{"id":11816,"date":"2011-04-25T11:33:04","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T15:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=11816"},"modified":"2018-05-17T07:09:52","modified_gmt":"2018-05-17T11:09:52","slug":"torch-awards-handed-to-two-distinguished-college-of-business-administration-alumni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2011\/04\/torch-awards-handed-to-two-distinguished-college-of-business-administration-alumni\/","title":{"rendered":"Torch Awards handed to two distinguished College of Business Administration alumni."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The spotlight shone on two College of Business Administration alumni during the recent Florida International University (FIU) 10<sup>th<\/sup> Annual Torch Awards Gala held at the JW Marriott Marquis in downtown Miami.<\/p>\n<p>The Torch Awards recognize selected individuals for the positive impact they make on their profession, the community and the university. They were created to honor the memory of Senator Ernest R. Graham, who helped create FIU 44 years ago.<\/p>\n<p><em>Awards accepted with pride, humility and an eye to the future.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Alfredo Cepero<\/strong>, (MACC \u201990, BACC \u201988), assurance partner, BDO, was humbled to receive one of this year\u2019s Distinguished Alumni Awards.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11818\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11818\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11818 size-full\" title=\"FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg; Alfredo Cepero; Joyce J. Elam, executive dean of the business school; and Joaquin \u201cJack\u201d Gonzalez (BBA \u201997), president, FIU Alumni Association\" src=\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/tn_Torch_Alfredo.jpg\" alt=\"FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg; Alfredo Cepero; Joyce J. Elam, executive dean of the business school; and Joaquin \u201cJack\u201d Gonzalez (BBA \u201997), president, FIU Alumni Association\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11818\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">FIU President Mark B. Rosenberg; Alfredo Cepero; Joyce J. Elam, executive dean of the business school; and Joaquin \u201cJack\u201d Gonzalez (BBA \u201997), president, FIU Alumni Association<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThere are many very well-respected, successful alumni who are deserving of this award,\u201d he said. \u201cI greatly appreciate the college recognizing me for this award, which serves as validation for the hard work I do every day for my clients, business colleagues and the organizations I serve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Monique Hamaty-Simmonds<\/strong> (BBA, \u201996), chief executive officer and president of Tortuga Rum Cake Company\/Tortuga Imports, Inc., was equally honored to receive this recognition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very grateful to FIU for honoring me with The Charles Perry Young Alumni Visionary Award,\u201d she said. \u201cI also want to thank my family, friends and staff for all their support.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11817\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11817\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11817 size-full\" title=\"Monique Hamaty-Simmonds with her family\" src=\"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/tn_Torch_Monique.jpg\" alt=\"Monique Hamaty-Simmonds with her family\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11817\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monique Hamaty-Simmonds with her family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Cepero sees his ongoing involvement with the college as a way to carry the value of an FIU education forward&#8212;and outward into the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe we all have a responsibility to ensure that our future generations are well educated and prepared to make an impact in our communities,\u201d he said. \u201cAs I work alongside administrators, educators and other business leaders, my involvement with the college serves as a vehicle to achieve this objective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The business school nominated both Cepero and Hamaty-Simmonds for their respective awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The spotlight shone on two College of Business Administration alumni during the recent Florida International University (FIU) 10th Annual Torch Awards Gala held at the JW Marriott Marquis in downtown Miami. The Torch Awards recognize selected individuals for the positive impact they make on their profession, the community and the university. They were created to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1405],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30370,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions\/30370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}