WESST PRESS RELEASES

WESST board chair, Dave Vedera, announced the launch of WESST’s 2013 $100,000 Job Creation Challenge in Albuquerque during their Invest in WESST event on Tuesday, September 24, 2013, with the goal of creating more jobs in New Mexico.

The $100,000 Challenge, supported by Bank of America and several statewide Merrill Lynch teams (The Armstrong Team, Karen Bard, The Humphrey Group, The Baland Group, Michael Lawrence, The O’Connell Group, The Reynolds Group, The Gibson Group, Charlie Murphy, Larry Stoerner), matches ten $5,000 donations to WESST, allowing the new donors to be recognized at the $10,000 giving level.

Michael Lawrence, New Mexico State President of Bank of America told the crowd of 75, “On behalf of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, I want to encourage organizations and individuals to step up to help WESST meet its fundraising goal of $100,000. Together we can help WESST provide technical assistance to more small businesses in New Mexico; small businesses that have a positive impact on our economy and create new jobs for New Mexicans.”

Since the announcement, two of the 10 opportunities have been taken by First National Bank of Santa Fe and New Mexico Educator’s Federal Credit Union.

In the past five years alone, WESST’s support system for small business development has directly resulted in the creation of 1,470 new jobs in New Mexico.

WESST, www.wesst.org, is a non-profit small business development organization with offices in Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Farmington, Roswell and Las Cruces. The organization provides training, consulting and loans to entrepreneurs across New Mexico as well as business incubation services to members of the WESST Enterprise Center in Albuquerque. To learn more about WESST, please visit www.wesst.org or call 1.800.GoWESST