Wells Fargo, US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce Honor Three Asian-Owned Small Businesses

SAN FRANCISCO, May 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Celebrating the continued success of Asian business owners -- growing at twice the national average -- Wells Fargo and the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) will recognize three Asian entrepreneurs with the 4th annual Asian Business Leadership Award. Each winner will receive a $5,000 cash prize and be honored at USPAACC's 22nd annual Asian American Business Conference in San Francisco on May 11, 2007.

The three awardees were selected from a nationwide pool of applicants and evaluated based on their innovation, financial success, and community service. The 2007 winners include:

-- Arizona-based Cascade Springs LLC -- Leniwati M. Siker -- San Francisco-based Sugar Bowl Bakery -- Andrew Ly and Ly Brothers Corporation -- Virginia-based Harlan Lee & Associates LLC -- Harlan Lee

"Each year we're inspired by the dedication, innovation and continued success of Asian business owners nationwide," said Iris Chan, head of Commercial Banking at Wells Fargo and national spokesperson for the Asian Business Services program. "This year's winners truly reflect the strength, diversity, and character of this growing market and we're honored to celebrate their tremendous achievements."

Wells Fargo launched the Asian Business Services program in 2002 to provide outreach, education and increased access to capital to Asian business owners. The program focuses on forming community alliances, investing in primary research, and sponsoring key events in the diverse communities where Asian business owners live and work.

Measuring its progress with a public goal to lend $3 billion to Asian businesses within 10 years (by 2012), Wells Fargo has lent more than $2 billion to Asian business owners since the program's inception in 2002.

"Through our partnership with Wells Fargo, we're pleased to recognize and share in the success stories of these very special Asian business owners," said Susan Au Allen, National President and CEO of USPAACC. "Asian business owners continue to thrive and achieve throughout the country and we applaud them for their accomplishments, contributions and service to their communities."

Cascade Springs LLC is an Arizona-based water bottling manufacturer with headquarters in Wisconsin. Established in 2004, Cascade Springs is the only Asian-minority and woman-owned water bottling manufacturer in the United States. Owner Leniwati (Leni) M. Siker started the company after she moved to the United States from Indonesia and was inspired by the growing trend in America to live a healthy lifestyle. After using her entire savings to open the first bottling plant, within just three months, she secured a multi-year contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security -- Arizona Customs Protection and Border Patrol. Under her leadership, the company experienced tremendous growth and, in just two years, Cascade Springs was producing 45 million units of bottled water a year.

In 1984, five ambitious brothers pooled their savings together and opened a small neighborhood coffee shop in San Francisco. After years of hard work and determination under the leadership of President and CEO Andrew Ly, Ly Brothers Corporation DBA Sugar Bowl Bakery is now a successful bakery chain that includes five retail operations, a food service division, a wedding cake division, and a retail product line. The bakery offers a complete line of high-quality, hand-crafted baked goods that are distributed nationally as well internationally. As one of the largest family- and minority-owned bakeries in Northern California, Sugar Bowl Bakery offers over 400 hundred desserts and continues to serve the needs of its growing customer base.

Harlan Lee & Associates LLC (HLA) started in 1996 as a one-man business consulting company after Harlan Lee retired from the U.S. State Department after a 27-year career in the foreign service. Based in Falls Church Virginia, HLA offers quality business services including technical, conference management and administrative services for various government organizations. HLA specializes in socially conscious, "green conferencing" techniques such as selecting hotels and meeting sites close to mass transit and accommodations that include in-house recycling. The company has organized State Department export control workshops in Australia and Malta, supported a United Nations conference on Hawaii's tsunami system following the 2004 tsunami and worked with the Federal Ocean US program on a wide range of events, including training workshops and planning sessions.

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $486 billion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through more than 6,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. is the only bank in the U.S., and one of only two banks worldwide, to have the highest credit rating from both Moody's Investors Service, "Aaa," and Standard & Poor's Ratings Services, "AAA."

Providing financial products and services to more than one million businesses with annual sales up to $20 million in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, Wells Fargo is America's #1 lender to small businesses in total Dollar volume according to the most recent CRA data (2005).

The second largest national SBA lender in dollars, Wells Fargo is an SBA Preferred Lender in 28 states and the District of Columbia, and originated 4,937 loans for $578 million in 2006. Its diverse business services programs provide outreach and education to women, African American, Latino, and Asian business owners about financial services. Since 1995, Wells Fargo has loaned more than $30 billion to women and diverse business owners. For more information, please visit http://www.wellsfargo.com/biz.

About USPAACC

The US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC) was formed in 1984 as a national non-profit organization representing all Asian Americans and Asian American-related groups in business. For the past two decades, USPAACC has been promoting, nurturing and propelling economic growth by opening doors of contract, educational and professional opportunities for Asian Americans and their business partners in corporate America, the federal government, and the minority business community.

USPAACC regularly holds Business Connections across the country to address issues that are important to the Asian American business community. USPAACC also certifies Asian American-owned businesses through the Asian American Suppliers Council (AASC), a unique one-stop shop where Asian American suppliers increase their contacts and sales, and corporate and government purchasers diversify their supplier base. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., USPAACC has a nationwide presence through its seven regional chapters in Northern California and Southern California in the West Coast, Texas in the Southwest, Georgia in the Southeast, Illinois in the Midwest, New York in the Northeast, and the National Capital Area.