Eileen Candels
Eileen Candels is vice president and district manager for Hartford for Kelly Services, the workforce solutions company. She began with Kelly as a recruiter more than 25 years ago, then moved into positions in business development and management.
Candels has been responsible for leading the Greater Hartford market since 1991, and has developed many corporate and regional partnerships. She has led the growth of Kelly Educational Staffing, from a small partnership with Bloomfield to today working with more than 50 school districts across the state.
She is a past Business Advisory Council member for AI Prince Tech School, and was recently appointed to the Tunxis Community College’s Workforce Development Board. She is a member of HRACC, APICS, CBIA, and CURE. She has served on boards of the Farmington Chamber of Commerce, Business Network Group, and the Seniors Job Bank, and led Kelly fundraising teams for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and March of Dimes.
She was a member of the Hartford Business Journal 40 Under Forty class of 2000.
Peter M. Gioia
Peter M. Gioia is vice president and economist for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, the state’s largest business organization with about 10,000 member companies.
Gioia oversees the research department, which provides economic and policy analyses and original survey research to its members. The department provides key support to CBIA’s advocacy efforts on behalf of business. The department also provides association members with international trade information.
Gioia is the association expert on state fiscal policy and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars. Gioia is quoted more than 900 times a year and is a frequent guest on media programs concerning business and political issues in the region.
He has been a member of the Hartford Area Business Economists (HABE), the National Association for Business Economics, and the New England Economic Project (NEEP). He has also been president of HABE and a board member of NEEP as well as an economic advisor to former Connecticut Gov. Jodi M. Rell.
Ashley Johnson
Ashley Johnson is a pastor, community educator, and founder of Small Business Night Out.
As a pastor, he works in the poorest zip code in Hartford to assist people to develop spiritually and economically.
As a community educator, he works with those on the path of recovery in the areas of mental health and substance abuse, assisting them to gain the skills necessary for personal recovery and reintegration into the community.
As the founder of SBNO, he works to empower, encourage, and network small business owners and young entrepreneurs throughout Connecticut.
Johnson volunteers for the Greater Hartford NAACP, Northeast NRZ Mothers United Against Violence, and the YMCA.
He is a motivational speaker. Johnson was a member of Hartford Business Journal’s 40 Under Forty class of 2014.
Family Businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees
- First Place: United Gear & Machine
- Second Place: Hartford Prints!
- Third Place: D’Addario’s Auto Service
Family Businesses with between 25-75 full-time employees
- First Place: The Associated Construction Co.
- Second Place: Advanced Performance Glass
- Third Place: Precision Computer Services
Family Businesses with between 76-169 full-time employees
- First Place: Windsor Marketing
- Second Place: Carla’s Pasta
- Third Place: Connecticut Lighting Centers
Family Businesses with 170 or more full-time employees:
- First Place: J.E. Shepard Companies
- Second Place: Fairfield Processing Corp.
- Third Place: EBP Supply Solutions
