Local Named National Vet Small Business Champ

Darrel Bowman has been named National Veteran Small Business Champion by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Darrel Bowman of Tacoma served in the U.S. Coast Guard before becoming an entrepreneur, community leader, humanitarian, and veteran’s advocate. He is known for his strong belief that “what is good for our veterans is good for our country.”

The Chamber had selected Darrel for its first Vet-Owned Business of the Year in 2010 at the annual Spotlight on Business Awards Event. Darrel will receive the national award at ceremonies in Washington, D.C. May 20. Darrel enthusiastically says: “This is really cool. Wendy and I can make it, besides they said I may get to shake President Obama’s hand. Now that’s WAY cool! We now have the air and hotel reservations and are meeting (son) Justin in WA DC as he takes leave from his EOD Unit to join us in that celebration too!”

“Darrel Bowman is a dynamic community leader who helps grow the regional economy while supporting fellow veterans and military retirees. His high degree of integrity, responsibility, and commitment to community causes, veteran issues, and the promotion of veteran business initiatives is what merited him this prestigious recognition - SBA’s 2011 Veteran Business Champion award at the Washington state, Region 10 (WA, OR, ID, AK) , and National level,” said Regional Administrator, Calvin Goings.

Bowman’s foray into entrepreneurship flourished after he joined AppTech in 1999. Bowman eventually became the sole owner of AppTech, which he renamed mynetworkcompany.com in 2005. mynetworkcompany.com specializes in providing managed technology service solutions for a variety of industry companies, local governments, state agencies and federal departments. All this is accomplished while by providing proactive network and server maintenance, implementing IT best practices, providing unlimited remote & unlimited on site reactive computer support and providing a dedicated person to work with each organization as they plan their technology upgrades and budgets, all for a fixed monthly fee.

“As a veteran, Bowman knows firsthand that individuals with military experience tend to exhibit incredible tenacity and work ethic, outstanding leadership and teamwork skills, and a great sense of honor, respect and duty. Despite this, there are barriers that former military members face in the job market. To combat this phenomenon, Bowman - himself a disabled veteran - makes hiring veterans and current active duty IT personnel a priority in his company,” says Nancy Porzio, SBA Seattle District Director.

Bowman believes the military education, skills and training each veteran receives while in the Service are a hidden treasure to any business in need of dependable quality and dedicated employees. Bowman advocates for all military branches to identify direct links from the education received in the Service to correlating civilian certifications, degrees and credits.

To serve as a strong proponent of legislative and regulatory action to boost veteran-owned business access to state and federal government contracting opportunities, Bowman stays actively involved with community, congressional, senate leaders and the State Department of Veteran Affairs. He advocated for new legislation promoting the use of veteran and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses as a percentage of the contracted services in Washington state government. State senate bill 5041 established a veteran-owned business registry which is quickly becoming the veteran business “yellow pages.” State senate bill 5253 encourages state agency use of veteran-owned businesses for contracted services and products. He also participated in Senator Patty Murray’s Pierce County Veteran Employment Roundtable to help shape proposed veteran employment legislation.

Applying his expertise to benefit educational programs for veterans and the general public, Bowman has constructed several vital curricula for college technology programs, serves on Congressman Adam Smith’s Technology Advisory Council, and chaired the South Sound IT and Emerging Technology Skills Advisory Panel. Additionally, he is the current President of the WA Coalition of Veteran and Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Businesses.