Fast Company Names T3 President a Top Women Business Builder

Gay Warren Gaddis, president and CEO of T3 (The Think Tank), placed fifth in Fast Company and the Women Presidents' Organization's (WPO) premier entrepreneurial award "Top 25 Women Business Builders."

Nearly 600 women across Canada and the United States applied for the first-ever award.

"Award recipients represented industries as varied as fashion, agriculture, manufacturing, and armored security," said Alison Overholt, Fast Company writer. "They included one-woman shops struggling to turn their first profit as well as-in the case of one eventual winner-companies with more than $1 billion in annual revenue."

The applicants were scored by judges on four financial metrics: profitability, profitability consistency, compound annual growth rate and size of revenues. Each judge selected their top 25 choices based on the uniqueness of the business, the creativity of its business model, the strength of the company's culture and its financial and growth profile.

"Although this award honors me as a woman entrepreneur, it's a true reflection of the fabulous team I have at T3," said Gaddis. "My motto is 'It all goes back to client needs,' which we could not meet or exceed without the passion and professionalism my staff carries out every day."

According to the Center for Women's Business Research, from 1997 to 2004, the number of women-owned businesses grew twice as fast as all businesses in the United States. One in 18 adult women in the United States is a business owner. Women-owned companies generate $2.5 trillion in annual sales and employ nearly 20 million people.

The top women business builders were honored at WPO's annual conference in Toronto April 7. Taryn Rose, president of Taryn Rose International, ranked first.

About T3

T3, an agency with offices in Austin, New York and San Francisco, specializes in innovative marketing campaigns that cut across all media channels. As a collaborative think tank, T3 works with clients including ConocoPhillips Lubricants, Facebook, Intel, JCPenney, John Deere, JPMorgan Chase, Livescribe, Microsoft, Oriental Trading Company, Universal and UPS.

Founded by CEO Gay Gaddis in 1989, T3 is independent and the largest advertising agency wholly owned by a woman in the United States. T3 ranks among ADWEEK's Top 100 Agencies and Advertising Age's Top 100 U.S. Marketing Services Agencies lists.