New York, NY, May 02, 2008: Sunil Garg, Executive Director, Union County Utilities Authority is to be recognized at the Seventh Annual (2008) Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award. Governor David Paterson has been invited to join 700 people at the Waldrof Astoria Hotel in New York City on May 28th to pay tribute and celebrate the achievements of 50 recipients of the "Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business" award, an annual event organized by the Asian American Business Development Center.

Hailed as "the Asian American business community's most distinguished award program", the "Outstanding 50" is the largest, all-encompassing Asian American business award program in the nation. The award program honors individuals with outstanding leadership, vision and accomplishments who have built a successful business or who have distinguished themselves within their community. The award aims to recognize entrepreneurs, business professionals, as well as corporate executives who contribute to the general economy.

In addition to the "Outstanding 50" award, the Pinnacle Award recognizes an individual who has reached the top of his professional field. The 2008 Pinnacle Award recipient is Michael Chen, President and CEO of Media, Communications, and Entertainment, GE Commercial Finance.

This year's honorees were selected from throughout the United States and represent a diverse group of Asian American ethnic backgrounds—Chinese, Korean, South Asian, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, and Japanese.

The 2008 "Outstanding 50" award is supported by Gold Sponsors: Aetna, AIG, and Macy's; and Silver Sponsors: Chubb Corporation, Colgate-Palmolive, Con Edison, Daily News, GE, IBM, Novartis, State Farm, The New York Times, Time Warner.

"The support and participation of our sponsors is an important factor in the success of the program which has enabled the program to grow tremendously year after year. Besides honoring individual accomplishments, the award increases awareness of cultural diversity and creates new opportunities for corporations to strengthen contact with the growing Asian American community, " said Mr. John Wang, President of AABDC.

About AABDC: The Asian American Business Development Center, Inc. (AABDC, 80 Wall Street, Suite 418, New York) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 1994. AABDC's mission is to assist Asian-owned businesses to compete in the mainstream marketplace.