FAIRMONT -- Two North Central businesswomen were honored at the October Roundtable at the West Virginia High Technology Consortium in Fairmont on Wednesday.
Zeny Cunanan, president and chief of Galaxy Global Corp., Inc., was feted for her company's recent grant award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Vanessa Turner, a workforce development leader at the consortium, was announced as the top Young Gun for an upcoming edition of West Virginia Executive magazine.
Galaxy Global competed against 19 other companies for $1 million in NASA funding, Cunanan said. It was among four projects to be chosen and won nearly $400,000 for a safety emissions assurance project.
She said engineer Mike Chapman was responsible for securing the grant. He will work with Ned Keeler of the NASA Independent Verification and Validation Facility, which is also located at the I-79 Technology Park in Fairmont.
Galaxy Global was also among six regional companies to recently be awarded part of a $19 million U.S. Army contract to manage a Biometric Fusion Center now located in Bridgeport. A permanent location for that identification-technology site is still being sought.
Turner is on the cover of West Virginia Executive's fall issue, which is due out Friday.
Magazine publishers Al and Bonnie Hendershot said there were about 400 nominations for the annual contest. Of the 20 young workers selected for profiles in the Young Guns issue, Turner placed first.
Turner is contact person for the 200 high-tech companies that are members of the consortium. She also works with workforce education programming, coordinating area colleges' capabilities with technology company needs. She is additionally developing new services for consortium affiliates, such as bidding out of legal services and marketing assistance.
Regional editor Nora Edinger can be reached at 626-1447 or by e-mail at nedinger@exponent-telegram.com.
