TechWire Awards Go To Six Individual, Six Corporate Triangle Tech, Life Science Leaders

AT&T North Carolina President Venessa Harrison thanks WRAL TechWire Editor Rick Smith after being named to TechWire's Hall of Fame.

Startups, entrepreneurs, executives, investors and several of the Triangle's top tech and life science companies share the spotlight, taking home 12 awards at the fifth WRAL TechWire Awards. Plus, the first five members of TechWire's Hall of Fame are honored as are several Editor's Choice Award recipients.

A capacity crowd packed Google Fiber's new Triangle headquarters for the event on Tuesday evening, April 25, 2017, which also featured a keynote address about entrepreneurship and the many strengths of the Triangle from Cindy Whitehead, who sold Sprout Pharmaceuticals for a whopping $1 billion.

In fact, demand for tickets was so high that the event was streamed live at WRAL.com:

VIDEO: Watch a replay of the 2017 WRAL TechWire Awards

We've also included a slideshow of photos from the event:

WRAL TechWire SLIDESHOW: WRAL TechWire celebrates top achievers in the Triangle

Republic's Chris Chuang is a happy winner, smiling after accepting his award from ExitEvent Editor Laura Baverman.

More than 100 individuals and companies were nominated by WRAL TechWire readers. The finalists were selected after a review by a WTW awards committee based on nominations received.

Here are the finalists and the winners:

STARTUP AWARDS

Fastest Growing Startup (most potential)

Eco-Site

Republic Wireless

Textivia

And the winner is:

Eco-Site

Most Steady Startup (delivering success consistently)

Adwerx

Republic Wireless

ArchiveSocial

And the winner is:

Republic Wireless

Best Emerging Startup (fast-growing startup emerging from stealth mode)

Eco-Site

RewardStock

Roundtable Analytics

And the winner is:

Roundtable Analytics

Top Startup Director (CEO/Chairman)

Scott Moody, Co-Founder and CEO, K4Connect

Todd Olson, CEO, Pendo.io

Chris Chuang, Co-Founder and CEO, Republic Wireless

And the winner is:

Chris Chuang

Startup Executive Leader (top leader/executive, not necessarily CEO but a COO, CFO, CIO)

Kevin Barry, Founder and COO, FilterEasy

Tatiana Birgisson, Founder and CEO, MATI Energy

Nate Frechette, Co-Founder and CTO, Dropsource

And the winner is:

Tatiana Birgisson

Most Noteworthy Startup Founder or Investor

Chris Heivly, The Startup Factory

David Gardner, Cofounders Capital

Mark Easley, Goldhat Advisors

And the winner is:

Mark Easley

ENTERPRISE

Highest Achieving Enterprise (established companies)

Bandwidth

IBM Watson

Sageworks

And the winner is:

Sageworks

Most Steady Enterprise (delivering success consistently)

MetLife Global Technology Operations

Red Hat

Bandwidth

And the winner is:

Red Hat

Best Emerging Enterprise (perhaps with IPO or exit potential)

Pendo.io

Validic

Bandwidth

And the winner is:

Bandwidth

Top Enterprise Director (CEO/Chairman)

Allen West, President and CEO, Railinic

David Morken, Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of Bandwidth

Jean Davis, President and CEO, MCNC

And the winner is:

Jean Davis, MCNC

Enterprise Executive Leader (top leader/executive, not necessarily CEO but a COO, CFO, CIO)

Jesse Lipson, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Services BU at Citrix

Tara Fitzgerald, President, Clinical Development Services at INC Research

Will Aycock, General Manager at Greenlight Community Broadband

And the winner is:

Tara Fitzgerald

Most Noteworthy Enterprise Founders or Investors

Art Pappas, Pappas Ventures

David Jones, Bull City Venture Partners

Mark Easley, Goldhat Advisors

And the winner is:

David Jones

HoF HONOREES

Five leaders in the evolution of the Triangle and North Carolina as a hub for high tech, life science, and startups were recognized as the first members of TechWire's Hall of Fame.

They are:

Monica Doss, who helped create the nation's largest organization focused on startups and entrepreneurs: The Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

Dr. Charles Hamner, who was a driving force behind the growth of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center and one of the nation's largest life science industries.

Dr. Jim Goodnight, co-founder and CEO of Cary-based SAS, a growing global software and services firm that's never had a year losing money since its founding on July 1, 1976.

Venessa Harrison, who started her career as a telephone operator and steadily rose through the ranks of Bell South/AT&T to become president of AT&T for North Carolina and who spearheaded a drive to make sure the state was among the very first to deploy AT&T's growing fiber network.

Dennis Dougherty, often considered the founding father of the venture capital industry with the creation of Intersouth Partners in Durham.

Editor's Choice recipients are acknowledged in a related post.

Thanks to WRAL TechWire's Rick Smith for this capcom story & for these capcom photos.

LINK:	http://www.capitolbroadcasting.com/2017/04/27/techwire-awards-go-to-si...
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