Robert W. Duggan, CEO and chairman of the board, Pharmacyclics Inc.
LIFE SCIENCES, FINALIST Robert W. Duggan is always thinking about his customers and how they will benefit from the products and services his company provides. When he seeks new employees to work at Pharmacyclics Inc., he looks for the same commitment and dedication. It’s those two factors that have helped Pharmacyclics make such a difference […]
Guo-Liang Yu, president and CEO, Epitomics Inc.
LIFE SCIENCES, FINALIST Guo-Liang Yu has come a long way from the young, shy boy who disliked talking to strangers. His ability to overcome this shy disposition isn’t the only obstacle he’s had to overcome to follow his passion for scientific discovery. His drive to find answers to some of the world’s most pressing scientific […]
Lawrence Blatt, founder and CEO, Alios BioPharma
LIFE SCIENCES, AWARD RECIPIENT Lawrence Blatt considers himself a born and made entrepreneur — it’s in his DNA, but he also met wonderful mentors along the way who taught him the keys to becoming a successful entrepreneur. It’s that spirit, both innate and acquired, that drove Blatt to leave a prominent and secure job to […]
Hubert Thieblot, founder and CEO, Curse Inc.
EMERGING, FINALIST The evolution of Curse Inc. is the story of founder and CEO Hubert Thieblot’s coming of age. In 2003, he was a 17-year-old high school student in Paris. Rather than concentrating on his studies and attending class, he was engrossed in video games. Thieblot became enthralled with the massively multiplayer online game, “World […]
John Woolard, president and CEO, BrightSource Energy Inc.
EMERGING, FINALIST One of the most influential experiences for John Woolard was working as a whitewater rafting guide in Africa on the Zambezi River. While truly majestic and awe-inspiring, the Zambezi River ecosystem was imperiled, and he witnessed firsthand the devastating environmental issues. This experience made Woolard realize that he wanted to dedicate his life […]
Geoffrey Barker, co-founder and COO, RPX Corp.
EMERGING, AWARD RECIPIENT Geoffrey Barker had some solid experience as an entrepreneur when he noticed something in common with his previous two technology-related start-ups: Both companies had been tagged by patent trolls (those who purchase a patent just to sue another company claiming that a product infringes on the purchased patent). The legal issues escalated […]
Jerry McLaughlin: Breaking the rules
It’s not how you play the branding game; it’s whether you win or lose
Willard “Lee” Frickey, CEO, Sizewise
FINALIST The concept for Willard “Lee” Frickey’s company, Sizewise, began to germinate in the 1980s. An accident left Frickey temporarily unable to walk the floors of his grocery business. In this same time period, he had to deliver groceries to an obese customer who was unable to shop for his own food. Both incidents showed […]
Mike Sechrist, CEO & Elena Whorton, president of ProTransport-1
SERVICES, FINALIST Mike Sechrist and Elena Whorton didn’t like that emergency transport companies had to make nonemergency patients a lower priority, so they created ProTransport-1 to provide essential service to patients underserved by those companies. “We put the patient needing transport to a scheduled brain surgery or life-saving dialysis treatment first,” Sechrist says. “No other […]
How investing in compliance programs can mitigate risk
Bruce Reinhart, Member, McDonald Hopkins