Gary Nakamoto Received the Fairfax County APA Heritage Month Proclamation
Strong Business Leadership
Gary Nakamoto, head of The Nakamoto Group, a business development and management consulting firm, received, on behalf of the APA community, the APA Heritage Month Proclamation from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, at the Fairfax County government center in mid-May. The Proclamation recognizes the distinguished cultures and contributions in the fields of arts, sciences, military, law, business and government of the APA residents of Fairfax County.
Under Gary’s leadership, The Nakamoto Group also earned the distinction of being named the 2011 Best Places to Work in Virginia, the 2009 GOVCON Finalist of the Year, the 2008 Top 100 Privately-Held Businesses in Virginia, the 2008 Top 100 Diversity-Owned Business in Virginia, the ISO 9001: 2008 certified.
Gary’s clients include public and private agencies spanning from the East to the West Coast, and as far as the globe, supporting military technologies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait. The company draws $45 million in revenue.
“Open Mind” Policy
Mr. Nakamoto himself was the recipient of the Valor Humanitarian Award in 2009 for his numerous philanthropic participation. As a contributor to the Youth for Tomorrow Foundation, he assisted the at-risk youth to acquire the “skills, confidence, intellectual ability, and integrity to become responsible and productive members of society.” His Group also honored public safety and law enforcement officers in the Valor Scholarship Foundation, which provided educational grants to their children.
Gary was appointed by Governor Bob McDonnell to many Commissions and was affiliated to twelve Board of Directors ranging from Youth, to Health, to Automobile, to Red Cross, to the Chamber of Commerce, to George Mason University, to Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, and to the Police and Sheriff’s Department. In 2010, he was named “Fifty Powerful Men in Business, Minority Enterprise Executive Council,” and in 2007, the Washingtonian Magazine honored him as “One of the 150 most influential people in Washington, DC.
Recalling his humble youth, Gary talked of his struggle to make ends meet, working in mowing lawns, collecting soda bottles by the highway, washing dishes, bussing tables, digging ditches, to name a few. His upbringing helped mold in him a strong character, a sense of work ethics, and a philosophy of an “open-mind policy.“
Gary’s motto is, “Nobody can predict the future, so you must prepare to expand your mind beyond what you thought the game would look like…One must be able to wake up each morning with a good plan and be willing to adjust it throughout the day,” he advised.
Gordon Bernhard, author of Profiles in Success: Inspiration from Executive Leaders in the Washington Area, wrote that Gary has a “sense of compassion tied closely to responsibility and trust, which create a strong team spirit that is at once enlivening and self-sustaining.”