Advocacy for Small Businesses in the Bay Area: Leadership in Action

Priority Architectural Graphics has been a longstanding leader advocating for small businesses in the Bay Area since the company’s founding in 1995. The company’s roots, headquarters and manufacturing facilities lie in the Bay Area, and we believe in supporting the small business community and other women and minority-owned businesses like us that are based here. Our 500+ clients are part of this vibrant community of local companies supporting construction projects across the housing, government, transportation, education, healthcare, and retail sectors.

In 2018, Priority Architectural Graphics was recognized by State Senator Scott Wiener as San Francisco’s awardee for California Small Business Day. In 2020, Priority honored by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the fastest growing private companies in the Bay Area. And in April of 2021, Priority Architectural Graphics was awarded “Minority Enterprise Business of the Year” by ASIAN Inc. Later that same year, the company merged with another small business and industry colleague in the South Bay, VKK Signmakers. In April 2024, the company joined with other Bay Area businesses as a panelist at BART’s 2024 Small Business Summit, part of San Francisco’s celebration of 2024’s Small Business Week themed “Building on the Small Business Boom.”

The President of Priority, Juliana Choy Sommer, is also an active member of the San Francisco chapter of the Women Presidents Organization (WPO). This membership group includes over 2,000 women leaders (at the CEO/President/Partner level) in private companies with at least $1-2M in annual revenues in the U.S. The mission of the WPO is to facilitate conversation and dialogue among women executives from diverse, non-competitive industries to share business expertise and experience in a confidential setting where members’ perspectives can be shared, understood, challenged, and refined.

In May 2024, Priority Architectural Graphics was proud to host the WPO event “Conversations with Women in Leadership” at the company’s Redwood City, CA manufacturing site. The event was sponsored by Comerica Bank and was attended by over 20 women members from throughout the Bay Area. California State Treasurer Fiona Ma was a featured speaker and described for the audience the solutions and creative techniques she has used to advance her career as she navigated through various issues and challenges.

Event attendee Barbara Stephenson commented “As a business owner in the heart of San Francisco, the opportunity to meet other powerful women is one of the many benefits of WPO membership. Watching and listening to Fiona talk about her life, her perspective, and her values towards her work for California makes me feel more connected to her as a person, not just some talking points. Her faith, and her awareness, of people in the system made me feel supported and energized in all the right ways.”