AOPA Honors Industry Leaders in Ceremony

  Ivan Sabel accepting lifetime achievement award.
  Ivan Sabel accepting lifetime achievement award.

ORLANDO, Fla. — The American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association recognized two distinguished members of the O&P community at the 2010 AOPA National Assembly, here.

James Kaiser, CP, president of AOPA, presented Ivan Sabel, CPO, chairman of Hanger Orthopedic Group Inc. with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the O&P field.

“Thank you for everything that you have done for orthotics and prosthetics and also for our patients,” Kaiser said.

During the ceremony, Kaiser played a video highlighting Sabel’s volunteer efforts through the years. The Hanger Ivan R. Sabel Foundation has helped develop O&P clinics in various countries including, Vietnam, Romania, Peru, Turkey and China.

“It is gratifying to be recognized by your peers,” Sabel said. “I have been very lucky to work with such wonderful people.”

AOPA recently announced a new business education award recognizing the best business education paper, idea or proposal submitted for presentation at the AOPA assembly each year. While presenting eponymous The Sam E. Hamontree, CP, Business Education Award, Hamontree thanked his family and colleagues for holding him in such high regard as to name the award after him.

“This is a great honor and one of which I greatly appreciate,” Hamontree said.

Equally appreciative was Brian Gustin, winner of the first annual Sam E. Hamontree Business Education Award. Gustin was given the award for his paper, “Reducing Time Demands While Increasing Asset Utilization.”

“I am extremely humbled to be the first recipient of this award,” Gustin said. “I am very honored and I hope I can meet its expectations.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.