Minority Entrepreneur of the Year: Rafael De La Cruz Jr., Bay Area Traffic Solutions( B. A. T. S.)
Rafael De La Cruz Jr.
President Bay Area Traffic Solutions
( B. A. T. S.)
From humble beginnings to great success, Rafael De La Cruz is a born native to Hayward California. At the age of 10 Rafael moved to Guadalajara, Mexico. Shortly after, he began his passion and love for Tae Kwon Do( TKD). The 5 TKD principles of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control and Indomitable Spirit have been the foundation for his success. In 1992, he started his first business and opened up a TKD school in Mexico. Being inspired by the kids to teach, he has continued in his passion 30 years later. At the early age of 15, Rafael started working in the United States seasonally in the Traffic Control industry. He started out as a yard boy and progressed to an Office Manager within the next 17 years. In 2007, after struggling to make ends meet financially and living in a garage; Rafael decided to open his own business and provide for his family.
With his acquired skills and knowledge in the Traffic Control Industry, his wife encouraged him to open up his own Traffic Control business. July 3rd, 2008 Rafael performed his first job under his company B. A. T. S. Traffic Solutions. He started the company with his dad and 2 trucks. September, 2008; Rafael joined the Diversity Supplier Program with PG & E and became a trusted vendor. PG & E and other well know businesses have continued to trust B. A. T. S. for their above and beyond services.
Today, 8 years later B. A. T. S. has over 300 employees, four offices serving all of California and generated over 30 million in revenue for 2016. As, the President of B. A. T. S. Rafael is committed to safety first and providing above and beyond service.
Rafael is currently married to his long-time friend Maria De La Cruz of 18 years; they have been friends since the early age of 11. They have 2 sons and live currently in Fremont, CA. In his spare time, he enjoys spending it with family and friends traveling and boating.
Minority Manufacturer of the Year: United Mechanical & Metal Fabricators, Inc.
Gina Wang
President / CEO
United Mechanical & Metal Fabrication, Inc.
United Mechanical and Metal Fabricators, Inc.( UMEC), headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, is woman-owned, minority owned, metal machining and fabrication business. Established in 1982, UMEC provides contract support to major manufacturers around the country. Additionally, UMEC offers local design and custom metal manufacturing using state-of-the-art machines. UMEC has two facilities: a 35,000-square foot facility in Hayward, and our new 18,000-square foot fiber laser cutting and CNC machine shop in Union City. Both facilities are perfect to support our customers’ precision sheet metal production needs. Specializing in stainless steel work, UMEC continuously invests for the future and as such our facilities are equipped with the modern sheet metal fabrication machinery, like our 2 new fiber optic lasers, that affords us the capability to run both large and small orders. UMEC is capable of providing tight tolerance, machining services for ultra-clean solutions, including semiconductors, disk drives, medical devices, pharmaceutical and aerospace; however, the majority of our work is for government funded transportation projects. UMEC works with a wide variety of materials and thicknesses, including mirrored stainless steel, titanium, aircraft-quality alloys, steel and copper.
ASIAN, INC. 10 2016 GALA