SBDC at UCF Regional Director Eunice Choi Recognized for Attracting $2.2 Million in FY12 Funding

December 10, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Hal Thayer, Communications Director, SBDC at UCF, 407.420.4850 or hthayer@bus.ucf.edu

Orlando, FL – Eunice Choi, Regional Director at the Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (SBDC at UCF), was recognized recently by UCF President John C. Hitt as one of UCF’s highest-funded contract and grant recipients at UCF who raised in excess of $1 million dollars in external Fiscal Year 2012 funding for the university and, in Ms. Choi’s case, its College of Business Administration, the sponsoring institution for the Small Business Development Center at UCF.

Each year, UCF’s Office of Research & Commercialization produces a tally of the funding received from external sources to highlight the magnitude of UCF’s efforts at attracting funds to support and expand services to help the state and the region’s economy. Entitled “The Millionaires Club” with tongue firmly in-cheek, it has recognized the university’s highest funded research and grant recipients since 2000. For Fiscal Year 2012, the university raised over $128.9 million to support its research and commercialization efforts, with 58 percent coming from the members of The Millionaires Club.

Thirty-five members of the university community were identified as research “millionaires’” for raising $1 million or more in funding for the fiscal year. Of that group, SBDC Regional Director Choi raised over $2.2 million, a 37.5 percent increase from FY2011, and making her 12th on the list of “millionaires.”

“Given the important mission of the SBDC at UCF to help businesses start, grow and succeed, attracting external funding is critically important to maintaining its momentum assisting small businesses in our region,” noted Dr. Paul Jarley, Dean of the UCF College of Business Administration. “Thanks to the diligence and hard work of Eunice Choi and her team at the SBDC in obtaining financial support,  UCF and the College of Business Administration can further their commitment to the economic well-being of the communities that surround them through the work of the Small Business Development Center at UCF and their valuable assistance to our small business clients.”

–UCF–

With its main office in the National Entrepreneur Center (formerly the Disney Entrepreneur Center) now located at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, the Small Business Development Center at the University of Central Florida (SBDC at UCF) is part of the UCF College of Business Administration and the Florida Small Business Development Center Network, providing business seminars and no-cost, one-on-one business consultation to small business owners. The SBDC at UCF serves an eight-county area that includes Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties and maintains seven satellite service centers. In 2011, the SBDC at UCF helped entrepreneurs create or retain 1,517 jobs, win contract awards worth $28.9 million, acquire $17.7 million in capital formation, and increase sales by $51.9 million. The SBDC at UCF is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration.

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