Business excellence, outstanding community impact and entrepreneurial spirit will be celebrated on Nov. 6 at the 2025 Lake-Geauga Fast Track 50 dinner and awards ceremony.
The event will take place at LaMalfa banquet hall, 5783 Heisley Road in Mentor. Festivities begin with a 5:30 p.m. cocktail hour, to be followed by dinner at 6:30 and presentation of awards at 7:15.
Oct. 21 is the deadline to purchase tickets for the event, become a Fast Track 50 sponsor, or purchase advertising in the official program for the celebration. More information about all of these opportunities can be found on the fasttrack50.org website.
Fast Track 50 is resuming in 2025 after being canceled last year because of unforeseen circumstances, according to an announcement made in August of 2024 by the program’s trustee board. However, in that same statement, trustees expressed their commitment to restart in 2025. The board pursued that desire and fulfilled its goal.
“We are excited to bring new energy to this year’s Fast Track 50 dinner and awards ceremony, with a shared goal of making it even better in the years to come,” said Trustee Kelly Conrad. “It is a privilege to recognize and celebrate the outstanding companies of Lake and Geauga counties for their hard work, resilience, and continued dedication to our community.”
Conrad also serves as economic development administrator for the City of Mentor and executive director of the Mentor Economic Assistance Corporation.
Awards to be presented at the Nov. 6 event will include Fast Track 50 honors for businesses declared as winners in a yearly competition; and accolades for a top nonprofit organization and an outstanding young entrepreneur.
Applications for the event are gathered and winners are determined by the Fast Track 50 Board of Trustees.
To be considered for a 2025 Fast Track 50 Award, businesses were required to report minimum annual sales of $250,000 during a five-year stretch beginning in 2020.
Winners of the 2025 award were selected using a weighted average of 80 percent sales growth and 20 percent employment growth from 2020 through 2024. After the Fast Track 50 trustee board reviews all applications, top finishers are then split into Established and Emerging categories based on sales and employment figures during the evaluated time frame. Fast Track 50 trustees strive to place 25 businesses each on the annual Established and Emerging lists. However, the number of winners in each category has varied over the years, depending on the quantity and quality of overall applications. The 2025 Fast Track 50 is comprised of 20 Established and 21 Emerging businesses.
While the No. 1 companies and Top 5 finishers in each category won’t be announced until the awards program, Fast Track 50 trustees have released the list of overall winners in each category, arranged strictly in alphabetical order:
Established Winners
- Alexy Metals, Ltd.
- Apollo Supply Co.
- AQUA DOC Lake & Pond Management
- Carver Financial Services
- D&S Automotive Collision & Restyling
- Enterprise Door & Supply
- Fredon Corporation
- Geauga Mechanical
- Handy Rents / Aladdin Rents
- IC Automation
- JEMM Construction, LLC
- Keller Williams Greater Cleveland Northeast
- McDowell Real Estate
- O’Reilly Equipment
- ProBuilt Homes
- PROCESS TECHNOLOGY
- Ralston Instruments, LLC
- Sheet Metal Products Co. Inc.
- Technical Assurance, Inc.
Emerging Winners
- A&A Masonry LLC
- ACS All Contractors Supply
- Axelix Health Consulting, Inc
- Baehr Insurance Agency Inc
- Blue Anchor Cabinets and Designs
- BoltsandNuts.com
- Defender Auto Glass
- Express Employment Professionals – Mentor, OH
- Fast Friendly Repair & Towing
- FASTSIGNS of Mentor
- Griffin Technology Group
- Moving Ahead Services
- NMS Certified Public Accountants
- North American Coating Laboratories
- Nova Manufacturing
- NutriFit LLC
- Quality CNC Machining
- Somich & Associates CPAs
- Tech Dynamix
- Ten10 Design LLC
- Turf Pride Lawncare
Winners of the Entrepreneur of the Year and Nonprofit of the Year awards will be announced during the Nov. 6 event.
Prior to the Fast Track 50 dinner and awards ceremony being called off in 2024, the event has been held every year since 1993. In 2020, during the COVID 19 pandemic, Fast Track 50 awards were presented during an online event. The Lake-Geauga Fast Track 50’s current board of trustees consists of representatives from these entities: Erie Bank, Geauga Growth Partnership, Lakeland Community College, Maloney + Novotny LLC, Mentor Area Chamber of Commerce, Somich and Associates CPAs, Strategic 7 Marketing and The News-Herald.
Fast Track 50 Gold Sponsors for 2025 are KeyBank and Middlefield Bank. Gold is the highest tier of sponsorship for the event.
Anyone with questions about the Lake-Geauga Fast Track 50 can contact Kelly Conrad at [email protected] or 440-974-5740, ext. 1402.
Press Release | October 20th, 2025 | MEACO
