2012 Businessperson of the Year nominees

FOUR prominent individuals from the community will be vying for the Businessperson of the Year Award for 2012.

The announcement of the winner will be during the installation dinner for the officers and directors of the Saipan Chamber of Commerce in the Hibiscus Hall of Fiesta Resort & Spa on Jan. 21.

Saipan Chamber of Commerce executive director Richard A.  Pierce said the selection will be done by former awardees.

Pierce said the judging will be based on the nominee’s community involvement and contributions, support for the local workforce and active participation in the chamber.

And the nominees are…

James T. Arenovski
President
Delta Management Corp.

Arenovski has lived in the Marianas since 1987.  Originally from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, he holds a Master’s Degree in Administration from Georgia Southern University.

Arenovski started his career with The Inter-Pacifica Group as special projects manager for Pacific Islands Club-Guam and then became the area manager for Domino’s Pizza Group in Guam in 1989.

Initially hired by Shell Guam in 1991 as commercial area manager, he was promoted to the position of Saipan area manager and eventually became regional manager for Shell North Pacific, which included Guam, Saipan, and Palau.

Arenovski formed Delta Management Corporation with his two partners in 1998, a management company, which currently operates eight Shell service stations. This year Delta Management took over the operations of Shell Puerto Rico and Shell Highway from IP&E.

Delta Management also owns Prime Group Inc., which is an authorized distributor of pre-paid telecommunications products.

Delta Management was awarded Master Distributorship for DataDot for Micronesia in October of 2010, a microdot technology that is applied to objects of value for authentication and identification is stolen.

Arenovski is the principal of Island Training Solutions a full service training company which provides OSHA and EEOC compliance, customer service and other staff and management development training programs. He is also managing director for Restaurant 360.

Arenovski founded The Bridge Project Inc. in 2011, a non-profit organization that provides entry level job readiness training as well as works with employers in assisting them increase the number of U.S. eligible workers.

Arenovski has served on the board of NMI Crime Stoppers for 11 years and as its chairman, and sits on the board of directors of Crime Stoppers International, the steering group that sets standards, policy for its 1200 plus member organizations around the world.

Arenovski has chaired the Chamber membership and small business committee, education committee and scholarship committee.  He has been director, secretary, president and vice president.

Arenovski helped create two of the chamber’s annual programs: The Saipan Chamber of Commerce fundraising golf tournament, and “You are Graduating Soon, Now What?”  where Chamber members spend a Saturday teaching juniors and seniors about their options after high school.

Arenovski has been committed to hiring local staff for his business since Delta Management since 1999. He is active in the local sport community, participating in Xterra, Tagaman, The Hell of the Marianas and various distance swimming events and is a supporter of various sports and charitable organizations. Arenovski is the father of two teenage girls and married to Jill M Arenovski.

Michael S. Johnson
Managing Partner
Deloitte & Touche
Saipan/Palau

Michael S. Johnson is a long-time resident of Saipan who held the position of chamber treasurer for three consecutive terms in the early 1990’s. He has been the treasurer of the chamber since 2005.

Johnson came to Saipan in 1982 after earning masters of business administration (emphasis in accounting) and bachelor of arts degrees at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

He is a certified public accountant, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a member of the CNMI Society of Certified Public Accountants and current President of the CNMI Chapter of the Association of Government Accountants. Additionally, Johnson was selected by Bishop Camacho to serve on the financial advisory committee of the Diocese of Chalan Kanoa and is a past chairman of the CNMI Board of Accountancy.

Johnson participates in various sports including golf, kayaking, biking and triathlon. Mike is the current treasurer of the Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation and the Over the Reef Yacht Club.

Johnson is married to Betty Hamilton Johnson. They have three children: Kathleen, Sarah and Andrew.

James E. Nelson
General Manager,
Docomo-Pacific CNMI

James E. Nelson was appointed to his position on March 2, 2009.  He is responsible for marketing, sales, administration and the day to day operations of Docomo Pacific in the CNMI.

Prior to his appointment at Docomo Pacific, Nelson was manager of Windward Hills Golf Course and managed golf course operations; as senior business development executive for the Royal Orchid Guam Hotel and was responsible for direct sales of rooms and food and beverage functions before he moved to the Windward Hills Golf Course.

In March 2005, Nelson was the director of marketing and sales for JMSH LLC where he was responsible for the marketing and sales efforts of all JMSH LLC properties, which included the Alupang Beach Tower, Holiday Resort Guam, Garden Villa Hotel, Mai’Ana Airport Plaza and Tumon Horizon Condominiums.

Nelson was the general manager of the Guam Visitors Bureau from 1995 to 2003. His responsibilities also include operational and marketing efforts of the bureau’s branch office in Tokyo, Japan, information desk in Osaka, and marketing representative offices in North America, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Philippines.

From March 1988 to January 1995, Nelson served as the director of marketing and government affairs for Continental Micronesia Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Continental Airlines.

He began his 11-year tenure in 1984 with the airline’s in-flight department as a passenger service representative.  Two years later, he transferred to the marketing and government affairs department as a sales and marketing/OnePass representative.

Nelson also directed the airline’s efforts in maintaining favorable relations with the government of Guam, the CNMI and the emerging nations of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.

Nelson served as president of the Guam Junior Golf League and as a board member for Guam Junior Achievement, Guam Crime Stoppers, Guam Major League, American Red Cross, Guam Chamber of Commerce, and the University of Guam Endowment Foundation.

Nelson served as a member of the board of directors of the Pacific Asia Travel Association or PATA from 1995 to 2000, and as Chairman of the PATA Micronesia Chapter from 1996 to 1999.  He also served as a member of the PATA Environmental Council.

Nelson studied at Fairfield High School (California), Solano Community College (California), and the University of Guam.  He has one daughter, Nicole.

Anthony Pellegrino
Chief Executive Officer
Saipan Sea Ventures, Inc.

Anthony Pellegrino started his business ventures on Saipan in 1984. He currently owns and operates Saipan Sea Ventures Inc, a boat operation in tourism; Saipan Ice and Water Co., Inc., which processes drinking water and ice; Saipan Aquaculture Inc., shrimp farming; and the Northern Marianas Trade Institute, a non-profit trade school.

He is president and shareholder of Arctic Circle Air; Cargo airline, Marianas Meat Processing and slaughterhouse. Pellegrino developed several projects on Saipan. He was instrumental in having the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library built, in developing and building the Horiguchi Building, developing and building Outer Cove Mariana. He was also the construction manager for Aqua Resort Club.

Pellegrino was a member of the CNMI Board of Education, and during his term of four years was instrumental in building 60 classrooms and five schools. He started the Advanced Development Institute for high school student dropouts to obtain their diplomas, started the Northern Marianas Trade Institute — a non-profit school for teaching trades to the local people.

He also built a large 85-foot sailing catamaran in 1984 in Saipan and is operating the first shrimp farm on island.

Pellegrino attended Kutztown State Teachers College, Kutztown,   Penn. He got his master of arts in liberal arts at the Temple University, in Philadelphia, Penn.

Pellegrino was a public school teacher for 12 years — six years teaching in the United States and six years teaching in Japan. He was an instructor at the University of Maryland, Japan for four years at the Department of Writing and Literature, and two years in Yokohama University, at the Economics Department in Yokohama, Japan.

Pellegrino is the former president of the Small Business Association in Hawaii, former chairman and director of the CNMI Board of Education, former president of the chamber of commerce, and former member of the Rotary Club

Pellegrino established, owned and operated three businesses in Japan for 16 years, and established and operated two businesses in Hawaii.

He was voted as Businessman of the Year 2010. Pellegrino is married to Milagros P. Pellegrino.