James R. Hawkins to Address Premier Fasttrac Entrepreneurs

Graduates of the Premier FastTrac Program will be honored during a graduation ceremony and reception at 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 29, at the Bear Club in Floyd Casey Stadium.
Keynote speaker for the program will be James R. Hawkins, chairman and CEO of FirstCity Financial Corporation/J-Hawk Corporation. Hawkins received his undergraduate degree from Baylor in 1958. He attended St. Louis University School of Geophysics in 1959 and received his CPA certificate in 1963.
Honorees in the FastTrac I, Beginning Entrepreneurs section are: Letha Airewele and Marcus Daniels, LRMC Dining; Mea Butler, Sylvia's Kitchen; Jan Easley, Fidelity Bank of Texas; Mark Helona, Party Central; Cathy Horton, Cedar Rock Nursery; Kevin Johnson, J&K Construction; Tom Lupfer, Lupfer Coin Operated Laundry; Jim Milam, Milam Construction; Chris McJunkins, Monjunis Italian Restaurant; Jini Padmanabhan and Kumar Mehta, Riverplace Inn; Doreen Plott, Fire Ant Control; Valeria Robinson, Valuable Asset Learning Software; Brad Sandberg, Sandberg Construction; and Jim Simons, Franklin Bindery Inc.
Honorees in the FastTrac II, Growth Oriented Entrepreneurs section are: Joe Burnes, DV8; La Shawn Brown, One In A Billion Cards; Bette Cook, BTC Trucking Inc.; Monica Johnson, M. J. Variety Store; Frances, Wayland and Raymond Koon, Billiards of Texas; Cindy Leonard, Jack Blair Company; Thomas Lupfer, T N T Construction; Jill Mashburn, Common Grounds; Joel McIntosh, Prufrock Press; Lori McMichael, Happy Hobo Travel; Ray Perry, The Perry Company; Dana Prim, Prim's Mailing Center Inc.; John Roach, Jimmy Winters and Brian Alexander, Sironia's; and Scott Salmans.
A national program geared toward aspiring and current entrepreneurs, Premier FastTrac is co-sponsored by the Baugh Center for Entrepreneurship, the City of Waco and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Texas State Technical College, Small Business Development Center/Business Resource Center, McLennan Community College, Cen-Tex Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Heart of Texas Black Chamber of Commerce. The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Inc. at the Ewing Marion Foundation and the Waco Foundation are special benefactors to the FastTrac program. Forty-four volunteers worked on 10 committees to facilitate the Premier FastTrac program. In addition, there were two instructors, four business counselors and 27 Baylor students involved with the spring classes