Georgia Small Business Person of the Year is Path-Tec CEO Boykin

Kevin Boykin, president and chief executive officer of Path-Tec, a medical logistics company in Columbus, has been selected Georgia Small Business Person of the Year for 2017.

The honor was announced Thursday by Linda McMahon, administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. She revealed 54 winners from across the U.S., the District of Columbia, and the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

(Path-Tec expands into plant vacated by Hallmark's Litho-Krome, plans to add 100 jobs)

“These small business owners define entrepreneurial spirit and best represent the 28 million small businesses that are the backbone and economic engine for today’s economy,” McMahon said in a statement. “I look forward to welcoming the winners to Washington next month when they are officially honored for their achievements.”

The ceremonies will take place April 30-May 1 in the nation’s capital. The National Business Small Business Person of the Year, along with runners-up will be recognized at that event. National Small Business Week is April 30 through May 6.

Path-Tec specializes in packaging, transporting and tracking laboratory specimens. Its 130,000-square-foot facility is located at 5700 Old Brim Road in the Midland area of Columbus, inside Muscogee Technology Park. It relocated there from an industrial area on Belfast Avenue after purchasing the former Litho-Krome/Hallmark space in 2015. The new facility’s grand opening was in February 2016.

“Our customers are laboratories all over the U.S.,” Boykin said at the time. “When you go to a doctor and get a sample drawn, a lot of times they will collect the sample and put it into some sort of transport box. We design all of the kits that they use to collect those samples in, and we also manage all of the inventory. We know how much inventory is sitting on the shelves of all of the doctors. So we take care of all the tracking of the samples.”

Boykin is a U.S. Air Force veteran who founded Path-Tec in 2005. He has grown the company to more than 150 workers since then.

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 5:30 PM with the headline "Georgia Small Business Person of the Year is Path-Tec CEO Boykin."