Chetan Shah, Vice-President of Northwest Software, Inc. (NSI), Beaverton, received the prestigious 2005 Supplier of the year award as a Minority (owned) Business Entrepreneur. The Northwest Minority Business Council ceremony was held at The Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue, WA on June 22nd.

Accepting this prestigious award Mr. Shah, said, “I am honored to receive this award on behalf of our great employees and loyal customers…You have the choice of being a "me too" supplier, or you may choose to differentiate yourself by innovating. We chose innovation as our goal is to create the world’s best recruiting engine. Our success in expanding nationally and competing with larger staffing players is a result of not being a “me too” supplier.”

Washington Mutual’s National Supplier Diversity Manager Ms. Portia Rugon said: “NSI does an outstanding job of meeting Washington Mutual’s contractor staffing needs on a national level through our vendor management company Chimes. NSI’s innovative custom-designed software quickly searches, filters and identifies qualified candidates, delivering true value to our company.”

NSI has been in business for 17 years. In 2002, NSI President, Sonal Shah, was named Oregon’s Small Business Person of the year by the U.S. Small Business Administration.