NEW SCOTLAND — Alowyn Sim is the supervisor of the receiving and distribution department at Albany Medical Center.

Sim, a New Scotland resident, had thought last month that he was sitting in normal quarterly-management meeting — he wasn’t.

It was then, in front of 200 other managers, James J. Barba, the president and chief executive officer of Albany Med, announced the 2017 Employee of the Year.

“I was looking around, wondering who it was,” Sim told The Enterprise. “It took a couple of seconds for reality to set in”

Of the 9,000 employees at Albany Med, it was Sim who was chosen.

One nominator wrote, “I came to this country 13 years ago and started working at Albany Med. My English was not very good and I struggled to get through the day. Right from the beginning, Al was there to help me with my day-to-day responsibilities. Al makes you feel like part of a work family.”

Twenty years earlier — April 13, 1998, to be exact — Sim began working on the AMC loading dock, hustling packages over to the university.

Sim had a good manager on the dock, “He was good at promoting from within,” Sim said, and so began his rise.

He now oversees 25 employees who are responsible for stocking the hospital floors with linens, gas, and supplies for procedures — and he’s also modest.

“Praising myself is not something I do,” Sim said when asked why he thought he was chosen employee of the year.