The opening of a business school elicits feelings of warmth for our CEO Vanessa Best. Such is the case when Best recently attended the opening of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Education at LaGuardia Community College (LaGCC).
Best is an alumnae (class 2014) of the 10,000 Small Business program, an initiative of Goldman Sachs that provides business education and support services to its alumni.
“That program helped me to become a better strategic CEO,” says Best, who gives it due credit for playing a key role in the growth of Precision HealthCare Consultants. “It has provided tools and assistance that my team and I needed to work with federal and local government agencies.”
To date, Precision HealthCare Consultants is certified by the US Small Business Administration (US SBA) as an 8a Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) and HUBZone, among other credentials. Aside from working with both local and federal government units such as the Department of Health (New York state), Precision HealthCare Consultants also has key relationships with private healthcare organizations.
Despite our company’s success, our CEO still wants to pay it forward.
“As an alumnae, I collaborate with other alumni to work on multiple projects,” says Best. “Goldman Sachs, in general, continues to provide different forums to help businesses grow.”
The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Education Center at LaGCC is the fruition of a $5 million grant awarded by the New York state in 2014, as part of governor Andrew Cuomo’s Economic Development Fund’s New York CUNY 2020 awards, an annual initiative worth $55 million per year. The program’s goal is to fund economic development projects in the CUNY network, and LaGCC was one of the first awardees.
To celebrate the center’s official opening, Goldman Sachs invited some of its New York alumni, including Best, to attend its ribbon cutting ceremony. Best was part of a roundtable discussion held before the ribbon cutting event that included guests such as Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein and LaGCC president Dr. Gail Mellow.
“Sitting at that roundtable and receiving first hand advice and accolades from successful people like Lloyd and Gail will always be a treasured part of my journey as an entrepreneur,” says Best. “I will always cherish that opportunity. To then be added to the GS Video and be interviewed, was the icing on the cake!”