James E. Hammer Receives RIT Entrepreneurial Award

ROCHESTER, NY—James E. Hammer, president and CEO of Hammer Packaging, is the 2008 recipient of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award. Hammer was honored during a luncheon on April 23 as he accepted one of the area’s most prestigious business awards.

The annual award goes to a successful business leader who has positively impacted the local economy with innovative management skills that have also changed the course of an existing business. Hammer became president of the family-owned company in 1983. Since then, the company has invested more than $100 million in new equipment and seen its sales grow from $4 million annually to $90 million in 2007 and its employment from fewer than 20 people to more than 400.

Saunders College of Business Dean Ashok Rao says, “Jim Hammer is an unusually creative and innovative individual. He has survived and prospered in a very tough business environment by identifying niche opportunities, taking calculated investment risks and growing new ventures in those niches.”

The award, in its 24th year, is named for a founder of RF Communications in Rochester, now a division of Harris Corp. The award is given to successful executives who also have a history of contributions to the greater community.