Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division outshined co-finalists FedEx Express and Smith & Nephew to win Corporation of the Year Friday during the 26th annual Robert R. Church Achievement Awards Luncheon.

The event was hosted by the Mid-South Minority Business Council Continuum, an organization whose membership includes about 110 major corporations. MMBC places a strong focus on bridging minority suppliers of goods and services with major corporations and public-sector institutions.

The awards – named for Robert R. Church Sr., a Memphis business leader and philanthropist who became the South’s first African-American millionaire – honor Mid-South businesses and individuals committed to minority economic development.

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr., Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell and executives from FedEx Corp., International Paper, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and The Regional Medical Center at Memphis were among those who packed the ballroom for the awards, emceed by WREG-TV anchor Markova Reed.

The Corporation of the Year Award is presented to an MMBC corporate member that has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to minority economic business development in Memphis and the surrounding area over the past year.

Winner MLGW was praised for its efforts to develop and promote minority business development as well as diversity and inclusion in all areas of its organization.

Danita Webb, supplier diversity manager at Smith & Nephew, took home the award for Advocate of the Year. Brett Grinder of Grinder, Taber & Grinder Inc. and Joe Sevier of FedEx rounded out the three finalists in that category.

Anita Haines accepted the Minority Business of the Year Award for her company, Pyramid Electric Inc., which has a 21-year history of serving the Mid-South.

Honoring a certified minority- or woman-owned business nominated by a MMBC Continuum corporate member, the Minority Business of the Year award recognizes demonstrated scale, capacity and growth in sales and employees while consistently providing quality products or services at a competitive price.

Other finalists in that category were Action Chemical Inc., co-owned by Sherry Crowe and Charles Barnes; Amnesty Professional Services, owned by Lorenzo Myrick; Millennium Search LLC, owned by Jason Gillum; and True Test Collections of Memphis, owned by Lonell Morris.

Dr. Glen Fenter, president of Mid-South Community College, delivered a keynote address shedding light on education-focused solutions for improved workforce sustainability and community economic development.

“There are great jobs in Memphis, jobs that could put folks in a position to have tremendous qualities of life that are unfilled every day because we’re not engaging many folks in the appropriate manner,” Fenter said. “And we’ve got to change that. …Our economic development plan has gone from one main focus on dealing with companies like Toyota to being focused on dealing with individual lives because that is the important component of any success, to put yourself in a position to understand how your model affects individuals, not necessarily companies.”