Jun 23, 2017 3 min read

Ever since it created the World Class CEO Award 20 years ago, the Southpointe CEO Association has honored industrialists, developers and other business executives whose skills and vision have helped to shape and build business at the park.

On Wednesday, the association took a unique departure with the honor, bestowing it on not one, but three people it said have helped the Cecil Township business park become a world-class location with world-class tenants.

Washington County Commissioners Larry Maggi, Diana Irey Vaughan and Harlan Shober shared the award, which for the first time includes a woman executive as a recipient.

During the presentation at Hilton Garden Inn, at which each commissioner spoke briefly, the common theme was the cooperative effort that prevails as they conduct the county’s business.

“There’s nobody else I’d rather be up here with,” said Maggi, who chairs the board.

“They’re good people, they’re friends and they have Washington County’s best interests in mind” when they make decisions, Maggi said. He told the 100 executives who attended the banquet that while the county has a long history as the public entity that supports the park – now one of the largest and most successful in Pennsylvania – it depends on the private sector to grow the enterprise.

“We understand, as commissioners, we don’t create the jobs, you as CEOs create the jobs,” he said.

Irey Vaughan, who has served as a commissioner for the past 22 years and is the first woman on the county panel, echoed Maggi’s comment, noting when she first arrived as a commissioner, “there were just a handful of businesses” in Southpointe.

At the time, she said, some were still referring to the park as “Frank’s Folly,” skeptical of the decision by the late Frank Mascara, the commissioner who led the county to purchase the original Southpointe property from the state.

Irey Vaughan also credited former commissioner Bracken Burns, who helped secure land for the park.

However, she said, it was the risks taken by the private sector, especially by developers Jack Piatt of Millcraft Investments, Rod Piatt, president of Horizon Properties, and Jim Scalo of Burns and Scalo Real Estate Services, who built out the park and attracted the growing list of tenants from high-tech to pharmaceuticals to energy to create a site with a global business impact.

Shober, who is in his second term as commissioner, said the park, which is now nearing capacity, is the impetus to continue to make the county a place to attract business.

“We’re only beginning to be where we need to be,” Shober said. “Southpointe is pretty full; where do we go now?”

The association also presented its Emerging Leader Award, in collaboration with Leadership Washington County.

Jennifer Trapuzzano, co-owner of Fresh Media Group, was named recipient, while Carole DeAngelo, marketing director at Observer Publishing Co., was named runner-up.

Also presented were two $2,500 scholarships, awarded to applicants who have demonstrated excellence in leadership and who are employees, or dependents of employees, of association member organizations.

This year’s recipients are Alyssa Ketter, a graduate of Fort Cherry High School who will attend California University of Pennsylvania to major in secondary education in English, and Matthew Miceli, an employee of Columbia Gas who is earning a master’s degree in business administration at Waynesburg University.