TAI and LWBJ Financial Announce 2009 Prometheus Award Winners

The Technology Association of Iowa (TAI), in conjunction with LWBJ Financial, yesterday presented its prestigious Prometheus Awards to top high-tech businesses and individuals.
                                     
“These are our industry’s academy awards,” said TAI president Leann Jacobson. “They were created to help promote excellence in a business sector that is critical to our state’s economy, particularly in these challenging economic times. The transformative work we honored last night is helping to build and sustain vibrant communities throughout Iowa.”  
                          
Mark Kittrell, 2008 chairman of the TAI board of directors and CEO of Team Technologies in Cedar Falls, said, “The awards allow us to showcase the innovations and advancements made by Iowans. The work of the winners is on a world-class scale: We have some of the best high-tech professionals right here in our state, and they are helping solve global challenges in industry, education, medicine, and the environment.”

Businesses and individuals in 19 categories were presented with the awards.

2009 Prometheus Award Winners

• IT Service Provider: Iowa Telecom in Des Moines, Alan Wells, CEO. Iowa Telecom serves smaller towns and rural Iowa with its technologically-advanced Ethernet data networks.
• Communications Company: StratosFour, Inc. in Cedar Rapids, Glen Wiebel, CEO. StratosFour delivers webinars, web conferencing, web-based application development, and multi-media production. Its product resides within an Internet browser, so users need only an Internet connection and speakers to participate. 
• Software Company of the Year, Small Company: Palisade Systems Inc. in Ames, Kurt Shedenhelm, CEO. The company develops security software products for financial services, healthcare, commercial, education, and insurance industries. 
• Software Company of the Year, Medium to Large Company: Phantom EFX, Inc. in Cedar Falls, Jim Thompson, CEO. Phantom makes interactive software entertainment products for multiple platforms, including PC, Mac, Console, Mobile, and gaming. Its retail products are marketed under the name “Reel Deal.”
• Student Start up of the Year: J&J Solutions, Iowa City, Jared Garfield and John Slump, founders. Garfield and Slump have created a patent-pending drug transfer device that eliminates the risk of exposure to the hazardous pharmaceuticals used in cancer care.
• Best User of Technology: EquiTrust Life Insurance Company, Des Moines, John Paule, Executive Vice President. The company provides mutual funds, annuities, and other financial products. EquiTrust was recognized for its workflow, integration, and presentation capabilities software, and for its customer relationship management software.
• Top Growth Company of the Year: Caleris, West Des Moines, Sheldon Ohringer, CEO. Caleris specializes technical and corporate help desk services, including support for software, hardware, telecom, Internet services, and back office processes. 
• Investing in Iowa’s Future Award:  Presented by LWBJ to Leann Jacobson, President, Technology Association of Iowa
• CEO of the Year, Small to Midsize Company: Eric Engelmann, Geonetric, Cedar Rapids. Engelmann founded Geonetric in 1999 to build web applications for the healthcare industry. 
• CEO of the Year, Large Company: Frank Russell, GeoLearning, Des Moines. Russell founded GeoLearning in 1997; today, the company is a leading provider of web-based learning and performance management platforms.
• Chief Information Officer of the Year, Small to Midsize Business: Jason Popillion, GCommerce, Des Moines. GCommerce provides supply chain connectivity solutions for goods-and-services industries, which enable information sharing between incompatible business systems and technologies.  
• Chief Information Office of the Year, Large Company: Susie Thomann, vice president and CIO for the Retirement and Investor Services, Principal Financial Group, Des Moines. Thomann, the first woman to serve as CIO of a business unit at the Principal, oversees 500 IT professionals and an annual budget of approximately $150 million. 
• Leadership in STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Math) Education: David Wilkerson, Superintendent, Waukee Community Schools. Wilkerson led the launch of HyperStream, a TAI initiative designed to link tech companies with middle-school and high-school students, to encourage the students to pursue careers in the high-tech sector.
• Environmental Excellence, Company Application: Rockwell Collins (Clayton Jones, CEO) and the Interstate Power and Light Company, Cedar Rapids. Rockwell Collins and Interstate Power and Light partnered to create a green office building at Rockwell Collins headquarters. The 150,000-square-foot building was built following LEED criteria, a set of standards for environmentally sustainable construction developed by the US Green Building Council.
• Environmental Excellence, Product or Services: Alliance Technologies, Des Moines, Mike Lang, CEO. The company was awarded for its use of virtualization software, which carves up the resources of powerful servers into many virtual machines that can run database servers, file servers, web servers, and virtual PCs. This minimizes hardware needs and can greatly reduce energy use.  
• Outstanding Startup Company of the Year: BodyViz, Ames, Curt Carlson, CEO. Founded in 2007, BodyViz creates medical visualization software designed to improve the efficiency and accuracy of surgical planning. 
• Technology Companies of the Year, Small to Midsize Company:
• For outstanding product or service: GCommerce, Des Moines. The company’s secured, real-time network enables commercial business buyers and their suppliers to automate purchasing and procurement over the Internet. 
• For infrastructure: FiberUtilities Group, LLC, Cedar Rapids, Scott Eberle, CEO. FiberUtilities is a professional management company that provides communications connectivity management, planning, building, and operating services to its clients.
• Technology Company of the Year, Large Company: Iowa Telecom (see IT Service Provider Award, above)

                                
The winners were announced last night at the Meadows Convention Center in Altoona. The event was co-sponsored by LWBJ Financial. Additional sponsors: Net Direct Systems; TEAM Technologies; Applied Art and Technology; Entrepreneurial Development Center; Iowa Department of Economic Development; McKee, Voorhees & Sease, PLC; and Renew Rural Iowa. For more information, go to www.technologyiowa.org.