time. Shortly thereafter Benefield was promoted to Director of Operations. During this next phase of his career, he assembled a team of managers that today form the core management group that has been critical to the success of the company.
Under Benefield's leadership, CMDC has been able to expand its customer base in the past five years from one customer to 17 major customers including: Raytheon, Lockheed/Martin, Boeing, U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, U.S. Army Rock Island Arsenal, U.S. Army TACOM, U.S. Army Picatinny Arsenal, U.S. Army Communications and Electronics Command, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force Air Logistics Center – Warner/Robins, Eglin Air Force Base, Altus Air Force Base, U.S. Navy Naval Surface Warfare Center, U.S. Navy NAVICP, Sikorski Aircraft, Battelle, Portsmouth Aviation (United Kingdom).
In addition, revenues have risen ten-fold to over $28 million last fiscal year while employee count has more than quadrupled. The original facility, located in Hugo, Oklahoma, has expanded to more than 110,000 square feet of manufacturing space. In 2001, the purchase of an additional 16.5-acre facility in McAlester, Oklahoma, added another 120,000 square feet. The decision to expand to the McAlester facility was made, in part, to create job opportunities in an area of the Choctaw Nation and Oklahoma where the unemployment rate is unusually high. The Hugo and McAlester facilities currently employ more than 200 people. With CMDC's recent award of the U.S. Marine Corps’ contract to design and manufacture the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement Trailer (MTVR), valued at approximately $190 million, CMDC anticipates that more than 100 additional quality job opportunities will be created.
Mr. Benefield has strived to build a company that is managed with the utmost integrity, to create quality job opportunities, and to manufacture the highest quality of products. As a supplier of military hardware manufactured for our nation's defense, CMDC and its employees believe that they serve their country honorably in the work that they perform.
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