Thomas Hartland-Mackie, president and CEO of City Electric Supply (CES), was recently presented with one of Ernst & Young (EY)’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards. He was one of 11 business leaders to receive the prestigious award at a black-tie ceremony held at the Strategic Growth Forum on Nov. 16.

Hartland-Mackie earned the award in the Family Business category for CES, his family’s electric wholesale distributing company, headquartered in Dallas, Tex.

“I really don’t accept this honor for me, it is a family business,” Hartland-Mackie said during his acceptance speech. “I accept it for my personal family, my wife Nasiba, our kids, my grandfather who started this business with my grandmother in 1951 and the 8,000 families that work for us around the world. Without them, none of this is possible.”

The company was founded by Hartland-Mackie’s grandfather, Tom Mackie, in the United Kingdom, and was expanded to the United States in 1983. Hartland-Mackie took over the North American arm of the business in 2008. Since then, his dedicated leadership and strong vision brought the company out of the financial crisis stronger than ever, and was behind CES’ biggest growth acceleration in the history of the organization.

Today, CES employs over 3,000 people in 453 branches across the U.S. The company’s evolution includes the recent launch of an online shopping experience that is now available across the U.S., in addition to almost 30 new brick-and-mortar stores each year.