The MATLET Group was honored with a Fast 50 Asian American Business Award on June 5.  It was presented by the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) at its CelebrAsian 2012 Business Opportunity Conference that was held at the Marriott North Bethesda Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland.

The USPAACC is North America’s foremost advocate for the Asian American and minority business communities and entrepreneurs.  Founded as a non-profit organization in 1984, it supports individuals and companies to help secure their place in the business mainstream.  USPAACC hosts six regional chapters nationwide in California, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Texas and Maryland/Virginia, with national headquarters located in Washington D.C.

Gary Stiffler, President & CEO of The MATLET Group, accepted the Fast 50 award on behalf of the employees at a dinner reception.  The award recognizes the 50 fastest growing Asian American owned companies with revenues of at least $1 million and has demonstrated revenue growth for the last three years of fiscal operation.  The business must also be at least 51 percent owned and managed by Asian Americans.  The MATLET Group was nominated by The Walt Disney Company and UPS, and it is the first time the company has been honored with the Fast 50 award.

Mr. Stiffler was one of many influential executives to participate the same day in a key panel session titled “Asian American CEOs: Living the American Dream”.  A 30-year printing industry veteran and former executive at World Color and Quebecor World, he talked about the start of his career in the printing industry and described how The MATLET Group was eventually formed in 2005.  The company owns two manufacturing operations, Central Florida Press in Orlando and Packaging Graphics in Pawtucket, in addition to NOVA Marketing Services, a fulfillment company in St. Louis.

“Our panel discussed how everyone became involved in the business world and the challenges we have encountered,” Stiffler said.  “Most of my panel colleagues came to this country to follow a dream, and we discussed the various steps we had to take to become successful in our businesses.   Everyone agreed that having the right people is necessary for a successful company.  I found the talk about taking risks to be interesting.  There were some different perspectives between being successful and comfortable at the same time, and being successful while taking a calculated risk and doing something outside your comfort zone.”

The high powered panel included many other company leaders including, Ravi Saligram, President/CEO of OfficeMax; Hiten Patel, Founder and Chairman of Collabara; Arun Verna, Founder and President of Data Inc.; Ken Xie, Founder, President/CEO of Fortinet; John Lam, Chairman and CEO of The Lam Group; Thanh Nguyen, President/CEO of NVT Technologies Inc.; Ravi Damodaran, President/CEO of Sun Technologies Inc.; Atul Jian, Chairman/CEO of TEOCO Corp.; and Lina Hu, Founder, Chairman/CEO of Clipper Corp.  Kishore Khandavalli, Chairman/CEO of iTech U.S., served as moderator.

The MATLET Group combines the strength of its technology and equipment with the development of creative solutions to deliver outstanding product packaging and exceptional promotional campaigns and sales materials, along with warehousing and distribution capabilities.  The company is a member of the prestigious NMSDC Corporate Plus group of large certified MBEs.  For more information, please visit www.thematletgroup.com.