Firm exports its way to excellence

The Gulf Coast isn't necessarily considered a hub for global exports, but one local firm, Sarasota-based MyUS.com, took a big step recently to alter that perception.

The company, with a niche in package forwarding and shipping, received the President's “E” Award for Exports from the U.S. Department of Commerce. MyUS.com founder and CEO Eric Baird, the Business Review's 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year, received the award personally from U.S. Secretary of Commerce John Bryson at a May 17 ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The award recognizes the firm for forwarding and shipping $200 million worth of other company's merchandise to foreign buyers. “That's new money that's coming into the U.S. that wouldn't have come in before,” MyUS.com Vice President of Sales and Marketing John Wright tells Coffee Talk.