Lynda Welte is the principal of manufacturing sales representatives agency, Blueprints For Design started in 1991. BFD represents manufacturers of hospitality furnishings with a priority for sustainability and a commitment to the LEEDs mission: Kimball Hospitality, KravetContract, Luzern LTD, Northwest Carpets, Inc., Renaissance Contract Lighting & Furnishings, VONDOM and Wonderly’s.
Lynda has chaired most positions in the Washington DC Metropolitan Chapter since 1991, originally serving on the founding board of directors who include current members Barbara Azzinaro (founding chapter president) and Elizabeth Grimsley (chapter in formation and first chartered president). With a natural love of fundraising, she produced the first golf tournament in September 1993 that proved to be a model idea for other NEWH chapters. Looking for another original idea, she planned the networking and fundraising event at the prestigious steeple chasing series of races known as The Virginia Gold Cup. She has worked on many more committees and challenges. But during it all, she has called on industry friends and business leaders to develop the DC Chapter. âThink bigâ or âthink outside of the boxâ are her mottos.
Lynda served as President of the Washington DC Metropolitan Chapter in 1999. It was in that year that the chapter produced the first scholarship and award âs gala. The event took place at the historic Sewall-Belmont House, the home of the National Women âs Party that campaigned and secured the women âs right to vote in the United States. Lynda presented, for the first time in the chapter âs history, the honored Woman of Excellence Award. Recipients were Barbara Azzinaro and Dixie Eng who later became NEWH Woman of the Year for 2000.
Lynda received a B.S. in Business Management from University of Maryland. She pursued MBA studies at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD in the eighties and then shifted her attention as surrogate mother to her teenage niece, Mikki. They lost her sister, Patti, and mother, respectively, to cancer. Lynda has been a member of The Washington Trade Association, National Association of Purchasing Management and Institute of Business Designers. She was on the steering committee for the Cats Benefit held at The National Theatre for the benefit of The Whitman-Walker Clinic when asked by friend and co-chairwoman, Sherry Silber in 1997. It was a personal cause to both women as they both lost brothers to AIDS. In her county, Lynda served as committee member on the Transient Occupancy Tax Committee of Loudoun County Visitors Association (LCVA) for two years.
Lyndaâs early career started as purchasing agent for RocLun International Inc. in So. San Francisco, an international exporter of heavy equipment and machinery. There she also had a marketing opportunity to travel extensively throughout the Far East. She returned to the DC area after the loss of her brother, Billy, to cancer in 1983. In 1984, she joined Crown Agents Services, LTD. as the first woman and American purchasing agent in that overseas “field office”Â. There she managed AID, Eximbank, and World Bank tenders as well as the routine buying services for “ex-colonies”Â. As this quasi-civil service, British agency was winding down operations in Washington; Lynda made a complete change by entering the hospitality industry in 1987. She joined Marriott International (at that time, referred to as Wilmar) as a senior buyer in the textiles commodity group. When asked how she would handle the change to focus on a narrow product, she said, “Buying is buying”. She previously purchased a variety of commodities; from live baby chicks to bone marrow transplant equipment to aircraft spare parts.
Lynda serves as Historian for the 2014 Washington, DC Board of Directors. She has served at the international level of NEWH as, Chair, International Community Development Programs. She teamed up with Zina Zimmerman, Director of Public Relations, at the time, to manage and direct a joint effort between NEWH, Inc. and UNICEF to fund an emergency relief education effort called School from the Heart. She is a past nominee for Woman of the Year; she received the Woman of Excellence award in 2001and the Angel award in 2013.
âI have made some of the best friendships and contacts of my life in NEWH but it was not until I actually met scholarship recipients did I fully understand the true benefit of NEWH.â Lynda resides in Leesburg, VA with her companion, Jim Dirmeyer and their faithful friend, Pete (the dog).
This award is given to an NEWH member in recognition of dedicated service to the affairs of the NEWH, Inc. and the pride demonstrated by exemplary contribution for the benefit of all the members of NEWH. Joyce L. Johnson was a woman of extraordinary achievement and without whom the NEWH, Inc. would not have achieved its exceptional beginning. Joyce was a native of Shawano, Wisconsin. She spent her life in dedication to Education, Community Service, Business and Family. Her accomplishments and recognition of the accomplishments are truly too numerous to list, but can be portrayed in knowing that she was named Wisconsin Woman of the Year in 1979 and Woman of Achievement of Wisconsin in 1986. She traveled between Wisconsin and Los Angeles in the days and months of the forming the first Chapter of the NEWH, Inc. She gave selflessly of her time and her knowledge without compensation or reward. In establishing this award, we honor Joyce L. Johnson for the example she set in the true spirit of networking and unselfish giving to NEWH for the benefit of others and for her commitment to Education. In presenting this award, we honor the NEWH member who best exemplifies these qualities. This is not designated as an annual award, but is to be presented only when extraordinary service to NEWH is unquestionably due such recognition. This award is given at the Chapter level, and the selection is made by the Chapter President and does not need Board approval or even knowledge of the awardee.
