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2007 International of the Year Awards

International Professional
International Business Person
International Volunteer

International Professionals of the Year 2007

 Ms. Carmen Floyd, England

Carmen Floyd was born and raised in the UK and was very fortunate to be able to travel the world and see many wonderful things. Upon graduating from high school, she joined the Armed Forces and served 10 years in the Royal Navy as a Police Officer. While serving in the Royal Navy, Ms. Floyd spent 5 years overseas on Diego Garcia as a Civil Police, Customs and Immigration Officer for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Dr. Wayne Duffus, Jamaica

Dr. Wayne A. Duffus moved to the United States with his family, following his graduation from high school in Jamaica twenty-five years ago. He graduated from Brooklyn College in NY with a bachelors in biology, then earned both his M.D. and a PhD in Virology from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY.  Following a three-year residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, Dr. Duffus received additional training and experience at the Emory University School of Medicine and at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA. Since 2002, he has served as an attending physician for infectious diseases at the STD clinic of the SC Dept. of Health and Environmental Control here in Columbia. Since 2004, he has also served as Director for HIV and STD Medicine for DHEC’s Bureau of Disease Control, in addition to being Clinical Assistant Professor in the University of SC ’s Dept. of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Duffus has co-authored numerous articles and publications, serves as a consultant to physicians and nurses statewide, mentors undergraduate students at the university, and is active in educating community groups about the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

International Business Person of the Year 2007
Mrs. Gira Patel, India

Born in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, Gira Patel came to the United States as a nineteen year old bride. Her family had arranged her marriage to Manhar Patel, a graduate of Texas A & M who was working in Gastonia, NC as an electrical engineer. They have two sons. In 1984, the Patels moved to Irmo, SC , and a year later Gira opened a convenience store. One store grew into four! Then in 1997, the Patels listened to the advice of friends who had been in the steel business and opened a steel fabrication shop on Catawba St. in Columbia.. Soon Manhar decided he didn’t like the business, so he turned it all over to his wife. Although she knew nothing about the steel business, Gira hired Buddy Hall, who had been laid off by another steel company, and went in search of customers, while Buddy ran the shop. Gira Steel Company’s first job was to build the steel gates and rails for the Joseph P. Riley baseball stadium in Charleston. Locally, Patel’s company has provided steel works for Columbia Place Mall, the Colonial Center, and the Columbia Metropolitan Airport. Last November the company moved to a much larger building in West Columbia and plans to nearly double its work force this year. That’s amazing growth for a new company, according to Scott Melnick of the American Institute of Steel Construction in Chicago, through which Gira Steel is a certified fabricator. The company currently has 30 employees.

International Volunteer of the Year 2007
Mrs. Young Ae Kim, South Korea

Young Ae Kim came to the U.S. (and the Midlands of SC) ten years ago. In addition to being a mother and running a successful business,  for the past eight years she has also volunteered much time as instructor of the Korean Children Folk Dance Group, which she herself founded. Mrs. Kim realized that her children, as second generation Koreans living abroad, did not possess a knowledge of the native culture and traditional customs of her beloved motherland. Nor was the problem isolated to her own family. Thus she established the Folk Dance Group as a means of teaching second generation Korean children here in the Midlands their Korean heritage. Besides their weekly training sessions, the Dance Group performs traditional Korean dances at such events as the Carillon Holiday Parade, the Columbia International Festival, local school events, and various Korean community programs. Through these performances, the children have gained valuable self-confidence, as well as pride for their Korean lineage.