WASHINGTON – Today Senator John Kerry congratulated Wilmington’s Robert Delhome for being named the 2008 Massachusetts Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration. Robert Delhome is the president of Charter Environmental, Inc., an environmental engineering services firm. He started Charter Environmental with $300 and two employees in 1997 and has grown the company into a $30 million a year business with more than 100 employees.

“Robert exemplifies the best of the American entrepreneurial spirit,” said Senator Kerry. “He had an idea, and with a lot of hard work and determination, and some business development assistance from a federal small business program, Robert’s turned a one-bedroom operation into a successful top environmental contracting firm. Wilmington and all of Massachusetts can be proud of his accomplishments.”

Delhome is in Washington D.C. to receive his award during National Small Business Week. Delhome participated in the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) Business Development Program which helps socially and economically disadvantaged businesses access and compete for federal government contracts.