- National Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year
- Aliahu "Alli" Bey
- Haight Bey & Associates
- West Haven
In 2014, Aliahu “Alli” Bey decided to take the leap into entrepreneurship and open Haight Bey & Associates. Starting the company required Bey to sell his home, completely withdraw his 401(k) retirement fund and work the night shift as a tortilla line manager for a local food manufacturer to pay the bills until the business got up and running.
Bey said starting his business was overwhelming and, on occasion, brought him to tears. The idea of developing and writing a business plan seemed like an impossible task. However, when he broke it down to something he was familiar with, like a U.S. Army SOP (standard operating procedure), a seemingly unbearable chore became clear and enabled him to create a business much in the same way the Army had taught him to develop and lead soldiers.
In July of 2015, he won his first Department of Defense contract, worth more than $47 million. After successfully defending his company against a Small Business size standard protest from a competitor, Bey’s company, Haight Bey & Associates, started executing in September of 2015. What started as sustaining the Air Force’s combat weather systems has turned into several prime and subcontracting opportunities.
Haight Bey now offers government system sustainment as well as electrical, mechanical and civil engineering. Their most recent offering came about after having to go on their own NIST 800-171 and CMMC compliance process with their in-house cybersecurity experts. They now offer a range of cybersecurity engineering solutions for government agencies and for other government contractors which are fulfilled by their sister company, Totem Technologies.
When Bey was told of his awards, he said, “Winning these awards is a great honor for me personally and the entire Haight Bey staff, many of whom are veterans also. We have always put veterans first and have done as much as possible to support veterans through our organization. I am the chairman of the board for an organization called Warrior Rising, an organization that helps veterans start and grow businesses around the nation. To be recognized by the SBA as Utah’s Veteran Business of the Year is a distinction. I can help show our up-and-coming companies that starting and growing a successful veteran-owned company in Utah is possible.”
Through Bey’s entrepreneurial journey, he has utilized many different SBA services. He has been mentored by Small Business Development Center counselors, graduated from the Emerging Leader Initiative and is in the process of obtaining a 504 loan to purchase his building.
When not actively involved in Haight Bey or Totem, Bey finds ways to give back. He is known to the community for his service and generosity, donating scholarships to local schools, churches and nonprofits; assisting other small businesses; and sitting on different government roundtables and committees. Bey was previously a board member for the Utah Black Chamber and is currently the chair of Warrior Rising LLC, a not-for-profit that focuses on training and mentoring veteran entrepreneurs.
In 2019, Bey dedicated a quarter of his facility to help other small businesses start and grow. To date, the incubator space has been home to multiple businesses and is utilized at no cost by Warrior Rising, the Utah Black Chamber and anyone else who asks as a meeting and office space for business activities.
Bey took everything he learned in his decade of service to the United States Army and turned those lessons into the American dream — all while never forgetting his roots or those veterans looking to follow in his footsteps. Not only was the operational aspect of his Army experience front and center to his success, the formal Army education in aviation electronics as well as the job training of being a soldier coupled with countless hours of leadership training and daily practical application developed Bey into a phenomenal veteran entrepreneur, with a passion for helping veterans and all those around him build their American dream.