CELEBRATING THE HALL OF FAME OF NORTH BAY BUSINESS
best of the north bay hall of fame
“S ome will call it practice, some will call it luck— but either way, you’re going to the history book,” sang Irish band The Script in the 2012 earworm, “Hall of Fame.” Exactly which hall of fame, and for what, the band never specified. But, rest assured, rhyming “luck” with “book” won’t get The Script into the Songwriting Hall of Fame anytime soon. For our purposes, any Hall of Fame worth mentioning is for longtime local businesses. And our history book in question is, of course, NorthBay biz magazine’s Best of the North Bay awards. 202t4 marks the 35th year for our annual readers’ poll and the 23rd since we turned it into a fully fledged program by hosting an annual in-person awards ceremony to venerate winners. Since launching the live awards program in 2002, some businesses have proved to be reader favorites pretty darn consistently—so consistently, in fact, that when we looked at an updated tally last year, we were nearly gobsmacked. Take our three most-frequent winners, for instance—Redwood Credit Union, John Ash & Co. restaurant and Exchange Bank have each totaled more than 30 awards (either first place or our runner-up “gold” awards) in various
categories since 2002. A few others—hello, George Peterson Insurance, Nelson Connects and Santa Rosa Metro Chamber—have taken home more than 20. To put this in perspective: The only recording artist to have won more than 30 Grammys is Beyonce. Only one film producer ever displayed more than 20 Oscars on his mantle—the one and only Walt Disney. The most decorated Olympic athlete? Michael Phelps has stood on a winners’ podium 28 times. Winning consistently is difficult and rare—and achieved only by the best in their respective fields. So this year, the magazine’s Best of the North Bay Awards department felt special recognition was warranted for our most-frequent reader favorites—and voila! The Best of the North Bay Hall of Fame was born. [For qualification details see page 27.] The following pages feature brief profiles of our inaugural class of 15 Hall of Fame inductees—a chance for company leadership to acknowledge their teams’ successes and offer insights into the business strategies that have earned them HOF recognition. Congratulations to the inductees from NorthBay biz —you’re truly the best of the best. — By Jason Walsh, editor
Best of the North Bay 2024
Northbaybiz 11
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