The US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation (USPAACC) officially unveiled its 2012 list of Fast 50 Asian American Businesses during the Excellence Awards Gala, at its flagship CelebrAsian Business Opportunity Conference, on June 5 at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Their Founders, CEOs, COOs and Presidents flew in from all over the country for the black-tie event.

Minsiu Huang, Founder and Vice President of Operations received the award from USPAACC National President & CEO Susan Au Allen, Conference Co-Chairs Ravi Saligram, OfficeMax CEO, and Kyle McSlarrow, Comcast/NBCUniversal Washington, DC President, and Asian American Business Co-Chair Ken Xie, Founder, President & CEO of Fortinet, Inc.

“Diversity is an integral part of our business. The USPAACC showcases the robust growth and economic contribution of Asian American-owned businesses around the country,” said Dean Chang, CEO of Actiontec. “As a minority owned company, we’re committed to contributing to our local and national communities and we’re honored to be recognized by the USPAACC.”

Actiontec is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) through California’s Utility Supplier Diversity Program. The company has its own Supplier Diversity program that is actively updated and evaluated to give opportunity to minority and woman-owned businesses.

Over $4 billion in revenue were generated by USPAACC’s 50 Asian American businesses last year. They represent a wide range of industries nationwide — supply chain management, healthcare, professional staffing, food wholesale, IT, environmental, green energy, media, etc. The businesses represent Americans of Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Taiwanese and Vietnamese.

The revenues and growth rates were cumulated, verified, ranked and officially revealed at the Gala by Ernst and Young, the Fast 50 Ranking Sponsor.

“USPAACC is proud to recognize and showcase the continued robust and steady growth shown by Asian American-owned businesses across industries amid challenging economic times,” said Susan Au Allen, USPAACC National President & CEO. “We congratulate our Fast 50 Asian American Businesses—proof positive that through innovation, hard work, and ingenuity, Asian Americans can lead the way as catalysts to the revitalization of our national economy.”

To qualify, companies must be owned (at least 51%) and managed by one or more Asian Americans (U.S. citizens or permanent residents) and with at least $1 million in annual revenue in the immediate past 3 fiscal years of operation. Through direct applications/nominations, selection was determined by percentage revenue growth over the past three years. Finalists were independently verified by the accounting firm of Ernst and Young.

CelebrAsian is the oldest and largest annual national pan Asian American business conference in the United States. Every year, CelebrAsian provides American and other small and minority businesses wide access to contract opportunities and jobs in growth industries, strategic solutions and best practices to thrive in the current market. It also connects hundreds of top-caliber Asian American suppliers and business owners with buyers from Fortune 1000 Corporations, the Federal, State and Local government, and the small and minority business community, through pre-scheduled one-on-one business matchmaking meetings, informative summits, workshops, and networking events.

Held June 4-6, the Conference theme was “The Future is Now: Seize It & Win It.” Corporate Co-Chairs Comcast/NBCUniversal, Marriott International, OfficeMax, PepsiCo, and Wells Fargo were also represented at the Gala.

CelebrAsian 2012 hosted more than 70 Fortune Corporations, 15 Government Agencies, seven Media partners. All came to meet Asian American businesses and suppliers in various industries and brought over 90 different types of commodities that needed to be purchased. In all, 600 Conference participants came from all over the country for the 3-day business event.