Business Owners Named to Blue Chip List
Reprint from Tulsa World Business Section, September 25, 1998. By Becky Tierman, World Staff Writer.
Two Tulsans who have faced business challenges and emerged to create successful companies will be honored Tuesday.
Jim Stovall, president of the Narrative Television Network, and John Bersin, president of Impressions on Hold International, have been named regional Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative winners for 1997.
The two business owners will be honored during a 7:30 a.m. breakfast ceremony at the Tulsa Hilton Southern Hills, 7900 S. Lewis Ave. Jim King, president of Southwest Rubber Inc., of Bristow, will be guest speaker. The Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative is a national program sponsored by the United States Chamber of Commerce, MassMutual -- The Blue Chip Company, Nation's Business magazine and First Business, a national daily news program, to honor small companies that have demonstrated the ability to withstand the cyclical nature of business, overcome adversity, seize opportunities and succeed.
The Heartland Financial Group, MassMutual affiliate in Tulsa, has sponsored the regional competition for two years, said Matthew Henderson, regional program coordinator and president of Henderson and Associates, a MassMutual agent.
In 1988, against the better judgement of the local broadcast industry, Stovall and Kathy Harper -- who is legally blind -- created the Narrative Television Network, a company that makes television, movies and live performance accessible to the blind and visually impaired by narrating story points that have no dialogue.
Using borrowed equipment and a coat closet as a sound booth, the two built a company that today includes more than 1,200 broadcast and cable affiliates, reaches 35 million homes in North America and is carried in 11 other countries.
Through these efforts, the company has received an Emmy Award, a Media Access Award, an International Film and Video Award and a Golden Georgi from The Writers Foundation of America.
Stovall has received the Robert S. Bray Award from the American Council of the Blind, the Access Award from the American Foundation for the Blind, the Ten Outstanding Young Americans Award by the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Evan Kemp Entrepreneurship Award from the President's Committee on Employment of People With Disabilities. Also, he has published an inspirational book, "You Don't Have To Be Blind To See," and travels the globe as a motivational speaker.
In February, NTN was one of four companies to receive the national Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative Award for 1997 at the United States Chamber of Commerce Annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
© 1998 Narrative Television Network Comments to [email protected]