TiTi McNeill has high aspirations.

"I'm happy where I'm at, but I want to be better," said McNeill, president and chief executive officer of TranTech Inc., an information-technology firm based in Alexandria.
"You cannot define success," said the recent winner of an Entrepreneur of the Year award from Ernst & Young, a global professional services company. "If you hit one level, you only want to get to the next. There's always someone more successful."

Although McNeill inspires other businesswomen today, she didn't have the same experience when she began her career. She fled to the United States from South Vietnam as a political refugee in 1975. "I had no money, no relatives, no friends, nothing," McNeill remembered. She got a job as an Oracle programmer and soon put herself through school.
It took 11 years of working full time and going to classes part time, she said, to receive bachelor's and master's degrees, both in computer systems and applications, from American University in Washington, D.C. "When I was young, I always wanted to be somebody," McNeill said. "The one thing about me is that I stick to it until it's done."

By most measures, McNeill can be considered a success. TranTech, started solely by McNeill about 10 years ago, is expected to make $26 million in revenues this year. The latest recognition joins a collection of others McNeill and her company have received, including a Women in Technology Leadership Award, as well as places on the Washington Technology Fast 50 and Inc. magazine's top-500 lists.
She, along with eight other business professionals in the Washington region, was chosen out of 59 finalists and 100 nominations for the Ernst & Young award.

When she started TranTech, she worked on her own for the first three years, providing high-end information-technology consulting services. In 1994, she quit consulting to run the company, which now has 200 employees.

"She's an overachiever like me," said Jackie Asencio, a friend and business colleague. "She's very humble."

That attitude not only keeps McNeill grounded, but also provides a good example to her employees, said Asencio, president and chief executive officer of C2 Portfolio Inc., a personnel staffing company in Chantilly. "She's the manager who rolls her sleeves up," Asencio said. "The woman is exciting, strong and a mentor."

"I think I know a good story when I hear one," said lawyer David Metzger, who nominated McNeill for the entrepreneur award. "She's very much self-made."
Metzger, a partner at the Washington office of Holland & Knight, one of the regional sponsors of the awards program, learned about McNeill through a client.
"I nominated her because I thought her story celebrated perseverance, achievement and integrity," he said. "She has the true entrepreneurial drive of achievement."
The way McNeill runs her company, he said, is particularly appealing.
"It's very disciplined," Metzger said. "There's a bid/no bid practice in her firm. Much of her model consists of a set of priority markers - factors, criteria - her proposal has to meet."
If TranTech cannot fulfill all those factors, the company will not bid on the contract, Metzger said. That process satisfies clients and creates a strong relationship between them and the company, he said, because TranTech is very thorough.

McNeill said her core business and personal philosophy incorporates integrity, perseverance, attitude and character.
The entire suite of TranTech's offices has framed photographs with accompanying messages of what each of those traits mean.
"First and foremost, integrity is most important," McNeill said. "Nobody wants to be with, work with or work for someone without integrity."

Gregg Greenfield, TranTech's senior executive director, has noticed how McNeill surrounds herself with others who have similar philosophies.
"We had a lot of discussions in the interviewing process about character, teamwork [and other traits]," said Greenfield, who started seven weeks ago at TranTech. "She's fair and expects the same out of her employees as they can expect from her."