Angela Simon, president of Western Allied Mechanical, Menlo Park, Calif., received the SMACNA Contractor of the Year award at the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors’ National Association’s (SMACNA) 73rd Annual Convention.““This year’s contractor is a construction firm president and a mechanical contractor who is not satisfied sitting on the sidelines,” said 2016 SMACNA President Guy Gast. “She has taken a leadership role for years and willingly serves on committees and task forces doing whatever it takes to get the job done.

“Just as SMACNA is dedicated to bringing young people into the association, Angie has established an exceptional mentoring program at her company where the interns are involved in a project from start to finish,” Gast emphasized.

“Helping women develop into leadership roles is one of SMACNA’s initiatives and Angie stepped up to co-chair SMACNA’s Women in Construction Leadership Council, getting the fledgling group off to a solid start,” President Gast explained.

Actively involved in SMACNA leadership for years, Simon’s credentials include participation in numerous SMACNA committees, task forces, and SMACNA events. She has been inducted into the prestigious College of Fellows, is a Summit Circle level contributor to the New Horizons Foundation, and is an ongoing contributor to SMACNA’s political action committee

“In fact, she is the first woman to be honored as SMACNA’s Contractor of the Year,” Gast noted. “We are recognizing her today, not because she’s a woman, but because she is the right and most deserving person for this award.”

She was also the first woman to serve as president of the Bay Area SMACNA Chapter. She held all the officer roles and was a member of the chapter’s Board of Directors. She was a trustee of the Bay Area SMACNA Industry Promotion Fund and on the former San Mateo SMACNA chapter’s Board of Directors. She has been a member of ASHRAE since 1984.

“Helping women develop into leadership roles is one of SMACNA’s initiatives and Angie stepped up to co-chair SMACNA’s Women in Construction Leadership Council, getting the fledgling group off to a solid start.”

Simon joined Western Allied mechanical as a project manager in 1987. She graduated from California Polytechnic State University in 1986 with a degree in mechanical engineering and is a registered professional engineer in California. She and her husband Michael have two college-age sons, Alex and Ben.