Minority Construction Firm of the Year

American Indian, Woman-Owned Welch Electric Earns Recognition and Shares Its Methods of SuccessDebbie Welch is an up-and-coming award-winning business woman, who says her work ethic came from her grandmother, an elder of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, a Northern Michigan band.

“I watched her work non-stop taking care of us kids and instilling in us the value of hard work,” says Welch, a principal of Welch Electric, a Native American, woman-owned electrical construction firm—recognized as Minority Construction Firm of the Year amongst minority-owned business enterprises in Arizona by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).

“God created Native Americans for a reason and a purpose and I found mine in business by being in the right place at the right time and working both hard and smart,” says the University of Michigan graduate who is also of Chippewa heritage from the Bay Mills Indian Community.Comment:  For more on Native business, see "Rent-a-Tribe" Payday Loan Companies and Tanka Bar Company's Goals.

Below:  "Debbie Welch stands in front of the Salt River Fields, the first Major League Baseball facility located in Indian Country on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community's reservation in Scottsdale, Arizona. To date, Welch Electric employed the highest participation of American Indian field forces than any other contractor for the project." (Photo courtesy of Debbie Welch)