Leonard D Ortiz
BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND
&
"TOPIC"
( READING THE ROAD SIGNS TO SUCCESS )

Leonard Ortiz was born in East Los Angeles and eventually moved to Santa Fe Springs, CA and graduated from SFS High School in 1965.

Attented Cerritos College & Long Beach State.

Managed & supervised for a major corporation for 22 years before entering into business on his own at age 39.

Started "On Top Sportswear & Specialties" in 1987 which was an ad specialty and promotion-wear company catering to municipalities, construciton companies & corporations in Southern California.

In 1990 Leonard was asked to join the Southern Californa Paving & Grading Association by a few of his construction company customers.

In 1991 Leonard was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the Southern California Paving & Grading Association where he served as a Board Member for 7 years.

In 1992 Leonard was recognized as "Man of the Year" within this same Association for his particpation and outstanding service, an award he holds dearly because he was selected by mult-million dollar company owners who were all more successful in business.

"On Top Sportswear & Specialties" was nominated and selected as 'Supplier of the Year' in 1995 by the gas company (now Sempra Energy) in the Southern California Regional Purchasing Council Organization.

In 1996 he was selected by the gas company as one of two vendors out of the 6000 gas company vendors to attend the Entrepreneurial Studies Center at the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.

After attending the UCLA program, "On Top Sportswear & Specialties"changed its company name to "Lenn-O Industries" in order to offer a wider variety of products and services.

In the year 2000 and in addition to Lenn-O Industries Leonard ortiz started "Novacoat" a general contracting company specializing in epoxy & urathane protective floor coatings.

2003 Novacoat was again nominated by Sempra Energy in the same organization and won in category II which is comprised of companies between 1 and 10 million dollars in annual sales.

The winning selection was made from more than 1200 vendor suppliers within the organization.

As a result of winning the 'Supplier of the Year' award in 2003 Novacoat also won a seat for the Advance Business Minority Executive Program, "Transforming the Minority Business" at the Tucks School of Business at Darthmouth University.

2005 Novacoat is once again nominated for 'Supplier of the Year' and wins in the Class II Category for companies between 1 and 10 $ million in annual sales. Nomination was made by American Honda and Sempra Energy.

For winnning in 2005 Leonard Ortiz is given a scholorship to attend the UCLA Entrepreneurial Studies Center at the John E. Anderson School of Business Management, his 3rd time attending UCLA.

The California Black Chamber of Commerce/Foundation 2008 'Small Business of the Year' award (Southern Region)

Novacoat was incorporated in 2004 and its goal is to reach annual sales of 10 million dollars within the next 5 years.

Leonard Ortiz has always believed that success is only achieved when preperation meets opportunity and to achieve true success one must to stay focused on the goal. He also believes that in order to win, one should "never quit, never, never, never quit"

"FAILING IS NOT FALLING DOWN, FAILING IS NOT GETTING BACK UP"