Sawan Kapoor, B.B.A.'01

Food and Consumer Package Goods Outstanding Alumni Award

Completing four internships and a study abroad semester while a student prepared Sawan Kapoor with the experience to be a work-ready and flexible employee who hit the ground running right after graduation. Upon graduation, he joined Daymon Worldwide, where he quickly moved from a business analyst role to managerial roles with progressive responsibilities. Generating revenue in his various roles, he had several notable accomplishments, including building the Safeway "O" Organics program, which generated $40 million in year one from 152 items.

In 2006, he joined Palm Bay International and rose to the level of vice president of enterprise planning and business development, where he was directly responsible for all purchasing, supply chain, human resources, information technology, business process design, enterprise reporting, strategic FP&A and global business development and managed a budget in excess of $260 million in the beverage/alcohol industry.

He then became CEO of Sutton & Maxwell, a Palm Bay International investment venture, where he planned, developed, executed, and ran a new direct-to-retail beverage alcohol import and distribution business for company principals, producing $23 million in sales revenue at 28 percent net margin in two years in 11 U.S. states.

He is currently the president/CEO of Kapoor Lighting, India's oldest and largest decorative and commercial lighting company with manufacturing operations in India and China, 21 retail stores, 110 dealers/distributors, and a client list that spans prominent architects, builders and developers, and corporate buyers in the hotel and travel industry.