Akraya President, Sonu Ratra Named As Finalist In 6th Annual Stevie® Awards For Women In Business

Oct. 15, 2009 - PRLog -- [Sunnyvale, CA] –  Akraya, Inc. President, Sonu Ratra was named a Finalist in both  the “Best Entrepreneur” and the “Women Helping Women Award - All Service Industries” categories in the 6th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business honor women executives, entrepreneurs, and the companies they run – worldwide.  The Stevie Awards have been hailed as the world’s premier business awards.

Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word “crowned,” winners will be announced during a gala event at the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York on Friday, November 13.  Nominated women executives and entrepreneurs from the U.S.A and several other countries are expected to attend.   The presentations will be broadcast live on radio in the U.S.A. by the Business TalkRadio Network.

More than 1,100 entries were submitted this year for consideration in 54 categories, including Best Executive, Best Entrepreneur, and Best Community Involvement Program.  Akraya President Sonu Ratra is a Finalist in the Best Entrepreneur and Women Helping Women Categories.

Sonu Ratra is the President of Akraya, Inc., a multiple-award winning IT, Engineering, Creative & Marketing talent solutions company and a dedicated advocate of women empowerment. Akraya is the reflection of Ratra’s passion for the international recruiting and staffing industry. After more than a decade in Recruiting and Management experience, Sonu founded Akraya, Inc in 2002 with the desire to fill a gap between what clients needed and what other agencies provided. Akraya has grown in a mere 7 years into a preferred staffing company to several Fortune 500 enterprises with annual revenue of $28MM in 2008. Today, Akraya has offices in Sunnyvale, CA and Pune, India. In June 2009, Akraya was named #26 on the Fastest Growing Staffing Firms in the US list by Staffing Industry Analysts. Akraya was also honored with the Woman-owned Business of the Year Award by Women’s Initiative and ranked #24 on the Fastest-Growing Private Companies list in Silicon Valley. Akraya also became an Inc. 5000 honoree in 2009.

As a successful woman entrepreneur, Sonu believes that with success comes responsibility. Besides leading Akraya’s aggressive growth, Sonu also focuses on mentoring other, less fortunate women entrepreneurs and supporting other woman-owned businesses. Most recently, Sonu joined The Institute of Economic Empowerment for Women’s Peace Through Business Mentorship Program and became a mentor to Joy Kabera Kansangire, a female business owner from Rwanda.

Finalists were chosen by business professionals worldwide during preliminary judging.
Members of the Awards' Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs will select Stevie Award winners from among the Finalists during final judging.

“Being named a Finalist in The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an important achievement,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards.  “It means that independent business executives have agreed that the nominee is worthy of recognition.  We congratulate all of the Finalists on their achievement and wish them well in the competition.”

“I feel honored to be named a Finalist in 2 categories in the 6th Annual Stevie Award” said Ratra. “It is particularly rewarding to be recognized by such an outstanding group of leading women in business.  I attribute Akraya’s growth to our pursuit of providing superior client service while keeping a community focus in our business practice.”

Details about The Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the list of Finalists in all categories are available at www.stevieawards.com/women.  

About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.  Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide.  Learn more about The Stevie Awards at www.stevieawards.com.

Sponsors of the 6th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business (as of October 9) include the Business TalkRadio Network, Covario, Inc., and KeyBank.  Localization partner of the 2009 Stevie Awards is Lionbridge.

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About Akraya, Inc.
Akraya, Inc. is a multiple award-winning, fast growing provider of IT, Engineering, Creative & Marketing talent. We have extensive experience supporting Enterprise clients like eBay, Cisco, Oracle and Roche as well as hot emerging companies like Facebook. Akraya is a woman-owned and minority-owned certified business and also a certified Bay Area Green Business.