Press Release Announcing 2010 Award Winners
The Technology Association of Iowa & LWBJ Financial Announce
2010 Prometheus Award Winners
Des Moines -- The Technology Association of Iowa (TAI), in conjunction with LWBJ Financial, yesterday announced the winners of its prestigious Prometheus Awards. The awards recognize outstanding accomplishments of high-tech businesses and individuals across the state.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the awards presentation. Leann Jacobson, TAI President, said that despite the still struggling economy, Iowa’s high-tech sector has continued to thrive. “The health of Iowa’s tech sector has helped our entire economy,” she said. “These businesses touch virtually every other sector of the economy.”
According to the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank, knowledge-based companies, from information technology firms to biopharmaceutical businesses, have been able to create and retain high-paying jobs throughout the first decade of this millennium. The Milken Institute projects high-tech industries will lead growth for the entire economy.
“Iowa’s strong tech sector is poised for greater growth and job creation over the next decade,” Jacobson said.
The awards were presented at an evening ceremony at the Meadows Convention Center in Altoona. The event was co-sponsored by LWBJ Financial, who also sponsored a special award for Investing in Iowa’s Future to Mike Colwell. Other sponsors were Applied Art and Technology, the Entrepreneurial Development Center, Iowa Telecom, and McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC.
2010 Prometheus Award Winners
Software Company of the Year. This award recognizes a company with outstanding new products and significant revenue growth. Two awards were presented, one to a small- to medium-size company (annual revenues under $10 million), and one to a large company (over $10 million in annual revenues).
Small to Medium Software Company: GlobalVetLink in Ames, Kevin Maher, CEO. GlobalVetLink digitally connects all state animal health and regulatory officials with veterinarian subscribers and a national network of animal diagnostic laboratories. The company added seven states to the list it served the prior year, bringing its national reach to 49 states.
Large Sotware Company: GeoLearning, Inc. in West Des Moines, Frank Russell, CEO. GeoLearning provides managed services and on-demand performance and learning platforms. It achieved 18.5% revenue growth last year over the previous year, won 200 new clients, and made significant improvements to its learning products.
IT Service Provider of the Year: ICE Technologies in Pella, Keith Van Donselaar, CEO. This award recognizes innovative development and/or delivery of technology services. ICE Technologies’ consultants and systems engineers assist hospitals and other healthcare providers in aligning technology with the needs of their organization and their patients.
IT Innovation in Health: Geonetric in Cedar Rapids, Eric Engelmann, CEO. This award honors an innovation that improves the delivery, quality, and cost of healthcare. Geonetric helps hospitals and health systems develop and implement Web strategies to engage their patients and communities online. Its robust content management software manages Web sites, portals and intranets, and includes a large selection of interactive modules.
Top Growth Company: Submittal Exchange in Des Moines, Matt Ostanik, CEO. This award recognizes the company whose innovations, strategies, and service led to substantial revenue growth in 2009. Submittal Exchange provides a comprehensive online system for exchanging, reviewing, and archiving construction submittals, requests for information, and other communications that construction professionals use during the construction process. The company increased its revenue by nearly 300% last year, and tripled its workforce.
Clean Technology Company of the Year: Ovation Networks in Cedar Rapids, Larry Selensky, CEO. This award recognizes a company that manufacturers environmentally-sound products or solutions that result in reduced consumption, waste, or pollution. Ovation Network creates wireless products and services that allow hospitality businesses to provide high-speed wireless connectivity to guests.
Green Company of the Year: Phoenix C&D Recycling in Des Moines, Bobby Colosimo, CEO. This award honors a business that uses green technologies and innovations that reduce power consumption and improve operations and/or performance. Phoenix C&D recovers waste materials and turns them into alternative fuels. It’s a state-licensed, LEED-compliant facility. Last year, they completed a $2 million addition to their facility.
Best Innovation in Government
This award recognizes the organization that has made the best use of technology and innovation to improve services to Iowans. Two awards were presented in this category.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources in Des Moines, Richard Leopold, Director. Iowa’s DNR uses web-enabled technologies to more efficiently provide governmental services to people across the state. The technology eliminates manual processes, incorporates geographical location technology, ensures database inter-operability, and allows the creation of data repositories. DNR invested less than $1 million in these technologies; return on investment is expected to exceed $13 million.
Global Reach Internet Productions in Ames, Iacovos Zachariades, CEO. Global Reach is one of the largest web development firms in Iowa. It created the I-JOBS website for the Iowa Finance Authority, designed to help communities recover from the 2008 floods. The website streamlined the application process for job seekers and saved money for IFA and affiliated government agencies.
Best User of Technology: Iowa Telecom in Newton, Alan Wells, CEO. This award honors a company that has made dramatic business improvements or increased market advantage through innovative application of products or services. Iowa Telecom is the second largest local telephone company in Iowa, and processes over 60 million new emails every day. Last year, the company built its own internal cloud storage system to streamline email processing and prevent corruption, improving its services and saving costs.
Best Use of Innovation in Teaching: Thomas E. Daniels, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Iowa State University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This award recognizes a teacher’s use of technology to create exciting learning opportunities. In Daniels’ Introduction to Problem Solving Computer Engineering class, his students use the Nintendo Wii Remote to learn programming. Daniels developed a simple interface to the Wii’s sensors and buttons to allow students to collect real-time data from the device. The process provides real-world applications of calculus, physics, and signal processing, concepts more typically taught in the abstract.
Best Use of Innovation in a Teaching Environment: StarrMatica Learning Systems in Clinton, Emily Starr, President. This award recognizes an innovation that supports educators and improves educational opportunities for students. StarrMatica is an educational publisher specializing in digital content for interactive whiteboards. The company has developed content for 43 reading and math topics for students in grades 3 through 6.
Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year: Art Peters, ACT in Iowa City. This award recognizes a CIO for his or her innovation and creativity, future IT goals, management philosophy, and service to the industry and community. ACT is a not-for-profit organization that provides assessment, research, information, and program management solutions in education and workforce development. In 2009, under Peters’ leadership, ACT produced secure, web-based software that supports the end-to-end process of test development, delivery, and scoring. The result: a test developer, using a web browser, can write a test online, have others review it, and publish it to test takers around the world.
CEO of the Year: Sheldon Ohringer, Caleris in West Des Moines. This award honors the CEO whose leadership, innovation, and creativity inspires excellence in his or her staff. Caleris provides business process outsourcing solutions for inbound call center services. Last year, under Ohringer’s leadership, Caleris implemented multiple software, hardware, and employee efficiency systems and programs and launched new products. The company continued to grow despite the 2009 recession, and is now poised for high growth in 2010.
Student Innovation of the Year: Hatchlings, Inc. in Ames, Brad Dwyer, Founder. This award honors a student entrepreneur who has turned a passion for technology into an innovative product or service. Dwyer, a computer science and entrepreneurial studies student at Iowa State University, started Hatchlings as a Facebook application. The game, marketed virally, is a virtual Easter egg hunt: Users find and collect eggs that are hidden in their friends’ profiles. Gamers can now hatch the eggs into virtual pets, then care for them digitally.
Breakout Company of the Year: SmartyPig, West Des Moines, Mike Ferrari, Co-Founder. This award recognizes a company that has achieved a major milestone in 2009, and is poised for further growth in 2010. SmartyPig is a virtual banking 2.0 system that helps people set savings’ goals, then rewards them for achieving the goals with cash incentives from retail and travel companies. Last year, the company launched its product with Australia New Zealand Bank Group Limited (ANZ)—a $400 billion bank with 6 million customers in 30 countries. SmartyPig plans to launch in three additional countries this year.
Outstanding StartUp Company of the Year. This award honors businesses fewer than five years old, with less than $1 million in annual revenue. Companies were judged on both their business concept and products or services. Three awards were presented in this category.
J&J Solutions in Iowa City, John Slump and Jared Garfield, Founders. J&J Solutions manufactures medical devices. Its first product is a drug-handling device that keeps hazardous medications from coming in contact with unintended people while drugs are being prepared, administered, and disposed.
Energy Control Technologies (ECT) in West Des Moines, Paul Fisher, Founder. ECT solutions provide energy savings, production increase, and better machine protection for large industrial compressors and centrifuges in the oil and gas, biofuels, and industrial/
manufacturing market segments.
KemPharm in Iowa City, Travis Mickle and Christal Mickle, Founders. KemPharm is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of new, safer therapies for the treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), pain, and cardiovascular disease. KemPharm uses its patent-applied technology to improve existing drugs and shorten the development timeline.
Life Sciences Company of the Year: Exemplar Genetics in Sioux Center, John Swart, CEO. This award recognizes a company’s ideas, products or services, growth, and new market generation. Exemplar’s mission is improving the understanding of life-threatening diseases and facilitating the discovery of therapies. The company capitalizes on the similarity of pigs’ and humans’ immune systems and inflammatory responses, to deliver, in a pig, a reliable model of human disease. It is the only firm to own, produce, and market a pig that accurately replicates the human cystic fibrosis gene. Its clients include large research facilities, universities and clinics, and pharmaceutical companies.
Technology Company of the Year. This award recognizes a company’s business strategy, its products and services, its mission, and its market potential. Awards were given both to a small- to medium-size company and to a large company.
Technology Company of the Year (Small/Medium): Security Coverage in Cedar Rapids, Robert O’Dell, CEO. SecurityCoverage provides fully managed, fully supported, desktop computing security and technical support services to residential and small business customers. Through a network of internet service providers, telecommunications and cable companies, and financial institutions across the nation, customers get the same level of support, protection, and convenience that corporations typically provide to their employees.
Technology Company of the Year (Large/Enterprise): PowerFilm, Inc. in Ames, Frank Jeffrey, CEO. PowerFilm, Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of thin, flexible solar modules based on a proprietary low-cost production process. The company targets the building integrated solar power market and supplies products for selected portable and remote solar power applications.
TAI is a member-based, nonprofit organization accelerating the success of Iowa’s technology industry. TAI creates and sustains a positive environment for technology-based economic growth and job creation through innovation, advocacy, and leadership. TAI members include organizations of every size, involved in every aspect of technology creation, production, application and education in Iowa. Go to www.technologyiowa.org or call 515-280-7702 for more information.
LWBJ Financial is a leading financial services firm serving the needs of companies, families and individuals. The firm offers traditional CPA services, business consulting, financial strategies and capital solutions, benefits and executive compensation consulting, comprehensive wealth planning and various proprietary financial products through three divisions: CPAs and Business Advisors, Premier Wealth and Capital Advisors.
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The Technology Association of Iowa & LWBJ Financial Announce
2010 Prometheus Award Winners
Des Moines -- The Technology Association of Iowa (TAI), in conjunction with LWBJ Financial, yesterday announced the winners of its prestigious Prometheus Awards. The awards recognize outstanding accomplishments of high-tech businesses and individuals across the state.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the awards presentation. Leann Jacobson, TAI President, said that despite the still struggling economy, Iowa’s high-tech sector has continued to thrive. “The health of Iowa’s tech sector has helped our entire economy,” she said. “These businesses touch virtually every other sector of the economy.”
According to the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank, knowledge-based companies, from information technology firms to biopharmaceutical businesses, have been able to create and retain high-paying jobs throughout the first decade of this millennium. The Milken Institute projects high-tech industries will lead growth for the entire economy.
“Iowa’s strong tech sector is poised for greater growth and job creation over the next decade,” Jacobson said.
The awards were presented at an evening ceremony at the Meadows Convention Center in Altoona. The event was co-sponsored by LWBJ Financial, who also sponsored a special award for Investing in Iowa’s Future to Mike Colwell. Other sponsors were Applied Art and Technology, the Entrepreneurial Development Center, Iowa Telecom, and McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC.
2010 Prometheus Award Winners
Software Company of the Year. This award recognizes a company with outstanding new products and significant revenue growth. Two awards were presented, one to a small- to medium-size company (annual revenues under $10 million), and one to a large company (over $10 million in annual revenues).
Small to Medium Software Company: GlobalVetLink in Ames, Kevin Maher, CEO. GlobalVetLink digitally connects all state animal health and regulatory officials with veterinarian subscribers and a national network of animal diagnostic laboratories. The company added seven states to the list it served the prior year, bringing its national reach to 49 states.
Large Sotware Company: GeoLearning, Inc. in West Des Moines, Frank Russell, CEO. GeoLearning provides managed services and on-demand performance and learning platforms. It achieved 18.5% revenue growth last year over the previous year, won 200 new clients, and made significant improvements to its learning products.
IT Service Provider of the Year: ICE Technologies in Pella, Keith Van Donselaar, CEO. This award recognizes innovative development and/or delivery of technology services. ICE Technologies’ consultants and systems engineers assist hospitals and other healthcare providers in aligning technology with the needs of their organization and their patients.
IT Innovation in Health: Geonetric in Cedar Rapids, Eric Engelmann, CEO. This award honors an innovation that improves the delivery, quality, and cost of healthcare. Geonetric helps hospitals and health systems develop and implement Web strategies to engage their patients and communities online. Its robust content management software manages Web sites, portals and intranets, and includes a large selection of interactive modules.
Top Growth Company: Submittal Exchange in Des Moines, Matt Ostanik, CEO. This award recognizes the company whose innovations, strategies, and service led to substantial revenue growth in 2009. Submittal Exchange provides a comprehensive online system for exchanging, reviewing, and archiving construction submittals, requests for information, and other communications that construction professionals use during the construction process. The company increased its revenue by nearly 300% last year, and tripled its workforce.
Clean Technology Company of the Year: Ovation Networks in Cedar Rapids, Larry Selensky, CEO. This award recognizes a company that manufacturers environmentally-sound products or solutions that result in reduced consumption, waste, or pollution. Ovation Network creates wireless products and services that allow hospitality businesses to provide high-speed wireless connectivity to guests.
Green Company of the Year: Phoenix C&D Recycling in Des Moines, Bobby Colosimo, CEO. This award honors a business that uses green technologies and innovations that reduce power consumption and improve operations and/or performance. Phoenix C&D recovers waste materials and turns them into alternative fuels. It’s a state-licensed, LEED-compliant facility. Last year, they completed a $2 million addition to their facility.
Best Innovation in Government
This award recognizes the organization that has made the best use of technology and innovation to improve services to Iowans. Two awards were presented in this category.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources in Des Moines, Richard Leopold, Director. Iowa’s DNR uses web-enabled technologies to more efficiently provide governmental services to people across the state. The technology eliminates manual processes, incorporates geographical location technology, ensures database inter-operability, and allows the creation of data repositories. DNR invested less than $1 million in these technologies; return on investment is expected to exceed $13 million.
Global Reach Internet Productions in Ames, Iacovos Zachariades, CEO. Global Reach is one of the largest web development firms in Iowa. It created the I-JOBS website for the Iowa Finance Authority, designed to help communities recover from the 2008 floods. The website streamlined the application process for job seekers and saved money for IFA and affiliated government agencies.
Best User of Technology: Iowa Telecom in Newton, Alan Wells, CEO. This award honors a company that has made dramatic business improvements or increased market advantage through innovative application of products or services. Iowa Telecom is the second largest local telephone company in Iowa, and processes over 60 million new emails every day. Last year, the company built its own internal cloud storage system to streamline email processing and prevent corruption, improving its services and saving costs.
Best Use of Innovation in Teaching: Thomas E. Daniels, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at Iowa State University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This award recognizes a teacher’s use of technology to create exciting learning opportunities. In Daniels’ Introduction to Problem Solving Computer Engineering class, his students use the Nintendo Wii Remote to learn programming. Daniels developed a simple interface to the Wii’s sensors and buttons to allow students to collect real-time data from the device. The process provides real-world applications of calculus, physics, and signal processing, concepts more typically taught in the abstract.
Best Use of Innovation in a Teaching Environment: StarrMatica Learning Systems in Clinton, Emily Starr, President. This award recognizes an innovation that supports educators and improves educational opportunities for students. StarrMatica is an educational publisher specializing in digital content for interactive whiteboards. The company has developed content for 43 reading and math topics for students in grades 3 through 6.
Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year: Art Peters, ACT in Iowa City. This award recognizes a CIO for his or her innovation and creativity, future IT goals, management philosophy, and service to the industry and community. ACT is a not-for-profit organization that provides assessment, research, information, and program management solutions in education and workforce development. In 2009, under Peters’ leadership, ACT produced secure, web-based software that supports the end-to-end process of test development, delivery, and scoring. The result: a test developer, using a web browser, can write a test online, have others review it, and publish it to test takers around the world.
CEO of the Year: Sheldon Ohringer, Caleris in West Des Moines. This award honors the CEO whose leadership, innovation, and creativity inspires excellence in his or her staff. Caleris provides business process outsourcing solutions for inbound call center services. Last year, under Ohringer’s leadership, Caleris implemented multiple software, hardware, and employee efficiency systems and programs and launched new products. The company continued to grow despite the 2009 recession, and is now poised for high growth in 2010.
Student Innovation of the Year: Hatchlings, Inc. in Ames, Brad Dwyer, Founder. This award honors a student entrepreneur who has turned a passion for technology into an innovative product or service. Dwyer, a computer science and entrepreneurial studies student at Iowa State University, started Hatchlings as a Facebook application. The game, marketed virally, is a virtual Easter egg hunt: Users find and collect eggs that are hidden in their friends’ profiles. Gamers can now hatch the eggs into virtual pets, then care for them digitally.
Breakout Company of the Year: SmartyPig, West Des Moines, Mike Ferrari, Co-Founder. This award recognizes a company that has achieved a major milestone in 2009, and is poised for further growth in 2010. SmartyPig is a virtual banking 2.0 system that helps people set savings’ goals, then rewards them for achieving the goals with cash incentives from retail and travel companies. Last year, the company launched its product with Australia New Zealand Bank Group Limited (ANZ)—a $400 billion bank with 6 million customers in 30 countries. SmartyPig plans to launch in three additional countries this year.
Outstanding StartUp Company of the Year. This award honors businesses fewer than five years old, with less than $1 million in annual revenue. Companies were judged on both their business concept and products or services. Three awards were presented in this category.
J&J Solutions in Iowa City, John Slump and Jared Garfield, Founders. J&J Solutions manufactures medical devices. Its first product is a drug-handling device that keeps hazardous medications from coming in contact with unintended people while drugs are being prepared, administered, and disposed.
Energy Control Technologies (ECT) in West Des Moines, Paul Fisher, Founder. ECT solutions provide energy savings, production increase, and better machine protection for large industrial compressors and centrifuges in the oil and gas, biofuels, and industrial/
manufacturing market segments.
KemPharm in Iowa City, Travis Mickle and Christal Mickle, Founders. KemPharm is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of new, safer therapies for the treatment of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), pain, and cardiovascular disease. KemPharm uses its patent-applied technology to improve existing drugs and shorten the development timeline.
Life Sciences Company of the Year: Exemplar Genetics in Sioux Center, John Swart, CEO. This award recognizes a company’s ideas, products or services, growth, and new market generation. Exemplar’s mission is improving the understanding of life-threatening diseases and facilitating the discovery of therapies. The company capitalizes on the similarity of pigs’ and humans’ immune systems and inflammatory responses, to deliver, in a pig, a reliable model of human disease. It is the only firm to own, produce, and market a pig that accurately replicates the human cystic fibrosis gene. Its clients include large research facilities, universities and clinics, and pharmaceutical companies.
Technology Company of the Year. This award recognizes a company’s business strategy, its products and services, its mission, and its market potential. Awards were given both to a small- to medium-size company and to a large company.
Technology Company of the Year (Small/Medium): Security Coverage in Cedar Rapids, Robert O’Dell, CEO. SecurityCoverage provides fully managed, fully supported, desktop computing security and technical support services to residential and small business customers. Through a network of internet service providers, telecommunications and cable companies, and financial institutions across the nation, customers get the same level of support, protection, and convenience that corporations typically provide to their employees.
Technology Company of the Year (Large/Enterprise): PowerFilm, Inc. in Ames, Frank Jeffrey, CEO. PowerFilm, Inc. is a developer and manufacturer of thin, flexible solar modules based on a proprietary low-cost production process. The company targets the building integrated solar power market and supplies products for selected portable and remote solar power applications.
TAI is a member-based, nonprofit organization accelerating the success of Iowa’s technology industry. TAI creates and sustains a positive environment for technology-based economic growth and job creation through innovation, advocacy, and leadership. TAI members include organizations of every size, involved in every aspect of technology creation, production, application and education in Iowa. Go to www.technologyiowa.org or call 515-280-7702 for more information.
LWBJ Financial is a leading financial services firm serving the needs of companies, families and individuals. The firm offers traditional CPA services, business consulting, financial strategies and capital solutions, benefits and executive compensation consulting, comprehensive wealth planning and various proprietary financial products through three divisions: CPAs and Business Advisors, Premier Wealth and Capital Advisors.
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