ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and FORTUNE announced September 14 that Atlanta based Caduceus, a healthcare staffing and consulting firm, topped the 2016 Inner City 100 list of the fastest-growing inner city businesses in the U.S. Caduceus was recognized by longtime ICIC partner Staples, Inc. for both its top place on the list, and for its growth rate of 3554 percent. Staples presented the company with the annual Staples Business Growth Award for this impressive rate.

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Featured (from left to right): Steve Grossman, CEO, ICIC, Kevin Moss, Senior Vice President, Staples Business Advantage, John Anderson, COO, Caduceus, Dr. Michael Porter, University Professor, Harvard Business School and Founder of ICIC (Photo: Business Wire)

Caduceus’s Chief Executive Officer, Carlos Lopez, a former Marine, decided to found the business in 2008 with the goal of staffing the military healthcare industry. A certified Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Caduceus has succeeded in doing just that, while also expanding its services beyond healthcare to include scientific and technology related staffing as well. Carlos and his company are known for their commitment to both their employees and their customers, and undoubtedly this commitment has helped drive their growth.

Each year, ICIC works with a national network of nominating partners to identify, rank and spotlight rapidly-growing urban businesses. The top 100 are determined by revenue growth and are honored on the Inner City 100 list published in FORTUNE. This year’s full list of winners can be viewed at Fortune.com.

Before the September 14 Awards revelation, winners gathered for a full-day business symposium featuring management case studies from Harvard Business School professors and interactive sessions with top CEOs. Shira Goodman, Interim CEO at Staples, gave a keynote speech to open the event and touched on the challenges all businesses are facing due to the pace of change in today’s marketplace. “Good times and bad times come and go but as the leader of your business you get to teach and role model the kind of constancy, consistency, integrity, dependability and intensity that will allow your company to thrive in all seasons,” she said in congratulating the winners on making the Inner City 100 list.

Other notable speakers included Rapid 7 CEO Corey Thomas, Harvard Business School Professors Lynda Applegate and Amy Edmondson, Forbes Senior Editor Loren Feldman, John Stuart of PTC, Bithenergy CEO Robert Wallace, Brook Colangelo of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and ICIC Founder and Chairman Michael E. Porter.

“We are extraordinarily proud of these pioneering entrepreneurs who lead the way in economic revitalization in America’s inner cities,” says Steve Grossman, CEO of ICIC, of the list of 100.

The Inner City 100 program recognizes and supports successful inner city business leaders, and celebrates their role in providing innovation and job creation in America’s cities. These companies strengthen local American economies, provide job opportunities for underrepresented communities, and drive forward economic and social development.

Boasting an average five-year growth rate of 458 percent between 2011 and 2015, the 2016 Inner City 100 winners represent a wide span of geography, hailing from 42 cities and 25 states. Collectively, the winners employed 7,324 people in 2015, and on average over a third of their employees live in the same neighborhood as the company.

Highlights of the 2016 Inner City 100 include:

• Employ 7,324 workers total in 2015.
• Created 4,696 new jobs in the last five years.
• On average, 34% of employees live in same neighborhood as the company.
• Average company age is 16 years.
• Average 2015 revenue was $12.2 million.
• 34% are women-owned.
• 37% are minority-owned.
• 6% of the winners are certified B-Corps.
• 26 industries represented in the top 100.

Inner City 100 Methodology: The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) defines inner cities as core urban areas with higher unemployment and poverty rates and lower median incomes than their surrounding metropolitan statistical areas. Every year, ICIC identifies, ranks, and spotlights the 100 fastest-growing businesses located in America’s inner cities. In 2016, Companies were ranked by revenue growth over the five-year period between 2011 and 2015. This list was audited by the independent accounting firm Rucci, Bardaro, and Falzone, PC.

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC)

ICIC is a national nonprofit founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School professor Michael E. Porter. ICIC's mission is to promote economic prosperity in America's inner cities through private sector investment that leads to jobs, income and wealth creation for local residents. Through its research on inner city economies, ICIC provides businesses, governments and investors with the most comprehensive and actionable information in the field about urban market opportunities. The organization supports urban businesses through the Inner City 100, Inner City Capital Connections and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programs. Learn more at www.icic.org or @icicorg.

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