BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) has honored two Diverse Business Enterprises (DBEs) with the railway's second annual DBE Awards. Multatech Engineering, Inc. received the Distinguished Supplier Award and Zones, Inc. received the Newcomer of the Year Award. The awards were presented by Dennis Johnson, BNSF's vice president and chief sourcing officer, at ceremonies at BNSF's headquarters in Fort Worth.

Multatech, a Hispanic-owned Minority Business Enterprise (MBE)-certified company, has been a BNSF supplier for many years, starting as a mechanical/engineering/plumbing subcontractor and expanding to increasing business as a design and construction management firm. Multatech is BNSF's largest dollar-volume MBE supplier. Multatech projects for BNSF in 2007 included work at Alliance, Texas; Oklahoma City Red Rock Subdivision I-40 bridge; Seneca to Mullen, Neb.; Alliance, Neb., Truck Unload Facility; and Logistics Park-Kansas City. Accepting the award for Multatech were Al Saenz, president; Jack Otteson, vice president; and Hong Chen, vice president.

Zones, an MBE-certified company, is a direct marketing reseller of information technology (IT) products. The relationship began when BNSF purchased desktop and laptop hardware from Zones as a test. BNSF has also purchased other items from Zones, including printers and 40" liquid crystal displays and uses Zones for IT spot buys. Accepting the award for Zones was Quentin Thomas, director of client development. (Marketwire)