Urban Chamber honors business, community leaders with annual Green Tie Awards

By Ric Anderson

Saturday, Nov. 19, 2016 | 4:12 p.m.

A Las Vegas small-business owner took a turn in the spotlight today with Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly and McCarran International Airport’s busiest commercial air carrier during the Urban Chamber of Commerce’s annual Green Tie Awards.

Distinguished honorees during the 36th annual event were Marie Ray Scott, senior vice president and chief financial officer for M.R. Whitsett Inc., Southwest Airlines and Weekly.

Ray Scott is a co-founder of M.R. Whitsett, which has been in operation for 22 years and is minority owned. The company operates a number of restaurants and stores at McCarran International Airport and employs a workforce of more than 80 people.

Ray Scott, who began her career in Las Vegas as a telephone operator in 1967, has served on the boards of several local and national organizations, including the Girl Scouts of Southern Nevada, the Las Vegas Urban League and the Las Vegas branch of the Salvation Army.

Weekly was appointed to the county commission in 2007 and won election the following year. He was re-elected in 2008 and won another term this year. He is the first black man to chair the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority board.

Southwest Airlines employs 3,200 people in Las Vegas, where the company donated more than $300,000 to 83 nonprofit organizations in 2015. Southwest operates more than 220 daily flights to 60 cities from McCarran.

Also honored at the event, held at the Mirage, were:

• Corporation of the Year: Las Vegas Sands Corp.

• Diversity in Contracting Award: Las Vegas Paving

• Excellence in Education Award: Nevada State College

• Legacy Entrepreneurial Award: Tuxedo Junction

• Small Business of the Year Award: Love Engineering

• Community Champion Award: Communities in Schools