Wild Eye’s Keane presented Bank of Manhattan’s top award in 2009

“The honorees range from visionaries to people focused on creating a lifestyle for themselves and their families,” Bank of Manhattan Chairman Kyle Ransford said at the start of his bank’s Second Annual Celebration of Entrepreneurship. The awards dinner was held last Wednesday at the automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo.

“It’s not necessarily the business owner with the most employees or most revenue that we are honoring. But all the honorees are risk takers, people not afraid to spend their last dollar, confident that they will make the sale,” Ransford said in presenting the Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Consistent with those guidelines, last year’s award winners, who served as this year’s judges, named, as this year’s Entrepreneur of the Year, the business owner with arguable the fewest employees of any of the evening’s more than 50 nominees.

Not only does David Keane’s Wild Eyes Productions have just eight employees, but as Keane said when he accepted the award, “You’ve picked the guy who knows the least about business of anyone in the room. My wife Arcadia is the business brain. And we only started the business because I was tired of driving around Los Angles to get jobs. I love living in the South Bay and didn’t want to leave it. And I don’t, unless I’m getting on an airplane.”

Since founding Wild Eyes Productions in 2000, Keane has filmed documentaries in over 60 countries on six continents. His documentaries include “The True Story of Blackhawk down” and “Stalking the Jihad” for the History Channel; “Inside Al Queda” and “Inside the Taliban’ for the National Geographic Channel; and “Guests of the Ayatollah” for the Discovery Channel.

The Bank of Manhattan Lifetime Achievement award was presented to Dave Hollander, co-founder, with Phil Becker and Steve Mangialgi, of Becker Surfboards. Like Keane, Hollander’s motivation in founding Becker had more to do with lifestyle and passion than money.

“I went to work for Bing Surfboards when I was 15. I walked in and said to myself, ‘Someday, this is going to be mine. Twelve years later I called my mom and asked her if she remembered what I said on my first day of work. Then I told her, ‘Well, I just leased the building.’”

Because so many of his 135 employees are in their teens and early 20s, he said he is often asked for advice on being successful.

“You need two attribute: hard work and honesty. Put those two together and you can achieve just about anything,” he said.

The Business for Kids Entrepreneur Award was presented to two recipients: Coach Derek’s Derek Locklear and dentist Janelle Holden, DDS. Locklear said his philosophy is “field lessons inspire life lessons.” Over the past eight years Lockear has introduce over 3,000 kids to the basics of baseball, soccer, basketball, and football.

Holden’s jungle themed Metlox Plaza office puts children at ease and the Tanner’s Tasty Paste, which she created in 2004, encourages children to take care of their teeth. The tooth paste comes in vanilla, chocolate and creamsicle flavors.

Mira Costa High student Jason Jones was named the Outstanding Young Entrepreneur for founding The Sweatshirt Project. With help from local schools, Scout troops and Manhattan Beach cleaners, Jones collected nearly 2,000 sweatshirts for distribution to the poor over Thanksgiving. The award was accepted by his mother because, she explained, “He’s home studying for two tests.”

The Outstanding New Business Award was presented to Marisa Scarda and Mario Sandoval, owners of the eight-month-old Natural Simplicity flower shop in El Segundo. Scarda, a former Realtor, credited her partner’s creative flower designs for their success.

South Bay Brokers co-founders Jack Gillespie and Jim Van Zanten were presented the Outstanding Real Estate Entrepreneur Award for the company they founded in 1985. Between 1990 and 2008 South Bay Broker’s 100 agents have had the highest volume per agent of any residential real estate company in Los Angeles County.

“We’re blessed to live in the South Bay,” Gillespie said in accepting the award.

The Distinguished Philanthropic Event award was presented to Kevin Barry for the Jimmy Miller Surf Contest Party, which Barry has hosted at his Sangria restaurant for the past five years. Barry insisted on sharing the award with the foundation’s founders Nancy, Jim and Jeff Miller. He dedicated the award to the memory of his long time chef and partner Oscar Rosales, who died last month at age 46 of a heart attack.

The Judge Choice’s Award was presented to Michael and Wendy Greenberg of Skechers. Last month the couple helped raise over $200,000 with the First Annual Skechers Pier to Pier Walk. The walked benefited local schools and the Friendship Circle, which provides peer mentors for disadvantage children.

Towards the end of the evening the nearly 300 guests were invited to nominate their most important mentor for the Helping Hands Award. Walk with Sally Founder Nick Arquette was one of several guests who named former Richstone Family Center director Dorothy Courtney as his most important mentor. He recalled that when he decided to found a charity to help children and siblings of cancer patients, he called on Courtney for advice. “All she asked for in return was a cup of coffee at the Kettle,” Arquette recalled. Courtney and Arquette were jointly presented with the Helping Hand Award. ER

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