TiE Atlanta, the local chapter of the global nonprofit that fosters entrepreneurship, announced its award winners for 2010 at a gala dinner in Buckhead Oct. 16.
Mark Wilson, founder, president and CEO of Ryla Inc., which develops call center solutions, was named “entrepreneur of the year.”
Mr. Wilson founded the company shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, and has led its growth to more than $100 million in annual revenues with 8,000 employees.
The “deal of the year” award went to Jay S. Yadav, CEO of CardioMEMS Inc. , which signed an agreement with St. Jude Medical Inc., a medical technology developer, in September.
Under the agreement, St. Jude is to invest $60 million in the privately-held cardiac devices maker for a 19 percent stake in the entity. The deal also includes an exclusive option for St. Jude to fully acquire CardioMEMS for $375 million upon certain undisclosed developments.
The “up and coming entrepreneur” award was shared by Shashi Reddy, CEO of Case-mate Inc., which makes custom cases for the handheld device case industry, and David Cummings, CEO and founder of Hannon Hill Corp. and CEO and co-founder of Pardot LLC .
Hannon Hill makes content management software and Pardot is a provider of on-demand interactive marketing solutions.
The “student of the year” award went to Matt Smith, chief information officer of Rank’em , a music-ranking platform allowing fans to determine the most popular songs of their favorite artists. Mr. Smith is a senior at Starr’s Mill High School.
A prestigious panel of judges selected the winners from some 70 entries.
To learn more about TiE Atlanta activities, go to http://atlanta.tie.org/
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