exceptional magazine special edition

ii Network starsAndy Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal of Arista Networks have perfected a formula that has powered their company’s rapid ascent in the networking industry.

Exceptional | EY Entrepreneur Of The Year

® Special Edition | Novem

ber 2015

ExceptionalEntrepreneurship + Innovation = Growth

November 2015EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Special Edition

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It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to launch an idea that makes a difference and accelerates the way their industry, their peers and their communities approach, react to and look at the world around them.

That’s exactly what the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award winners are doing. They’re challenging — and changing — the status quo, rethinking the way we approach the markets and altering the way we go about our business.

In this special issue of Exceptional, we honor our winners’ ability to create new products and services, transform organizations, enrich lives, contribute to the vibrancy of our national economy, and accelerate our businesses, our communities and the world.

Just a glance at the companies led by the 266 award winners reveals the vital role played by these leading innovators:

• Collectively, these companies have added 81,000 jobs in the last two years — a 29% boost in headcount.

• Our honorees have achieved US$169 billion in revenues.• The 59 venture-backed companies considered for the 2015

Venture Capital Award of Excellence have collectively raised more than $6.6 billion in private capital.

The panels of independent judges who selected this year’s finalists and winners used a balanced scorecard that considers

revenue, profit and employment growth. The panels also reviewed the entrepreneurs’ overall careers, their approach to innovation and the future, their commitment to building a strong team and sustainable business, and their enthusiasm for giving back.

We are also celebrating 12 amazing EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ who have succeeded by thinking big, overcoming or ignoring barriers, and challenging the assumptions that, for too long, deterred their success.

We’re excited to introduce our 2015 National Overall Award winners, Andy Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal of Arista Networks, who built their business with a very specific goal in mind: to create an IT company that would provide disruptive, innovative solutions for the world’s largest networking challenges. To say they’ve succeeded would be an understatement. Founded in 2004, Arista achieved profitable growth in annual sales in two short years and, in 2014, experienced a 9.3% year-over-year increase in port share in the high-speed Ethernet switch market. That’s entrepreneurship at its best!

The November 2015 awards gala was an especially poignant one for us — not only did we honor the exceptional accomplishments of entrepreneurs across the US, but it was the kickoff to 30 years of ingenuity in America, the yearlong, 30th annual celebration of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Program. Thirty years! Just think of all of the changes and progress we’ve seen in the past three decades. We’re incredibly proud to share this momentous occasion with you over the next 12 months.

Together with our national sponsors, SAP America and the Kauffman Foundation, EY salutes the Entrepreneur Of The Year Class of 2015 — inspirational entrepreneurs who are helping to build a better working world.

Accelerating our world

ExceptionalAmericas Director, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Mike KacsmarAmericas Program Manager Wendy FoxEditorial Director Marina PaulusManaging Editor Amy Koeppl Contributing Writers Edward J. Defort, Greg Kerr, Scott Ladd, William Kozel, Doug Milbrodt, Roger Morton, Richard Osborne, Lindsey SiegleCopy Editors Amy Koeppl, Kevin Daniels Creative Director Christine CoutureLead Designer William MenglePicture Editor Simon WeinsteinExceptional Special Edition is printed in the US by Shapco Printing.

For EY Americas Director, Marketing and Communications, Strategic Growth Markets Lisa Schiffman

For this special edition or regularly published issues of Exceptional, contact Lisa Schiffman at [email protected] or +1 215 448 5596.

Herb EngertEY Americas Strategic Growth Markets Leader

Mike KacsmarAmericas Director, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year

Honoring those who’ve propelled their industries — and our economy — into overdrive

Exceptional Special Edition November 2015 1

2ContentsNational categories

8 Technology Andy Bechtolsheim, Jayshree Ullal, Arista NetworksKeith R. Dunleavy, MD, InovalonKeith Krach, DocuSign, Inc.Marcus Ryu, Guidewire Software, Inc.

14 Distribution and ManufacturingBerto Guerra, Avanzar Interior Technologies, LTDJason Luo, Key Safety SystemsScott C. Mueller, Dean Mueller, Dealer TireJeremy Rincon, Robby Whites, Andrew Philipp, Clarus Glassboards, LLC

18 EmergingDavid Royce, AlterraJeff Church, Suja JuiceAdam Hepworth, JamberryMatt Salzberg, Ilia Papas, Matthew Wadiak, Blue Apron

22 Energy, Cleantech and Natural ResourcesEric Dee Long, USA CompressionM. Kevin McEvoy, Oceaneering International, Inc.John B. Walker, EnerVest, Ltd.Donald Young, Hoover Group, Inc.

26 Family BusinessAndrew D. Peykoff II, Niagara Bottling, LLCRobert M. Beall, Beall’s, Inc.Lou Gentine, Louie Gentine, Sargento Foods Inc.Edward Weisiger, Jr., CTE

30 Financial Services Alfred P. West, Jr., SEINoah Breslow, OnDeckKenneth Lin, Credit KarmaJonathan Steinberg, WisdomTree Investments, Inc.

34 Life SciencesJean-Jacques Bienaimé, BioMarin PharmaceuticalCharles Dunlop, James Dunlop, Ambry GeneticsMike Mussallem, Edwards LifesciencesTim Walbert, Horizon Pharma

38 Media, Entertainment and CommunicationsMaggie Wilderotter, Frontier CommunicationsFrank Addante, Rubicon ProjectChris DeWolfe, SGN Sean Eugene Reilly, Lamar Advertising Company

42 Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction Adam Neumann, WeWorkJames Michael Appling, Jr., TNT Crane & Rigging, Inc.John Kilroy, Kilroy Realty CorporationZeke Turner, Mainstreet

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Award winner

“We had to go from a start-up phase to customer phase while still maintaining and preserving ... our key attributes.”

Jayshree Ullal, Arista Networks8

2

34 Celebrating

30 years of ingenuity in AmericaA brief history of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® US Program

6 Call for 2016 nominationsKnow a high-growth entrepreneur? Nominate him or her!

ExtrasRecognition

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46 Retail and Consumer ProductsReade Fahs, Bruce Steffey, National Vision, Inc.Marla Malcolm Beck, Bluemercury, Inc.John Foraker, Annie’s, Inc.Jamie Lima, Paulo Lima, IT Cosmetics

50 Services Y. Michele Kang, CognosanteLawrence Janesky, Basement Systems Inc.Dr. Setul G. Patel, Neighbors Health System, Inc.Abhi Shah, Clutch Group

54 Venture Capital Award of Excellence™ Dr. Richard Heyman, Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Seragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Adam Neumann, WeWork Marcus Ryu, Guidewire Software, Inc.

7 National judging panel Meet the independent judges who selected this year’s entrepreneurs who are accelerating their business

58 EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2015�Mohed Altrad, Altrad Group, France

61 EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™

Presenting the Class of 2015

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EY | Assurance | Tax | Transactions | AdvisoryAbout EYEY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

Ernst & Young LLP is a client-serving member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited operating in the US.

© 2015 Ernst & Young LLP. All Rights Reserved. | SCORE no. BE0285. ED 0916.

EY is committed to reducing its impact on the environment. This document was printed using recycled paper and vegetable-based ink.


4Celebrating 30 years of ingenuity in America

hether you woke up today with plans to work, bank, grocery shop, entertain, skydive, or any one of thousands

of other ordinary — and extraordinary — activities, you likely have to thank an entrepreneur who had already imagined

how to revolutionize your experience.

Since 1986, EY has celebrated the accomplishments of thousands of entrepreneurs across the US as they undertook their missions to build a better world. We recognize and honor these outstanding individuals through

the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Program.With this special Entrepreneur Of The Year edition of

Exceptional, we acknowledge the success stories of 2015, then turn the corner to kick off a year-long celebration, aptly named 30 years of ingenuity in America. Our goal is to recognize those who have had a lasting impact on how we live, work and play.

Some of the Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni we will highlight throughout 2016 will be instantly recognizable to you, either because of the power of their names or the magnitude of their innovations. Others may be slightly less familiar but will have nonetheless made an indelible impact: those winners, for instance, who’ve defined revolutionary approaches to curing cancer or developed the technology behind our interconnected world or reinvented how we connect with our peers or reimagined how we move from place to place.

Regardless of their purpose, one thing connects these award-winning business leaders: they are the premier examples of what happens when entrepreneurs connect their ingenuity to a market opportunity — they leave a noteworthy legacy.

Join us as we celebrate 30 years of ingenuity in America, represented by the award-winning visionaries who have changed our lives forever — and for the better.

Mike KacsmarAmericas Director, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year

Wendy FoxAmericas Program Manager, EY Entrepreneur Of The Year

2015 Andy Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal Arista Networks

2014 David Hung, MD Medivation

2013 Hamid Moghadam Prologis

2012 Hamdi Ulukaya Chobani, Inc.

2011 Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner LinkedIn Corporation

2010 Howard W. Lutnick Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. and BGC Partners, Inc.

2009 Tom Adams Rosetta Stone Inc.

2008 Matthew Szulik Red Hat, Inc.

2007 Isaac Larian MGA Entertainment

2006 Richard E. Caruso, PhD Integra LifeSciences Corporation

2005 Arthur M. Blank Atlanta Falcons, The Home Depot, Georgia Force

2004 H. Wayne Huizenga Huizenga Holdings, Inc.

2003 John Mackey Whole Foods Market, Inc.

Past and present EY Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winners

The EY Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni form the

most influential, innovative and exclusive network of

entrepreneurs in the world. Connect with your fellow

winners at ey.com/us/eoy/alumni.

Exceptional Special Edition November 20154

52002 Jeno F. Paulucci

Luigino’s, Inc.

2001 Dr. Phillip Frost IVAX Corporation

2000 Scott Kriens Juniper Networks

1999 Richard M. Schulze Best Buy Co., Inc.

1998 Edward Iacobucci Citrix Systems, Inc.

1997 Jack Taylor and Andy Taylor Enterprise Rent-A-Car

1995 Allen Breed Breed Technologies, Inc.

1994 Robert Basham, Tim Gannon and Chris Sullivan Outback Steakhouse

1993 Robert E.M. Nourse The Bombay Company

1992 Jerry Ehrlich Wabash National

1991 Cecil Ursprung Reflexite Corporation

1990 Robert Levine and Craig Benson Cabletron Systems, Inc.

1989 Michael Dell Dell Inc.

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2004

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2005

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6 Your legacy has nothing to do with how old you are or the age of your company, and everything to do with your impact on business and the world around you.

If you’re running a successful company, we want to know you better. Since 1986, EY has honored the entrepreneurs whose spirit of innovation and discipline have benefited us all.

If you’ve been inspired by a successful entrepreneur in your community — or are one yourself — submit a nomination for our Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 Program.

To request nomination materials, call +1 800 755 2927, or visit us online at ey.com/us/eoy. The entry deadline is March 11, 2016.

Celebrating 30 years of ingenuity in America.

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7Entrepreneur Of The Year 2015 national judgesFedele Bauccio, Bon Appétit Management Company Chris J. Beckett, Pacific DrillingRay Bingham, General Atlantic Lori A. Blaker, TTi GlobalTom Briggs, Retired Private InvestorJean Case, Case FoundationScott A. Dahnke, CattertonWill Darman, The Carlyle GroupJ. Scott Di Valerio, Technology ExecutiveJames W. Dixon, CompuCom Systems, Inc. Greg Dunlevy, Kosmos Energy Limited Karin Eastham, Illumina, Inc.; Morphosys AG; Geron Corporation; Veracyte, Inc.; Althea DXJay Freeland, FARO Technologies, Inc.Greg Graves, Burns & McDonnellDoug Grissom, Madison Dearborn Partners, LLCJames P. Hallett, KAR Auction Services, Inc.Ronald J. Kruszewski, Stifel Financial Corp.Bill M. Lambert, MSA Safety, Inc.Marc R. Lederman, NewSpring Capital James R. Levy, Warburg PincusEric E. Lofquist, Magnus International Group Michael Mansfield, Mansfield Oil CompanyJack C. Mascaro, Mascaro Construction Company, L.P. Robert H. McCooey Jr., NasdaqRichard M. McVey, MarketAxess Holdings, Inc. Jayne Millard, Turtle & Hughes, Inc.Yiannis Monovoukas, PhD, TEI Biosciences Inc. and TEI Medical Inc.Jim Nixon, Sandvik VentureCarolyn Parent, GravyKimberly Park, Merck & Co., Inc. Steve Pate, StrikeLinda Rabbitt, rand* construction corporationAndra M. Rush, The Rush Group LLC Garvis Toler III, The New York Stock ExchangeCharlie Vogt, Imagine Communications Mark Volchek, Higher One Holdings, Inc.Naomi Whittel, Reserveage Nutrition Joset Wright-Lacy, National Minority Supplier Development Council®

Barbara A. Yastine, Ally Bank

judgesMeet the

7Exceptional Special Edition November 2015

8Up, up and away

Overall award winners

Award winner_Andy BechtolsheimFounder, Chief Development Officer and ChairmanAward winner_ Jayshree UllalPresident and CEOArista NetworksSanta Clara, CAFounded: 2004

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Category: Technology

9Andy Bechtolsheim and Jayshree Ullal guide Arista Networks into industry leadership with the help of the cloud.


10“Five years ago, 90% of networking gear was sold through

enterprises and 10% went through cloud data centers. By 2016, half of networking will go through the cloud.”

hen Andy Bechtolsheim founded Arista Networks in 2004, he had already played a key role in starting a number of IT industry stalwarts, including Sun Microsystems.With Arista, however, Bechtolsheim had a very specific goal in mind: to build an IT company led by engineers that would

provide disruptive, innovative solutions for the world’s largest networking challenges. Over the next four years, he focused on building the foundation for Arista’s networking software architecture. In 2008 he tapped industry leader Jayshree Ullal, a former Cisco executive, to serve as CEO.

Together, Bechtolsheim (working as Chief Development Officer) and Ullal have perfected the formula that has powered Arista’s rapid ascent in the networking industry. The company currently counts more than 3,000 customers, primarily data centers and high-performance computing centers, on its client roster.

Drawing on his prior IT industry experience, Bechtolsheim was determined not to seek outside financing when starting the company.

“The particular software approach we were taking was going to take time, and venture capitalists don’t have a lot of patience for product development,” Bechtolsheim says. This approach allowed him “to go slow and build the right underpinning for the product.”


11This self-imposed incubation period enabled Bechtolsheim and his team to perfect Arista’s software architecture so the company would be ready to take off once they officially launched their product. Arista achieved profitable growth within two years of its product release, a significant milestone for an early-stage technology company.

Bechtolsheim also knew this was the right time to hire someone to lead the company. “This was a key inflection point,” he says. “We had to turn from being an engineering and product development company and become a real operation. That is not my cup of tea. We needed someone who understood this market.”

Bechtolsheim knew that Ullal would fill the bill. They had previously worked together at another company he

had founded, Granite Systems, which was later bought by Cisco. “We knew each other extremely well, so we had a definite trust factor and strong working relationship. There was never any question in my mind that she was the best choice,” he says.

Both Bechtolsheim and Ullal realized that preserving and strengthening Arista’s culture would be critical to sustaining its growth. Ullal, who had seen many companies hit a wall as they lost the cultural traits and attributes that fueled their growth, was especially concerned that Arista retain its entrepreneurial spirit.

“We had to go from a start-up phase to customer phase while still maintaining and preserving what we all strongly believed were our key attributes,” Ullal says. “We are a high-tech company, built by engineers for engineers, with an open culture of communication. We really wanted to make one plus one much greater than two.”

Bechtolsheim and Ullal have made sure that Arista avoids the complexity trap which plagues many large companies. “Having a flat organization that is totally customer-focused is happiness,” Bechtolsheim says. “We don’t even have a separate product marketing group. Our strategy is totally built around customer priorities.”

Because Arista’s customer base includes many companies that are “technologically

“We really wanted to make one plus one much greater than two.”


12

savvy” in their own right and eager to use cloud computing for their operations, helping customers adapt to the cloud has become one of Arista’s priorities.

“We predicted the cloud back in 2008,” Ullal says, but the market wasn’t quite ready at that time. In the interim, Arista

established itself as a leading provider of networking solutions for financial traders, who relied on robust, high-frequency trading. As that industry shifted away from centralized data centers, Arista moved to embrace cloud computing.

“The rapid rise of the cloud has accelerated our growth,” Bechtolsheim says. “Five years ago, 90% of networking gear was sold through enterprises and 10% went through cloud

data centers. By 2016, half of all networking will go through the cloud.”

Moving to a cloud-based architecture also enables Arista to offer scalable, open-standards-based solutions, which will help global enterprises keep pace with the rapid growth

expected in internet traffic over the next five years. To ensure that the company continues to develop

leading-edge networking solutions, Arista devotes 25% of all corporate revenue to research and development efforts. “R&D is our single largest investment,” Bechtolsheim says. “If you look at our total [operating expenditures], well over half is R&D. Two-thirds of our head count is engineering, and 90% of that is in software engineering.”

As Arista turns to the cloud to establish itself as one of the strongest networking companies in the world, both Bechtolsheim and Ullal intend to ensure that Arista retains its focus.

“We have to be careful to stay on our mission,” Ullal says. “The cloud will expand to storage, virtualization and security. Every time that expansion happens, there’s more opportunity for us.”

“The cloud will expand to storage, virtualization and security. Every time that expansion happens, there’s more opportunity for us.”

2 Number of years it took Arista to achieve profitable growth

90 Percentage of engineering employees who are software engineers

25 Percentage of revenue allocated to research and development


13finalists

Keith R. Dunleavy, MDInovalonChief Executive Officer & Chairman of the BoardBowie, MD | Founded: 1998

The health care industry is awash with data from clinical trials and millions of patient records yet has lagged behind other industries in turning that data into actionable insights.

Inovalon, under the leadership of Keith Dunleavy, has tackled this gap with a vengeance, developing cloud-based analytics and data-driven platforms to help health care providers improve patient outcomes, save costs and realize higher revenue.

Dunleavy, who recently guided Inovalon though an IPO, has helped the company establish itself as a clear industry leader. In gathering data from its clients, Inovalon has developed what he refers to as “America’s health care database,” which contains more than 9.2 billion medical events from 120 million patients, 754,000 physicians and 248,000 clinical facilities.

As a strong believer in responsible entrepreneurship, Dunleavy has not taken a raise, bonus or option for the past five years, preferring to reward the employees who are making Inovalon a leader in delivering data-driven insights to the health care industry.

Keith Krach DocuSign, Inc.Chairman & CEOSan Francisco, CA | Founded: 2003

When Keith Krach joined DocuSign, the company was focused on developing its eSignature platform solely for the real estate industry. Krach soon broadened DocuSign’s vision from real estate to transforming the way all businesses securely exchange confidential electronic documents.

He set out to achieve his goal by creating a new culture centered on building high-performing teams, guided by a clear mission and vision for the company’s future. Today DocuSign boasts more than 100,000 enterprise customers worldwide and some 50 million individual users.

Building on DocuSign’s progress in the real estate industry, Krach rolled out a secure electronic documentation service and then forged a partnership with Salesforce. Using DocuSign to transact test deals, Salesforce helped DocuSign gain exposure to countless other companies about the benefits of using its electronic documentation platform.

Krach continues to emphasize teamwork and culture. He spends close to 30% of his time finding the right talent to ensure that DocuSign maintains its leadership position in the electronic documentation space.

Marcus RyuGuidewire Software, Inc.Chief Executive, President & Co-FounderFoster City, CA | Founded: 2001

When Marcus Ryu cofounded Guidewire in 2001, he and his partners, all software industry veterans, knew that most software companies lacked deep industry insight. As a result, even the most robust software solutions fail to make a lasting difference, at least not without major customization efforts.

Recognizing this as a lost opportunity, Ryu resolved to start a company that would focus on transforming one industry: property and casualty insurance. Through an ecosystem of integration partners, software vendors and insurance carriers, Guidewire has orchestrated more than 200 implementations, with zero failures and 100% customer satisfaction. As a result, Ryu and his team have helped to significantly lower processing costs for the industry, firmly establishing Guidewire as a leading provider of property and casualty software solutions.

As CEO, Ryu gives his team the latitude to run the business, reserving the difficult personnel decisions for himself. His people strategy is working: Guidewire, with customers in 22 countries, reports an attrition rate of less than 8%, some two to three times lower than the software industry norm.


Category: Technology

14

“If I was going to do business with one of the best companies in the world — Toyota — I needed to think like Toyota. I needed to produce the way they do.”

14

15en years ago, Berto Guerra faced a tough career choice. Having been passed over for promotion at Southwestern Bell, he gathered his family around the kitchen table and pondered his future. Should he stay at Southwestern Bell, or should he go?

Guerra, a man of strong religious faith, looked for a sign. The next day, he learned that Toyota was planning a major manufacturing plant in his home city of San Antonio, TX, and was in the market for a local entrepreneur to help create an automotive parts business to supply the facility.

No stranger to running new businesses in very different industries, but new to the automotive world, Guerra developed Avanzar Interior Technologies to produce door panels and car seats for Toyota Tundra and Tacoma trucks. Today, the San Antonio-based enterprise has evolved into a business with 900 employees and average year-over-year growth of 24% for the past five years.

At Avanzar, Guerra strives to create an environment that promotes and honors company loyalty, where employees never stop learning and applying new lessons for the betterment of the business. Guerra says he, personally, has learned more from Toyota than making quality truck parts. He’s assimilated key tenets of the Japanese carmaker’s philosophy.

“If I was going to do business with one of the best companies in the world, I needed to think like Toyota,” he says. “I needed to produce the way they do.” Noting that Toyota takes the long view on building and sustaining a business — “whether 15, 20, 100 years out” — Guerra says his team follows the Japanese principles of kaizen, the practice of continuous improvement, and kanban, an innovative inventory control system.

Award winner_Berto GuerraCEO and ChairmanAvanzar Interior Technologies, LTDSan Antonio, TXFounded: 2005

Distribution and Manufacturing

Driven to excel


16Avanzar, which means “to advance” or move forward,

relies on plant cleanliness, competitive pricing, high-quality products and customer service to differentiate itself in the industry. But loyalty, commitment and pure hard work have been staples of Guerra’s entrepreneurial thinking long before he linked fortunes with Toyota.

As a 6-year-old, he began shining shoes at his dad’s San Antonio barbershop. His father, a tough former US Army infantryman, told him to ask everyone who entered the shop whether they wanted a shine — even an unlikely customer who walked in one day wearing tennis shoes. The customer thanked the boy for asking and pulled an old, crusty pair of boots from the back of his pickup. The young Guerra earned 50 cents for the cleaning job, rather than his normal 15 cents.

“That taught me an important lesson,” he says. “Always ask the question.”

Knowing to ask the right questions has carried Guerra far. At the age of 18, he secured an $80,000 loan and bought a local ice cream shop. He then purchased movie theater and Pizza Hut franchises (“I didn’t even like pizza at the time”) before moving up the management ranks at Southwestern Bell.

As for his own management style and what he seeks from his leadership team, Guerra stresses the basics.

“My dad always told me, ‘Don’t be afraid to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you in certain areas. Be fearless; don’t be intimidated. You are going to be the leader of the orchestra,’ ” he says.

“I look for people with a vision, who are unafraid to think outside the box,” he adds. “I want people who are tenacious, not afraid to roll up their sleeves, work on a project and take pride in it.”

Loyalty and a sense of common purpose also count. “I interview every single person we’re thinking of hiring. All 900 of our people here, I’ve personally interviewed them,” Guerra notes. “I want to see if they fit into our family, our code of business, who we are.”

At Avanzar, loyalty is a two-way street. The economic crisis of 2008 forced Toyota to mothball its San Antonio plant for 14 weeks as sales and orders dried up. Refusing to close his own plant, Guerra instead negotiated

a deal with Toyota and Johnson Controls — Avanzar’s production facility partner — that allowed him to keep his employees working full-time. They had no automotive work to do, he recalls, but his employees kept busy by helping renovate the facility and performing public service in San Antonio, among other things.

“I did not want my people to go hungry, to send them home without a paycheck, to discontinue their insurance,” says the father of 4 and grandfather of 10. “They had families to take care of.”

Guerra’s entrepreneurial reach has expanded over the years. He owns two auto dealerships and is moving toward opening three more. In addition, Avanzar is making a global push outside its San Antonio base: the company is in discussions to occupy a plant in Mexico designed to supply Toyota Corollas.

“I interview every single person we’re thinking of hiring. ... I want to see if they fit into our family, our code of business, who we are.”

58 Seconds it takes Avanzar to install a new seat in a Toyota truck

188 Robots used in the Avanzar plant

14 Weeks during the financial crisis Guerra kept his business open while the Toyota plant was closed


17finalists

Jason LuoKey Safety Systems President & CEOSterling Heights, MI | Founded: 2000

Self-discipline, hard work and turning innovative ideas into successful products and systems have been Jason Luo’s calling cards. Luo is President & CEO of Key Safety Solutions (KSS), a leader in the automotive supply field.

Luo’s mission has been to globally expand and diversify its customer base, markets and regions. He has done so by focusing on maintaining seamless global operations, cost efficiency, innovative technology and customer satisfaction.

This strategy has served the company well through economic downturns and volatile shifts in the industry. But it requires sufficient care and feeding. Each quarter, senior management regroups to assess industry trends and market opportunities, review what’s working and determine what needs to change. Additionally, Luo has his leadership team periodically rotate positions to more fully understand all aspects of the business.

Because KSS develops safety-critical components such as airbags, steering wheels and electronics — installed in about 300 car models produced by more than 60 global customers — Luo knows that the company

“only gets one shot — we have to get it right.”

Scott C. MuellerChief Executive Officer

Dean Mueller PresidentDealer TireCleveland, OH | Founded: 2000

For executives of Dealer Tire, the company’s legacy is more than in the tread. It’s in the blood.

Interest in the business, founded by the Muellers’ great-grandfather, has been passed through the generations. In an established industry, resistance to change can be an obstacle to growth. But pioneers can always bring something new.

Dealer Tire provides a value-added program based on logistics and IT data to help auto manufacturers and their franchises sell replacement tires and parts.

Its business-to-consumer website has driven customer and revenue growth. And Dealer Tire encourages its employees to remain current on industry changes and technology through courses it offers, giving them the tools for success.

The company’s philosophy of creating partnerships with dealers, rather than viewing them strictly as customers, has been a market differentiator. It has 8% market share, sales have more than doubled over the past decade, and the business has expanded into Canada.

Jeremy Rincon Co-Founder

Robby Whites Co-Founder

Andrew Philipp PresidentClarus Glassboards, LLCFort Worth, TX | Founded: 2009

As college friends, Jeremy Rincon and Robby Whites dreamed of starting a business together. After the investment firm where they were working closed abruptly in 2009, they cashed out retirement accounts, sold everything they owned, moved back in with family and started with a clean slate — literally.

A business trip to South America that introduced them to rudimentary clear writing boards sealed the deal, and Clarus Glassboards was born. The duo later recruited Andrew Philipp to serve as President.

The company produces glass writing boards that are gaining in popularity over traditional whiteboards. The Clarus model is thinner than but as strong and durable as conventional whiteboards, and it blends more easily and aesthetically into corporate surroundings.

Today, Clarus has more than 100 employees, has achieved significant revenue growth since 2012 and is recognized by industry-leading associations and publications for its innovative product design.

Scott C. Mueller

Dean Mueller RinconPhilipp Whites


Category: Distribution and Manufacturing

18Safety

firstAward winner_David RoyceFounder & CEOAlterraProvo, UTFounded: 2012

hile a student at Brigham Young University, David Royce accepted a summer job in California selling pest control products door to door. His first

week was a bust, with zero sales.By the time he returned to college, it was a different story. Through

perseverance and absorbing everything he could about the business, Royce had racked up more sales than any of the other summer staffers.

The lessons of those early days, refined over the years, have served him well in more than three years as CEO of Alterra, one of the fastest-growing companies in the US pest control industry.

Royce founded the company with three particular principles in mind: provide the best, most ecologically sensitive products; establish high-quality training programs that translate to superior client service; and create a work environment that’s fun for everyone and structured to retain talented staff.

“I wanted to make my business a place where people really wanted to work,” he says. “Not just a business to make money or build a résumé, but a place that’s fun and people really enjoy where they work.”

Royce concedes that pest control wasn’t at the top of the career list before graduation from BYU. “I thought I was going to do venture capital,” he recalls, “but an old boss came to me and said, ‘You should do this; you are really good at this. Don’t go and work 100 hours a week for someone else.’ ”

Advice taken. Royce started his first pest control business right out of school, using money saved from working his way through college. “I had lived frugally; I took everything I made and put it into the company,” he says. Part of his philosophy has been to not rely on banks or outside investors to subsidize his businesses; he prefers to retain financial and creative control.

Royce continued to refine his business model with the launch of EcoFirst in 2009. EcoFirst was his first national venture, expanding into 10 states west of the Mississippi River and serving nearly 100,000 customers before it was sold.

And in founding Alterra, from the Latin for “all” and “earth,” Royce was guided by lessons he picked up as a young salesperson. The concerns of homeowners about the toxicity of pest control products and the potential safety threats to their children and their pets left a lasting impression.


19“I wanted to make my business

a place where people really wanted to work. Not just a business to make money or build a résumé, but a place that’s fun and people really

enjoy where they work.”

Emerging

19

20

Alterra expects to pass an annual revenue milestone. “Cracking the $100 million mark will be pretty exciting,” he says.

The business currently consists of residential and commercial pest services, but there are plans to expand into termite control, lawn care and other services over the next decade. Royce’s goal is to become the largest privately held pest control business in North America by 2020.

“We’re growing like gangbusters,” he said. “It’s exciting, with more people wanting to take advantage of opportunities.”

“I heard it over and over again, about ecology and safety,” he says.

Today, the company uses the most progressive products with the lowest levels of toxicity available. Alterra is a member of the EPA’s Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program, which accepts organizations adhering to a higher standard of ecological practices.

As for the emphasis on fun: if creating a thoroughly modern headquarters in Provo, UT — complete with a full-length basketball court, golf simulator, movie room, and foosball and pool tables — is Royce’s idea of an enjoyable work environment, he’s not alone. It’s more Silicon Valley than conventional office.

“When people come into our office, they think it’s a technology company or an advertising company, not a pest control company,” Royce says. “It looks young, millennial, fun.”

While the Alterra business model is centered on delivering safe products and executing a smart strategy, its cultural roots are the 10 core values developed by the company’s more than 1,000 employees. They include “Elevate the Tribe,” a call for positive team

and family spirit, the “Platinum Rule” that counsels employees to treat customers the way they would want to be treated, and “All Ears on Deck” to make sure employees are always listening and learning.

It’s an essential part of the company’s DNA, Royce says.

One sign that the emphasis on culture is succeeding is Alterra’s 96% year-over-year employee retention rate.

“You really want to create a family, a home, for your employees,” he said. “I think we’ve done that.”

Since its 2012 launch, Alterra has reported a 300% growth in revenue and projects a total of 300,000 customers by the end of the year. The company has been ranked as the fastest-growing pest control company in the country by PCT Magazine, an industry publication.

The 38-year-old married father of two is committed to expanding the business. In 2016,

“To be honest, at first I wasn’t very excited about being in the pest control business. It’s a very old business, blue collar, not a whole lot of innovation. But we took an environmentally responsible approach to it and injected a new kind of company culture.”

10 The number of articulated core principles that employees live by

20,000 The field of industry competitors when David Royce started Alterra

19 Where Alterra currently ranks in the US pest control industry

96 Year-over-year employee retention rate percentage


21finalists

Jeff ChurchSuja JuiceCEOSan Diego, CA | Founded: 2012

Jeff Church, CEO of Suja Juice, would be the first to admit the idea of drinking green juice with blended kale, apple and lemon was less than appealing.

More than three years into his tenure, he’s come around. A private equity pro with a history of turning around struggling companies, Church has helped drive Suja’s growth through distribution deals and an industry-leading production breakthrough.

A distribution deal with Whole Foods Market gave Suja high visibility and a prominent platform for future growth. Its production innovation — high-pressure processing — extends shelf life and maintains essential nutrients, vitamins and enzymes longer.

Despite substantial national growth, the company still operates almost exclusively from its Southern California base. Its emphasis is on the expanding market of customers who’ve embraced health consciousness in their food and drink products. Suja’s workforce certainly reflects that level of youthful vitality. Of its 200 or so employees, only 5 were over the age of 40 at the beginning of 2015.

Adam HepworthJamberry CEOLindon, UT | Founded: 2010

Adam Hepworth’s entrepreneurial spirit has taken him from building a landscaping business to launching a ski manufacturing company. His philosophy? ”Always be open to whatever comes your way.”

When his sister-in-law returned one day from a favorite nail salon raving about a vinyl application, Hepworth had a thought — how about developing a business that provides an at-home version of what’s available at salons? He didn’t know much about nails, but his knowledge of custom printing and vinyl applications would come in handy.

Hepworth worked with the company’s founders — his wife and her two sisters — to create Jamberry. He operated from an unheated room over the garage, developing a new type of nail wrap, a website, and a business and distribution plan promoted through trade show displays and in-home demonstrations. They hired consultants to supplement full-time staff in publicizing their products and their vision.

What began as a family affair and a fledgling business filling about 3,000 orders a month is now a company with a staff of 400 and a customer base in the millions.

Matt SalzbergCo-Founder and CEO

Ilia PapasCo-Founder and CTO

Matthew WadiakCo-Founder and Chief Product OfficerBlue ApronNew York, NY | Founded: 2012

The best meals are a precise blend of complementary ingredients prepared from a superior recipe. The same could be said for companies hungry to make an impression in an underserved market.

Enter Blue Apron, which delivers healthy, high-quality ingredients to customers for the convenient preparation of home-cooked meals.

Its founders were drawn from different professional backgrounds, but they are bound by a common vision — and their own personal frustration at not having access to affordable, easy-to-prepare home meals with top-shelf ingredients. Blue Apron meals are planned based on customer needs, helping to eliminate the middle distributor and cut down on food waste.

The company currently has about 3 million customers and sharply rising revenues that will support its expanding network of farms and suppliers.

Salzberg Papas Wadiak


Category: Emerging

22 The energy to change

Award winner_Eric Dee LongCEOUSA CompressionAustin, TXFounded: 1998

ric Dee Long moved 17 times before he finished high school. That’s right: 17 times. To say his itinerant youth had an impact on his personality — not to mention his character, his tenacity, his resilience and his drive — is like saying nothing succeeds like success. The truth is self-evident.

“My dad worked for a major corporation,” Long explains. “I was forced to meet a lot of people.” The effect, he says, was simple: “I extroverted.” It is not surprising that he turns the noun into a verb. After all, everything about him suggests action.

As a fifth-grader, Long started his own business laminating ID cards for his schoolmates. He also mowed lawns. And as soon as he was able to secure a work permit — his 16th birthday — he got a job at a bicycle and lawn mower repair shop.

“My mom and dad instilled a work ethic in me,” he says. “I was always exposed to financial things.”

Inspired by his high school teachers in suburban Cleveland — one of his many stops along the way before college — Long developed a love of biology, chemistry, math and science. He decided to pursue a degree in Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University.

In college, he discovered that an even better combination of interests — probabilities, statistics and economic analysis — came together in the field of petroleum engineering. He switched majors. “I graduated in 1980 and never looked back,” he says.

Long was fascinated by the drilling, production and reservoir aspects of the field. Today, he sits on the Advisory Board of the Department of Petroleum Engineering at

A history of moving from one challenge to another provided Eric Dee Long with the adaptive power to create USA Compression and transform it into an industry leader.

Energy, Cleantech and Natural Resources

22

23Energy, Cleantech and Natural Resources

“When things get tough,

you have to bring in the best.

What we have been able to do is outhustle our

competitors.”


24from the start, as well as during an early period when a negative balance sheet required an additional funding infusion. Long likewise is passionate about — and profoundly grateful for — the men and women who make, sell and service the company’s products.

“What really makes us successful is the empowerment of our workforce,” Long says, pointing out that USA Compression provides some 450 jobs, many of them in lower-economic environments. He says four “Pillars of Excellence” keep the company strong, and the first one is people. The others: equipment, culture and service.

“We’re like the Navy SEALS,” Long says. “When things get tough, you have to bring in the best. What we have been able to do is outhustle our competitors.”

He is proud of the company’s service technicians who must run “24/7/365.” Long says the company is good to them, and in turn they are good to the company. “We provide really good jobs in small

towns,” he says. “From service techs to senior management, we make it a place where people want to be.”

Long characterizes the company’s workforce as individuals who embody the entrepreneurial spirit and personify common sense. They possess an “incredible work ethic” and integrity beyond reproach. “Their work is their bond,” he says.

At 57, Long finds himself growing increasingly reflective about the blessings of success and family, including his wife, two sons and a granddaughter.

Under his leadership, USA Compression has a history of supporting the communities where the company operates. This includes a partnership with Texas Advocacy Project, which provides legal assistance to women and children in crisis.

Long says he sees himself as his company’s “chief storyteller.” And the story he tells is one in which the entrepreneurial spirit still functions as the major theme.

“We’re just getting started,” he says.

his alma mater. He is part of a network of like-minded graduates who are close associates and friends.

Before founding USA Compression in 1998, Long served in a variety of managerial roles in the oil and gas industry. Among his career achievements, he aided in the restructuring of a major gas pipeline company and cofounded a compression services company.

The entrepreneurial spirit that first showed itself in fifth grade went into overdrive when Long realized that industry conditions were changing rapidly. He sought an opportunity to build quality compression equipment. With the funding support of a highly successful Caterpillar dealer, he founded USA Compression and implemented an organic growth plan to build equipment designed to better adapt to climatic conditions.

His vision proved to be crystal clear. USA Compression is now one of the top public independent providers of compression services, with a diverse customer base made up of producers, processors, gatherers and transporters of natural gas.

He is the first to say that he accomplished none of this alone. “I’m the original founder of a business that is now a New York Stock Exchange publicly traded company,” Long says. “But it isn’t, quote, ‘my company.’ A lot of times entrepreneurs let their egos get in the way. They use the ‘I’ word instead of the ‘we’ word. It is a team, not just one guy.”

In particular, he cites Caterpillar dealer Randy Engstrom for the support, confidence and guidance Engstrom provided

“From service techs to senior management, we make it a place where people want to be.”

10 Annual growth rate percentage in company’s first decade

2 Multiple in size since January 2013 IPO

450 Number of employees

25 Average years of energy experience on management team


25finalists

Donald YoungHoover Group, Inc.Chairman & CEOHouston, TX | Founded: 1911

Donald Young attended public schools in Corpus Christi, TX, and was recruited to play quarterback at Harvard University. In 2008 he became CEO of Hoover Group, where he ultimately led a management buyout amid a global recession.

At the time, Hoover was a struggling portfolio company, mainly supplying intermediate bulk containers to deepwater oil rigs. Young immediately began making transformational changes. He moved the entire business to Houston and, after organizing a management buyout, invested his life savings in Hoover and took ownership of 75% of the company.

In the seven years since, Hoover’s employee base has gone from about 60 to more than 280, and the company has expanded internationally. In 2014, Hoover sold 75% of its ownership to First Reserve, and the original investors were rewarded at close to 70 times their original investment. Young accomplished all this with a management philosophy based on immersing himself in all aspects of the business. He says one of the most personally satisfying aspects of his job has been to see the people around him grow.

M. Kevin McEvoyOceaneering International, Inc.CEOHouston, TX | Founded: 1964

A former US Navy officer who worked in the areas of diving, salvage and submarine rescue, Kevin McEvoy attributes much of his success to saying “yes” to challenges.

After earning his bachelor’s degree and MBA, he joined Solus Ocean Systems, which was acquired by Oceaneering International in 1984. All told he’s been with the company for 36 years and has served as CEO for the past 4.

Oceaneering grew from an air and mixed gas diving business in the Gulf of Mexico into a global oilfield provider of engineered services and products primarily to the offshore oil and gas industry. Oceaneering also serves the defense, entertainment and aerospace industries.

Since 2012, under McEvoy’s tenure, annual revenues have grown 32%. The company enjoys a 59% market share on all floating drilling rigs in service. Among the factors in the company’s success is McEvoy’s high level of engagement in day-to-day activities. Demonstrating the sense of ownership and accountability that is the mark of an entrepreneur, he often is the first person in and the last to leave.

John B. WalkerEnerVest, Ltd.Chief Executive OfficerHouston, TX | Founded: 1992

John Walker established himself as a leader at a young age through involvement in high school and college student government. A US Navy veteran who served during the Vietnam War, he went on to earn his undergraduate degree at Texas Tech University and his MBA at New York University.

Walker started his career covering the energy sector as an equity research analyst. As someone who measured financial success based on risk-adjusted return, he took a bold step in leaving his Wall Street career to become an oil and gas entrepreneur when he founded EnerVest. One of the largest oil and gas companies in the US, EnerVest manages more than 36,000 wells in 15 states, has 6 million acres under lease and is the sixth-largest gas producer in Texas.

Walker believes in hiring the best talent, giving autonomy to the workforce and rewarding professional achievements. He is a contrarian, moving from an oil-heavy asset portfolio to a gas-heavy portfolio while the market in general has been favoring a move to a portfolio heavy in liquid assets.


Category: Energy, Cleantech and Natural Resources

26“I never thought about whether I was ready. You play the cards the way they are dealt.”

Family Business


27 Taking chances to succeed

Award winner_Andrew D. Peykoff IIPresident & CEONiagara Bottling, LLCOntario, CAFounded: 1963

ow is this for intense family involvement? Andy Peykoff personally presided over the birth of his only son in the front seat of the family car.

It all happened on the side of the road when he and his wife, Jaime, didn’t quite make it to the hospital for what was anticipated to be a more conventional delivery of their fourth child.

The next day, he wrote an email recounting the episode to family and friends. He concluded it simply: “All in a day’s work, my friends. All in a day’s work.”

That pretty much sums up Peykoff’s approach to whatever is thrown at him, both personally and professionally, and is emblematic of his approach to life. He is focused on family and is known for doing things, well, differently.

So when his father suffered a stroke and could no longer run the family business, Niagara Bottling, it was in character for Andy — the seventh of eight children himself — to step up and take over. Never mind that he was just 26.

“I never thought about whether I was ready,” he says. “You play the cards the way they are dealt. I told my dad, ‘I’ll take it from here.’ ”

That was 13 years ago. Since his first year in charge, Peykoff has multiplied Niagara’s revenues by 38. The company is now the nation’s largest private-label bottled water supplier with 2,600 employees and 19 production facilities throughout the US.

True to character, Peykoff accomplished this feat by building the Niagara Bottling team his own way. He surrounded himself with sharp young people, many of whom knew nothing at all about the water business. “You want people who are bright, hard-working and passionate,” he explains. “That’s more important than a résumé.”

When his father suffered a stroke, Andy Peykoff, at age 26, took the helm of Niagara Bottling. He attributes the company’s enormous success to a business strategy built on his willingness to fail.


28At 39, Peykoff now leads a large company that retains its

small-company mindset. “It’s a culture that has worked,” he says. “The entrepreneurial spirit is not found in just one person. The entrepreneurial spirit is in the whole company.”

And what precisely is the entrepreneurial spirit? “The willingness to fall on your face,” he says. “The sense that when you climb one mountain, you look to climb another. I think great entrepreneurs

foster that kind of mentality throughout the company.”Even as Niagara has grown under his leadership, Peykoff’s

commitment to family remains paramount. Last year, he spearheaded the creation of Niagara Cares, which supports initiatives geared toward serving disadvantaged children and their families.

“I have a soft spot in my heart for kids,” he says. “The smile of a child — there’s nothing better.”

The Southern Methodist University graduate also believes strongly in the importance of teamwork, leading him to gravitate toward individuals who were involved in high school or college athletics. Peykoff earned his own sports bona fides as a Junior Olympic athlete who played for championship volleyball teams at Corona del Mar High School and the Balboa Bay Volleyball Club in Southern California.

“Athletes are used to ups and downs,” he says. “They are competitive, and they look at how to get the job done. In business, we might make something great, but we continually have to find ways to make it better. We’re competitive not in the sense of being cutthroat but in the sense that everybody wants to win.”

A sense of loyalty and belonging is important, too. All six of his direct reports today were hired around the time he took over.

“We are very growth-oriented, and we are very teamwork-oriented,” he says. “There are not a lot of walls. We have a sense of urgency. Our mentality not only has a lot to do with how we relate to our customers but also how we relate to those in the manufacturing and engineering space.”

Peykoff says this mentality promotes innovative thinking and risk-taking. “It’s perfectly OK in our company if you fail,” he says, adding that the practice of trying and failing often leads to ultimate victory. One example of this trial-and-error route to success is the company’s creation of the “nested pack,” which increases the density of packages and accommodates 17% more bottles per pallet.

“That has eliminated more than a million pallets a year,” he says. “Those sorts of things are important. Pennies mean everything in our world. A penny a case is worth $9 million a year to us.”

Such strides prompt the sincerest form of flattery. “Our competitors always copy us,” he boasts.

And well they should. The company was the first to manufacture its own caps, and some 70% of the plastic has been taken out of its bottle since Peykoff assumed leadership. Today, Niagara has the lightest bottles, lightest caps and fastest lines in the industry.

“The entrepreneurial spirit is not found in just one person. The entrepreneurial spirit is in the whole company.”

2,600 Number of employees nationwide

19 Number of production facilities

7 Weight in grams of half-liter bottle (down from 23)

8 Number of bottle iterations in a recent six-month period


29finalists

Edward Weisiger, Jr.CTEPresident and CEOCharlotte, NC | Founded: 1926

Edward Weisiger was encouraged to start in the family business at an early age. Summer jobs pulling parts from warehouse shelves in the North Carolina heat can be discouraging, but he saw it as a means to establish a good work ethic and to develop a solid understanding of the people and the business.

As the years passed, Weisiger became a mechanic apprentice, working side-by-side with technicians and listening to customers. During college he was introduced to various marketing and management roles. Before joining the company full-time, he became involved in real estate, where he learned to deal with ethical situations.

This diverse background enabled Weisiger to take CTE from a single-solution provider of Caterpillar equipment with 275 employees to a diverse solutions provider with more than 1,100 employees. Over the past three years alone, the company’s revenues have grown by 52%. Weisiger pushes for continuous improvement while keeping the company light and nimble enough to handle change. He holds CTE and himself to high ethical and moral standards, where accountability and customer focus are paramount.

Robert M. BeallBeall’s, Inc.ChairmanBradenton, FL | Founded: 1915

While countless family business leaders can boast that they worked their way up, Robert Beall has a different story: he worked his way in. At the age of 10, he was washing windows at his grandfather’s store. Today, the youthful window washer is — dare we say it? — cleaning up in the department and outlet store business.

Beall’s grandfather started the company 100 years ago as a small dry goods store with no item priced over $1. The company had grown to seven stores by 1970 when Beall’s father asked his son to return to Bradenton, FL, home of the first store where the boy had washed windows. Ten years later, Beall became CEO.

Beall’s was the first retailer in Florida to introduce outlet stores. E-commerce was introduced in 2000 when kiosks were put in the stores. This focus on innovation while adhering to the company’s core principles of fair treatment and affordable merchandise has proved to be a powerful formula for success. Beall’s now operates more than 530 retail store sites across the southern and eastern US.

Lou GentineChairman

Louie GentineCEOSargento Foods Inc.Plymouth, WI | Founded: 1953

Though Sargento Foods has been in the Gentine family for more than 60 years, there’s no birthright to leadership. Lou Gentine and his son Louie reached the top the old-fashioned way: they earned it. Company rules insist on it: family members must work outside Sargento for at least three years, jobs are not created for family members, company leadership is elected, and every corporate officer must have a college degree.

Sargento, a leading marketer of retail branded and sliced natural cheeses, has benefited from this insistence on performance over privilege. One of the keys to the Gentines’ success has been their strategy to treat advertising and product development as a fixed cost, not as a financial lever to meet goals.

Father and son continue the entrepreneurial spirit established by the company patriarch when he opened a small cheese shop behind his main business, a funeral home. They have grown the company to more than 1,700 employees.

Louie Gentine

Lou Gentine


Category: Family Business

30 Foresight, 20/20

Award winner_Alfred P. West, Jr.Chairman & CEOSEIOaks, PAFounded: 1968

l West’s first foray into business was markedly different than where he is now as Chairman & CEO of SEI. At the age of 14, West launched a lawn service on behalf of

local banks. It was, he recalls, the first time he worked with bank trust departments. “I mowed lawns for people in Winter Park, Florida,” explains West, who counts

aviator and test pilot General Chuck Yeager among his childhood heroes. “When the snowbirds left for the season, their houses were often left in the hands of the bank. They gave me something like 10 or 12 houses to take care of.”

After high school, West pursued his dream of becoming a pilot. He enrolled at the Georgia Institute of Technology as an aeronautical engineering student and Air Force ROTC cadet. Then, as it often does, fate stepped in. While West was still a cadet, his eyesight deteriorated to 20/30. This disqualified him from the Air Force and scuttled his flying ambitions.

“So I had to change course,” West says. “I had figured I was going to fly for five years and then start a business. I always wanted to start a business. So I switched that around.”

In short order West proved that although his eyesight may not have been perfect, his “vision” certainly was. After completing his undergraduate coursework in Georgia, he headed to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he pursued his PhD.

During his time at Wharton, West spent his summers working for major aerospace firms. While there, he “learned what not to do,” he recalls. “These were enormous firms, and I learned that aero was not going to give many entrepreneurial openings, being dominated by the very, very large defense contractors.”

West turned to the world of finance. He and two fellow PhD students created a computerized simulation that included 50 case studies on loans. Knowing he was on to something, West took the loan case study to the credit department of the then-largest bank in town, which bought it.

“This was the start of SEI,” notes West. “[It] basically taught people how to lend money. Each study was designed to teach something about accounting and cash flow. It was sold to about 55 banks.”

Less-than-perfect eyesight kept Al West from the Air Force, but his vision was perfect when it came to creating the SEI model.


31Financial Services

“Some of your best stuff comes from a failure.

You learn and then you grow.”

Photo © 2015 SEI


32move SEI forward with the introduction of new products and services.

“We have a new platform to be provided to our clients,” West says. “We’re also creating an enterprise system for money managers. We are actually in the process of re-strategizing. About every 10 years we kind of reinvent the company.”

Today SEI employs approximately 2,700 people in locations around the world, including its Oaks, PA, headquarters and offices in Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and the UK.

Today SEI is a leading global provider of investment processing, investment management and investment operations solutions. Its offerings help corporations, financial institutions and advisors, and ultra-high-net-worth families create and manage wealth.

Although the initial program was extremely popular, the fledgling company ran out of potential customers. To sustain and grow the business, West next focused on bank trust departments and “built a trust system around real-time computing. It was very advanced,” he says. With sustained energy and drive, West spent the next 10 years automating trust departments.

Since SEI’s inception, West’s vision has led the company in anticipating changing market needs and creating innovative business solutions to serve its clients. Case in point: The SEI Wealth Platform, which serves as a stand-alone solution delivering wealth managers the infrastructure, operations and administrative support necessary to achieve their strategic objectives. It supports trading and transactions on 131 stock exchanges in 50 countries and 35 currencies.

West’s experiences working at aerospace companies helped him create the physical structure of SEI today. At those companies he found that the workspace setup often affected executive teaming and decision making. At SEI, West has eliminated all trappings of status. All furniture is on wheels so workspaces may be altered to match changing projects. Cables hang from the ceiling to provide power and mobility to each workstation, and artwork fills SEI’s offices worldwide.

Throughout SEI’s more-than-40-year history, West’s mission has remained constant: to help clients achieve success by developing consistently relevant solutions delivered through outstanding client experience. He continues to

“About every 10 years we kind of reinvent

the company.”

The SEI Wealth Platform supports trading and transactions on 131 stock exchanges in 50 countries and 35 currencies

Photo © 2015 SEI


33finalists

Jonathan SteinbergWisdomTree Investments, Inc.CEO and PresidentNew York, NY | Founded: 2004

Drawing on his passion for financial services and his belief that exchange-traded funds (ETFs) would eventually overtake traditional mutual funds, in 2004 Jonathan Steinberg founded WisdomTree Investments.

While more conventional providers base their approach on market-cap-weighted indexes, Steinberg worked with a colleague to create the dividend-weighted indexes that form the basis of WisdomTree’s platform. The company bases its business on two guiding principles: offering full transparency and delivering better financial information to its clients.

WisdomTree’s difference in market approach meant the Securities and Exchange Commission took years to grant Steinberg approval, but an unflinching belief in his vision and a determination to succeed carried him through the wait, as well as other tough times that included an initial lack of funding and the 2008 financial crisis.

The company has since prospered. WisdomTree says for the past eight years ETFs have overtaken inflows to traditional mutual funds, capturing more than half of all dollars invested.

Noah BreslowOnDeckCEONew York, NY | Founded: 2007

Noah Breslow believes that wisely applied technology solves complicated problems. Through several ventures in software and satellite telecommunications, he’s developed a keen understanding on what makes a good business model.

In just five years at OnDeck, Breslow led several divisions and then became CEO. The company’s primary focus is helping small businesses access capital. As a result of his work, the company secured sources of capital and won key strategic partnerships with banks and other large financial companies.

OnDeck’s advanced analytics, proprietary credit scoring and outstanding customer service have made it an industry leader. Its customized application allows decisions to be made in minutes and funding to be available in a day.

In 2014, OnDeck experienced 142% year-over-year revenue growth, but challenges remain. To reach the untapped market of more than 28 million small business owners in the country, OnDeck is investing in direct marketing to build its brand and educate potential customers.

Kenneth LinCredit KarmaCEO and FounderSan Francisco, CA | Founded: 2007

While working in the credit card industry in the late 1990s, Kenneth Lin saw the possibility for a business in that space to have both a social focus and workable business model. This vision led him to create Credit Karma.

To educate its consumers about personal financial management, Credit Karma offers a number of tools including credit report cards, a credit advice center, financial product reviews and free credit monitoring, among many others. The company matches its members’ credit profiles with better financial service products, helping banks target relevant consumers.

Although Credit Karma was founded just as the financial crisis was gripping the country, Lin kept true to his vision, persevering with strict financial discipline and support from investors, family and friends.

Now profitable, Credit Karma boasts some 35 million users representing a 20% market penetration. Lin’s goal is to achieve 100 million users, scaling company resources while offering more financial vehicle options.


Category: Financial Services

34 “We say big pharma makes a small difference in large patient populations, but we want to make a big difference in a small patient population.”

Life Sciences

34

35Tenacity, with a

global perspectiveAward winner_ Jean-Jacques BienaiméChairman and CEOBioMarin PharmaceuticalNovato, CAFounded: 1996

oving from one country to another while growing up served to educate and ultimately provide a mission for Jean-Jacques Bienaimé, Chairman and CEO of BioMarin Pharmaceutical.

His father worked as a mining engineer, moving on behalf of his employer from country to country. Born in a small town in France, Bienaimé first moved to Italy, then Sardinia, before moving to Iraq and farther afield. At one point in his education, he recalls, “I spent my first quarter in Tunisia, second quarter in Paris and third quarter in Senegal.” Eventually he graduated with a BA in Economics from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris. After moving to the US, he earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Bienaimé’s travels brought him understanding and sensitivity to others. “As I moved around the world, I got perspective on the need to be flexible,” he says. “There are very many cultures, and people look at the world in many different ways.”

In his 25 years working within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, Bienaimé’s entrepreneurial drive has been recognized and rewarded. “I almost went to medical school,” he explains, “and would probably have the same job but have had a different path to get here. I was always interested in medicine. I lived in those countries where there was a lot of suffering. I wanted to share and to be involved with something where I would make a difference for a lot of people.”

Learning as he went, Bienaimé achieved remarkable success at a number of companies. In his job just before joining BioMarin, he was Chairman, CEO and President of a company focused on industrial bioproducts and targeted cancer biotherapeutics. He increased its revenues dramatically, an accomplishment that eventually resulted in its sale at a substantial value.

BioMarin Chairman and CEO Jean-Jacques Bienaimé credits his global perspective to a globe-hopping childhood.

Life Sciences


36For Bienaimé, innovation is the key to company success.

BioMarin currently has five drugs on the market for which there are no direct competitors. His knowledge and ability to describe the benefits of BioMarin’s experimental therapies for rare diseases have garnered FDA approval for every product. These approvals have come in 5 years, whereas the industry average is 10 years.

Bienaimé attracts employees who share his vision for developing therapies that make a difference in the lives of

patients. “You have to create an environment in building a company that will allow people to succeed and thrive and do things they didn’t even think they would be able to do,” he explains.

In the past, BioMarin was known for small, successful acquisitions. “Most recently,” says Bienaimé, “the company made a big acquisition that brought a line of products for muscular dystrophy.” He looks forward to gaining FDA approval of those products by the end of the year and launching them next year in the US and Europe.

BioMarin has a direct commercial presence in 55 countries around the world. Its next move is to expand the size of its commercial international organization with the same enthusiasm, tenacity, resilience and perseverance that have led to Bienaimé’s and BioMarin’s success from the start.

When the opportunity came for Bienaimé to join BioMarin, many of his colleagues advised that moving would not be in his best interest. With entrepreneurial insight and fervor, he joined the company.

“BioMarin was not in great shape when I joined,” he remembers. “It was running out of money and moving in an unfortunate direction. My sense was that all of these problems were fixable. I realized there were good assets that could be managed. But there were a few decisions to

be made quickly to save the company, which I did. We downsized by a third and raised money.”

BioMarin specializes in developing treatment for rare and ultra-rare diseases. These “orphan diseases” are defined as having small patient populations of 200,000 or fewer.

“We are very patient-centric,” explains Bienaimé. The company is very close to the patient community, supporting it in many different ways to improve access to treatment and offer financial support for treatment.

“We say big pharma makes a small difference in large patient populations,” he says, “but we want to make a big difference in a small patient population. That’s how we position ourselves.”

Under his leadership, BioMarin spends much less than industry standards in getting its drugs to market. This is due to Bienaimé’s strategic decision to attack diseases that are very well understood and therefore have a high probability of success. He is also focused and driven to pursue only drugs that are either first-in-class or best-in-class.

“You have to create an environment … that will allow people to succeed and thrive and do things they didn’t even think they would be able to do.”

5 Drugs on the market

55 Countries where BioMarin has a commercial presence


37finalists

Tim WalbertHorizon Pharma Chairman, President & CEODeerfield, IL | Founded 2005

Being diagnosed with an autoimmune disease lends special impetus to Tim Walbert’s efforts at Horizon Pharma. As a patient he appreciates how having access to meaningful therapies can improve someone’s daily life; as an executive he appreciates making that access happen.

Walbert honed his skills in sales, marketing and the understanding of product life cycles at such companies as Abbott and G.D. Searle, Merck & Co. before sharpening his entrepreneurial, leadership and management style at a series of biotech start-ups. He joined the Horizon Board in 2008. Walbert’s leadership skills were quickly recognized, and he was soon asked to head the company.

At the time, the company only produced Duexis, a combination drug used to treat arthritis. Today Horizon has seven commercial drugs, including a pain reliever aimed at reducing the risk of stomach ulcers.

Walbert encourages employees to take risks, with positive results. For example, at a sales representative’s suggestion, the company developed its Prescriptions-Made-Easy program, which delivers physician-prescribed products directly to a patient’s home within 24 hours.

Charles DunlopCo-founder & CEO

James DunlopCo-founder, President, CCO & Interim CEOAmbry GeneticsAliso Viejo, CA | Founded: 1999

Absent outside funding and supporting operations and expansion purely on revenue, Charles Dunlop and James Dunlop maintain financial independence for Ambry Genetics, a medical diagnostics services provider.

With Ambry, the brothers maximize their complementary abilities — Charles in establishing and managing laboratories in major research, manufacturing and technology transfer environments, and James in his technical and operational skills.

Ambry began as a genetic testing laboratory. Its first test sequenced the gene that causes cystic fibrosis; it now offers hundreds of panels that test for mutations.

Ambry’s biggest obstacle was that some companies had patents on genes — basically a monopoly on a disease state in the genetic setting. Ambry and others contested, and in 2013 the Supreme Court negated anyone’s right to patent naturally occurring DNA sequencing. The victory removed any roadblocks to Ambry’s research and marketing.

Mike MussallemEdwards LifesciencesChairman & CEOIrvine, CA | Founded: 2000

Mike Mussallem expanded his market knowledge and experience first as a chemical engineer, and then as general manager at Baxter International. But with his group underperforming, he helped implement its spin-off into an independent company — Edwards Lifesciences.

Mussallem’s entrepreneurial vision and spirit have created an organization that aggressively invests in R&D, developing and delivering important innovations quickly to patients. For example, Edwards developed a revolutionary, non-invasive transcatheter heart valve that eliminates the need to remove an old valve while keeping the patient under anesthesia for long periods.

Since its founding, Edwards has become a global leader in the science of heart valves and hemodynamic monitoring. Mussallem’s emphasis on collaboration has led Edwards to develop expertise in the science of structural heart disease and critical care monitoring technologies.

Last year, donations from the Edwards Lifesciences Foundation to nonprofit organizations around the world exceeded $8 million; most were aimed at fighting the global affliction of heart valve disease.

Charles Dunlop

James Dunlop

5 Drugs on the market

55 Countries where BioMarin has a commercial presence


Category: Life Sciences

38A pioneer on the frontier

Award winner_Maggie WilderotterChairman and CEOFrontier CommunicationsStamford, CTFounded: 1935

hen Maggie Wilderotter joined Frontier Communications in 2004, the company was flailing. Phone revenue was declining, customers were leaving and employee morale was low. It had gone up for sale but failed to find a buyer. That would be a daunting scenario for any new President and CEO to step into (she became Chairman in 2006),

but Wilderotter, a self-identified trailblazer, knew she was more than prepared for the challenge. In fact, it was the challenge that drew her in.

Wilderotter’s first lessons in entrepreneurship came at age 12 while working at a boardwalk candy store in the seaside town of Asbury Park, NJ — “I made candy, I ate candy, I sold candy,” she says. She attributes her philosophies on customer service to the shop owner, who came in daily, even in his 80s. “It taught me about serving customers,” she says, and put a focus on the importance of customer relationships.

Her education at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts established her pioneer persona. When Wilderotter arrived in the 1970s, she was in just the second class to admit women. Before graduating with a degree in Economics, her ambition was to “get married and have a career,” both of which she tackled in short order upon commencement when she married her junior high school sweetheart, Jay, and moved to Arizona for his Air Force pilot training.

It was in 1978, after Jay’s transfer to California, that she responded to a newspaper ad for a job at Cable Data in Sacramento. She moved up the ladder and ultimately ran several functions, ascending to the role of Vice President at age 29, and later Senior Vice President, before she left for McCaw Cellular, which had found its niche in software and cable television “before either of those was cool.”

After high-profile stints at Wink Communications, AT&T Wireless and Microsoft, Wilderotter landed at Frontier.

Maggie Wilderotter has been a highly regarded technology executive for close to three decades.

Media, Entertainment and Communications

38 Exceptional Special Edition November 2015

39“I inherited a

company that didn’t have strategic

options and couldn’t even be sold, and I

had an employee base that didn’t

know how to win.”

39

40Her approach was grounded in making personal

connections, much like she’d learned in her early candy store days.

“I went out and met with thousands of employees to make sure that they understood we were all in it together,” says Wilderotter, who defines her leadership style as “very open” and “inclusive” with efforts “to get the complexity out.”

“I heard what they had to say … and I made a pledge to them that we would work together to really transform Frontier,” she says. “My vision for Frontier is to be the leader in providing our telecommunication services in the markets that we serve.”

As the head of a communications company, Wilderotter sees herself as a “servant CEO” who emphasizes communicating with her employees and customers. Every employee and customer has her email address and can send her their ideas or concerns. Her policy is to respond to messages within 24 hours.

Wilderotter is passionate about Frontier and giving back to the community. In September 2014, she established a program called America’s Best Communities (ABC) with cosponsors DISH, CoBank and The Weather Channel. The $10 million initiative was created to stimulate growth and investment in rural America, particularly in cities of 10,000 to 80,000 people.

Though still in its premier year, Wilderotter reports that communities have presented such entrepreneurial ideas as waterfront development, downtown revitalization, tech incubators, playgrounds and farmers markets. And it’s that variety that perhaps best represents the wide swath that entrepreneurs cut in the American landscape.

“Entrepreneurs come in many shapes and sizes, but you have to have the combination of passion, innovation and creativity; along with a sense of company and a way to attract, retain and motivate employees; [and] a good handle on how to create sustainable value” in order to succeed, she explains.

Ultimately, she says, ABC is what entrepreneurship is all about: “Entrepreneurship is not about a flash in the pan. It’s not about something that lasts a year or two.

“It’s about something that lasts for generations.”Perhaps Wilderotter has come full circle from her days at

the Jersey Shore, where she learned the values that sustain her today.

“Sometimes I call [my career] ‘a return to good luck,’ ” she reflects. “You wind up in a good place, in a good industry, with growth prospects, and you ride it.”

In assessing the dire situation, Wilderotter overhauled leadership. As directors retired, they were replaced by a diverse group of men and women with strong experience in varied industries. Women were promoted to senior leadership positions across the company.

“All companies have obstacles, but one of the biggest ones for Frontier was employee culture,” she explains. “I inherited a company that didn’t have strategic options and couldn’t even be sold, and I had an employee base that didn’t know how to win.”

“My vision for Frontier is to be the leader in providing our telecommunication services in the markets that we serve.”

$10m Initiative to stimulate growth and investment in rural America

28 States where Frontier offers services


41finalists

Sean Eugene Reilly Lamar Advertising CompanyCEOBaton Rouge, LA | Founded: 1908

Lamar Advertising’s story begins with the dissolution of a business partnership and a coin flip that awarded a small sign company to Charles Lamar. It was considered to be the losing end of the deal but has since become a leader in industry innovation, and CEO Sean Reilly has been at the epicenter of its evolution.

Among his accomplishments, Reilly has overseen the acquisition of notable advertising firms; debuted digital printing; created an electronic Emergency Alert System; led the energy-efficient transformation for billboards; and promoted RoadNinja, Lamar’s free interstate travel map — all while producing 3-D billboard enhancements.

Reilly believes in empowering Lamar’s management team, establishing a flat organizational structure that enables autonomy for decisions about pricing, new-site development, hiring and operations among its 200 local managers. Lamar trusts its managers to make the right call, cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit that extends well beyond family leaders.

Cumulatively, these actions have established Lamar as a member of the

“Big Three” in out-of-home advertising.

Frank AddanteRubicon ProjectCEO, Founder & Chief Product ArchitectPlaya Vista, CA | Founded: 2007

Frank Addante started five companies before the age of 30. With his latest venture, the Rubicon Project, he has, in essence, created the stock market for advertising by providing a model that allows companies to bid and sell advertising space on websites.

Addante believes he can change the definition of advertising so people see it as a source of information rather than a mundane corporate tactic to get consumers to purchase products.

He viewed internet advertising as wildly inefficient, so he created a technology platform that automates the entire industry — serving more than 700 billion ad transactions per month. More than 500 of the world’s largest website publishers use the Rubicon Project’s platform to sell ad space to more than 100,000 advertisers.

Addante is poised to take on the most popular website in the world to grow his marketplace for online advertisers. To do that, he plans to build an army using smaller players that will end up being three times the size of the leader.

Chris DeWolfeSGNCo-Founder & CEOBeverly Hills, CA | Founded: 2010

Charles DeWolfe has the gift of foresight: before founding SGN, he recognized a tremendous opportunity in mobile games as an emerging medium for connected entertainment.

As co-founder and former CEO of MySpace, he was a pioneer of social networking culture. During his visits to MySpace’s Asia offices, he witnessed the advancement of personal mobile devices that had yet to arrive in the US. He saw that mobile games were a logical next step to games on social networks.

DeWolfe began building SGN through a series of acquisitions and organic growth. In 2010, he secured funding to launch the first stage of his new endeavor, Mindjolt Games. The following year he acquired SGN and merged the two under the SGN banner. The next piece was added in June 2013, when SGN acquired game studio Mob Science.

To date, more than 500 million SGN games have been installed on leading mobile and social platforms, including more than a dozen top-10 titles in the App Store. One SGN game, Cookie Jam, was named Facebook’s Game of the Year 2014.


Category: Media, Entertainment and Communications

42Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction

“We like to say that every quarter

is like one year in another company.”


43There is

no ‘I’ in ‘we’

Award winner_Adam NeumannCo-Founder and CEOWeWorkNew York, NYFounded: 2010

dam Neumann has always exhibited a flair for entrepreneurship. Born in Tel Aviv, he moved to New York after serving as a naval officer in the Israeli military.

All the while, the experiences that shaped him, such as the complexity of managing a military operation and the collaboration and virtues of living in

an Israeli kibbutz — a communal settlement — would go on to inspire the ideals that became the pillars of WeWork.

The idea behind WeWork is to provide budding entrepreneurs with a platform to create what could be their life’s work — but in a communal environment. The company leases space in an office building, divides it up into smaller work areas and charges a fee for virtual or physical membership for start-ups. This arrangement offers members an opportunity to connect with a larger community of like-minded people.

Before enjoying groundbreaking success with WeWork, Neumann took some baby steps along his entrepreneurial path — literally. It wasn’t long after arriving in New York following his Israeli military commitment that he enrolled in Baruch College to pursue a degree in Business. During his third year in college, Neumann became very anxious and was looking to start a business. After his first start-up, a high-end women’s shoe business, failed, Neumann had some success with his next venture in the baby clothing market. That company, Crawlers, sold baby pants with kneepads on them to protect children’s knees. Then Neumann partnered with another company to create a high-end version of the baby clothes, which became Egg Baby.“I had already owned three businesses and the most difficult thing … is starting it and finding the offices rather than doing the thing that you love,” he says.

Adam Neumann creates a community for creators.


44the generation of millennials, that does not cherish cash and material goods the way past generations did. They cherish meaning and intention sometimes before material goods. That’s a new way of seeing the world.”

They sold their stake in Green Desk and cofounded WeWork to reimagine the way entrepreneurs work and to build a robust community by providing access to services, resources and a work environment that empowers creators to pursue their dreams.

One desk at WeWork affords a member access to 29 physical locations around the world with an instant connection to the more than 23,000 (and growing) members that work in those cities. In fact, more than half of WeWork members have collaborated or done business together. Additionally, members can take advantage of discounted health care, cloud hosting services and gym memberships.

Nothing had prepared Neumann for the stunning growth of the company in such a short period of time. “One of the difficult things in a high-growth company is that, even with the best intentions, the company moves so fast and growth happens so regularly,” he says. “We like to say that every quarter is like one year in another company. When you move at that rate, you have to be willing to change, and you have to be willing to take advice. You have to learn from mistakes and be very open-minded to create a slightly flat organization where everyone’s opinion is important.”

To Neumann’s point, WeWork started 2015 with 240 employees and by the end of summer had grown to 790. Neumann plans to expand WeWork to more cities and to hundreds of thousands of members within the next couple of years.

He says, “If you are going to build a business today and your business does not have a real intention behind it, something positive that it actually brings to people and makes their life better, and if you also don’t mix with that doing something that you love, if you are not passionate enough, then I don’t believe you are going to be truly successful.”

Neumann says he found himself spending 80% of his time focusing on non-core business activities

Through a roommate, Neumann met Miguel McKelvey, and the two hit it off. “We both had very interesting childhoods and very simple backgrounds that had a lot to do with sharing,” he says.

Seeing so much vacant space in buildings around his Brooklyn office, Neumann repeatedly approached a landlord about empty space in one of his buildings. “He asked me, ‘What are you going to do with the building? You know nothing about real estate.’ I said, ‘What do you know about real estate? Your building is empty!’ ” he recalls.

Neumann and McKelvey hit upon the idea of leasing space and subletting individual cubicles. They eventually struck a deal with the landlord to see if their idea would gain traction. The business, called Green Desk, was a success.

Neumann and McKelvey sensed an entrepreneurial energy in New York City. “In 2008, the world moved from an ‘I’ mentality to a ‘we’ mentality,” Neumann says. “And you have the largest generation that we’ve seen,

“In 2008, the world moved from an ‘I’ mentality to a ‘we’ mentality.”

WeWork started 2015 with 240 employees and by the end of summer had grown to 790.


45finalists

Zeke TurnerMainstreet Founder and CEOCarmel, IN | Founded: 2002

Developing successful business enterprises from the time he was a child, Zeke Turner left a job on Wall Street at the age of 25 to bring his entrepreneurial spirit and experience back to his home state of Indiana.

After gaining health care and mergers and acquisitions experience in New York and Brazil, Turner had the idea to build an investment company, which evolved into purchasing real estate. What he found through his cumulative experience was that the senior care real estate industry was past its prime. In his desire to change the way the industry was perceived, he decided to develop properties himself.

With just $10,000, Turner founded Mainstreet in 2002. Focusing on short-term rehab and therapy, Mainstreet owns, develops and acquires post-acute care facilities. Knowing few people want to stay in a care facility, his company’s mantra is

“get well, get home.”Mainstreet directly impacts 1,100 patient

lives at any given time and has created 2,400 permanent jobs. These numbers are expected to nearly double by the end of 2015.

James MichaelAppling, Jr.TNT Crane & Rigging, Inc.CEOHouston, TX | Founded: 1985

Before Michael Appling joined TNT Crane & Rigging, he worked for several years in industrial services. While searching for a leadership opportunity, his growing interest in the crane industry led him to discover that TNT was up for sale. He immediately set up a meeting and personally put together an offer to purchase the company. The deal closed in 2007.

When Appling joined TNT, the company had just three locations in Texas and 55 cranes, and 70% of its customer base was in the refining and petrochemical industries. His vision was not only to expand but also to diversify, while improving quality for customers and employees and building a strong company culture. He has accomplished this goal through a series of acquisitions, organic growth, and a consistent and effective leadership style. TNT has grown to 35 branches and about 570 cranes across 37 states and western Canada.

TNT’s customer base is now well-diversified, servicing the refining, petrochemical, power, midstream, oil and gas, commercial, industrial, and construction industries.

John KilroyKilroy Realty CorporationCEO, Chairman & PresidentLos Angeles, CA | Founded: 1947

John Kilroy began working at his father’s real estate company at a young age, sweeping its warehouse space. Showing early signs of his entrepreneurial spirit, he collected scrap copper while he swept and sold it for a profit. In college, when Kilroy wasn’t in class, he worked in his father’s office and soon began assisting his father in structuring multimillion-dollar deals.

But by the time Kilroy took the helm, he saw that the company’s private financial structure prevented competition with larger peers. Despite differing opinions within the family, he took the company public in January 1997. This bold move ultimately unlocked the company’s potential. Now operating in every major West Coast market, Kilroy has more than 15.8 million square feet of real estate either stabilized or in development for today’s innovation leaders in technology, media and entertainment.

In the 34 years since becoming President and later CEO, Kilroy has doubled the company’s employee base and, in the past 5 years alone, grown its value fourfold.


Category: Real Estate, Hospitality and Construction

46 Staying

focusedAward winner_Reade FahsCEOAward winner_Bruce SteffeyPresident and COONational Vision, Inc.Duluth, GAFounded: 1990

o take a chain of eyeglass stores from bankruptcy to more than 50 consecutive quarters of growth requires, well, vision.

In 2002, National Vision, Inc., a publicly held company based in Duluth, GA, derived 95% of its sales from the Vision Centers it leased in Walmart stores across the country.

Then Walmart announced that it would not renew those leases when they expired over the next decade. The company’s market cap collapsed. And it appeared that National Vision would be making a round trip back to bankruptcy court, having just emerged a few months earlier.

The board searched for a savior. And it found one in Reade Fahs, a seasoned vision industry executive.

When Fahs took the reins as CEO, he recruited retail industry veteran Bruce Steffey as his President. The pair immediately set off on a road trip, visiting as many stores as they could.

“For the first year,” says Fahs, “our mantra was to listen to our store managers and rank-order what they wanted. That was key to jump-starting the company because the store managers suddenly recognized that, ‘Wow, the people in the central office are now here to serve us.’ ”

The duo also made it clear that the entire organization existed solely for its customers.“If you aren’t serving a patient or customer directly,” says Fahs, “then you’d better darn

well be serving someone who is serving a patient or customer directly. We don’t understand your job description if it’s not one of those two things.”

Reade Fahs and Bruce Steffey took National Vision, Inc. from bankruptcy to the world’s largest “bricks and clicks” optical retailer — while helping improve the eyesight of more than 33 million people.

Retail and Consumer Products


47“We think it’s a

social justice issue that lower‑income people don’t have access to quality vision care.”

47

48you ask our doctors, ‘Why do you like practicing here?’ they’ll say, ‘Because I know that if not for National Vision, many of my patients wouldn’t be able to afford eye care.’ ”

“We think it’s a social justice issue that lower-income people don’t have access to quality vision care,” Fahs adds. “So we

make sure that they have the same access to eye health that wealthier people do.”

The company carries that philosophy to underprivileged people throughout the US — and the world.

National Vision has created a nonprofit organization called Frames for the World that provides vision correction for those in need. The organization collects new eyeglass frames from manufacturers that have overstock and distributes them to clinics in developing countries.

National Vision also partners with other organizations such as VisionSpring, which serves people in El Salvador, India and Bangladesh. And the company supports RestoringVision.org, which donates readers and sunglasses to missionary groups.

National Vision fuels its philanthropic endeavors through a business that is now thriving. The company today has more than

800 stores and 21 e-commerce websites. Its brands include America’s Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Eyeglass World, Optical Center, Vision Center and Vista Optical. Together, these brands comprise the largest “bricks-and-clicks” optical retailer in the world and have served more than 33 million customers.

Boston-based Berkshire Partners took National Vision private in 2005. In 2014, Berkshire sold the company to KKR & Co. LP, which was no doubt impressed by National Vision posting more than 50 consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales results — an industry record.

And what happened with that imperiled Walmart contract? Fahs and Steffey relentlessly pursued the retailing behemoth for nine years, sometimes visiting Bentonville, AR, once a month.

Their persistence paid off. Walmart not only renewed the leases for nearly 200 Vision Centers, but when a relationship with 1-800-Contacts dissolved in 2012, Walmart awarded the entire online contact lens contract to National Vision.

With its “Always Low Prices” philosophy, Walmart is the ideal partner for National Vision. As Steffey says, “We will not lose focus that we are the low-cost provider of optical services in the United States. We won’t take our eyes off that ball.”

With the culture that Fahs and Steffey have created, the company attracts service-oriented people — and prepares them for success. “We spend a lot of money in this company on training,” says Fahs. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or a store manager — we train, we identify, and we promote.”

The goal, Fahs says, is to encourage all employees to stay with National Vision for their entire careers. The company’s track record is impressive: retention rates are 85% in National Vision’s retail stores. And under Fahs’ and Steffey’s leadership, only 1 of 25 senior executives has left the company.

One reason may be that employees not only enjoy solid financial incentives, but also the personal rewards that come from helping an underserved segment of the population: people with lower incomes. Where many retail vision chains charge hundreds of dollars for just one pair of glasses, National Vision customers can get two pairs of glasses and an eye exam for a total of $69.

“Our stores are by far the lowest-cost places in America to get eyeglasses, contacts and eye exams,” Steffey says. “And if

“We will not lose focus that we are the low‑cost provider of optical services.”

800 Brick-and-mortar stores

21 E-commerce websites

$69 Price of two pairs of glasses and an eye exam


49finalists

Marla Malcolm BeckBluemercury, Inc.Chief Executive OfficerWashington, DC | Founded: 1999

For Marla Malcolm Beck, it’s all about relationships and personalized attention. When she pursued her passion for the cosmetics business, she thought first about what women needed — and recognized that they needed a way to purchase cosmetics online.

Bluemercury was the first company to bring luxury cosmetics to the internet. After the dot-com bust, Beck took her people-centric model to the bricks-and-mortar world, establishing Bluemercury as a chain of friendly, accessible and knowledgeable cosmetics stores.

To this day, Beck talks directly to her customers instead of basing her decisions solely on data. She also has centralized all administrative duties to ensure that store managers are out on the floor interacting with customers and employees.

Recognizing a profitable and innovative business, Macy’s acquired Bluemercury in 2015. Bluemercury pop-up stores within Macy’s have enabled Beck to fulfill her dream of building additional product lines, including M-61 Skincare, the first highly technical, natural cosmeceutical brand.

John ForakerAnnie’s, Inc.CEOBerkeley, CA | Founded: 1989

When Annie Withey cofounded her humble pasta company in 1989, she couldn’t have dreamed that someday her principles would influence a global food giant.

But then, she couldn’t have dreamed of an executive like John Foraker.

When Foraker arrived at Annie’s in 1999, the company had just seven employees. As a former banker who became a leader in the organic foods revolution, Foraker sought to transform the brand by making it stand for love, a mother’s connection to her children, and support for environmental causes.

He pursued an aggressive expansion strategy that saw the company move into new categories such as crackers, fruit snacks, dressings and soups. And he made sure those products moved out of the “natural” sections of the supermarket and into the main aisles.

Foraker led the Annie’s IPO in 2012. The company was acquired in 2014 by General Mills, which recently committed to many of the principles that Foraker espouses, including transparency, sustainable processes and closer communication with consumers.

Jamie LimaCo-Founder & CEO

Paulo LimaCo-Founder & PresidentIT CosmeticsJersey City, NJ | Founded: 2008

The most frightening moment in Jamie Lima’s career occurred in 2010 at QVC studios. With IT Cosmetics’ entire inventory packed into a truck, she and her husband, Paulo Lima, had 10 minutes to prove that their line of therapeutic cosmetics would sell to a TV audience.

The truckload sold out in just eight minutes.IT stands for “innovative technology.” The

company began when Jamie was a news anchor suffering from rosacea, a skin disorder that causes discoloration. When she couldn’t find a product to address her condition, she sensed a

“white space” opportunity. The Limas, working with an advisory board of leading physicians, invested their life’s savings to create a line that was both therapeutic and concealing.

Since then, IT Cosmetics has become a global phenomenon. Even without an advertising budget, its products have built a global following.

Jamie logs as many as 200 QVC appearances per year and has won 11 QVC Customer Choice Awards.

Jamie Lima

Paulo Lima


Category: Retail and Consumer Products

50“I made the big bet that health care had to transform because of the financial pressures brought on by aging baby boomers and that Medicaid would be the center of gravity.”

Services

50

51Transformation,

ahead of the curve

Award winner_Y. Michele KangFounder and Chief Executive OfficerCognosanteMcLean, VAFounded: 2008

tarting a company in June 2008, just months before of the financial crisis, may appear to be bad timing. But Michele Kang, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cognosante, knew it was the time to act if her company was going to get ahead of the curve and lead the coming transformation in the US health care industry.

“I could see how certain things were lining up and that no other company was doing it,” Kang recalls.

Kang, who had run Northrop Grumman’s health care business prior to founding Cognosante, believed that the health care information technology agenda outlined by President George W. Bush in 2004 would have major implications for the industry. Her instincts were correct. Cognosante is now a leading provider of IT, consulting and outsourcing services to key federal and state health agencies.

Kang is no stranger to going against the prevailing headwinds. As a teenager in South Korea, she rebelled against the expectation that young women went to school to either

find a husband or become a school teacher. “I wanted to study business and

economics,” she recalls, “and even though I was at the top of my class, the best I could hope for in South Korea [at that time] was to be hired as the assistant to a CEO.”

Fortunately, Kang’s parents encouraged her to pursue her dreams. Her father, who had studied in the US and Japan, told her that “I should pursue whatever I desire, and that the only reason that I wouldn’t achieve my dream was because I didn’t try.”

Using the money her parents had saved for her dowry to help fund her education, Kang moved to the US. She attended the University of Chicago, working as a waitress when she wasn’t studying or attending class. When she graduated with her MBA, she set three 10-year goals: 1) develop a broad perspective of the business world, 2) learn organizational strategy to be a leader and mobilize people, and 3) take a shot at becoming CEO.

After achieving her first goal, Kang joined Northrop Grumman, where she was soon

Defying expectations and conventional wisdom has led Michele Kang to the top of her industry.


52 provides business process outsourcing services and call centers to state and federal health agencies.

Kang soon targeted a strategic acquisition, joining forces with Fox Systems, one of the premier companies in the Medicaid consulting space. “They knew everything there is to know about Medicaid and had an impeccable reputation,” she says. After meeting with the founder of Fox Systems, Kang quickly realized that “she bought into my vision.”

Once she completed the merger with Fox Systems, Kang had the major pieces in place to fulfill her vision of leading the transformation in health care IT. Cognosante has expanded rapidly since 2010, growing from 216 employees to more than 1,500. And as the Affordable Care Act, passed by Congress in 2010, moves forward, Cognosante is poised to continue enhancing its leadership position.

Despite her success, Kang considers herself an accidental entrepreneur. “I always thought I would be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company,” she says, adding that the real stress of starting a company “wasn’t worrying about what I’d do to support myself, but in realizing that all these people depended on me.”

tapped to lead its health care business. Under her direction, Northrop Grumman Health Solutions become a leader in health IT and was chosen to help develop a prototype for a new health information network, a key step in President Bush’s health care agenda.

In her role at Northrop Grumman, Kang saw the opportunity for a major transformation of the IT systems used to support health care in the US. But she also knew that this transformation would require companies to embrace new business models.

“The organizations that are in the best position to accelerate these trends,” Kang says, “have negative incentives to be ahead of the curve because they would need to cannibalize their business.” To lead this transformation, she needed to start from the ground up.

While the market crash in 2008 didn’t give her second thoughts, it did raise some significant barriers to financing. “I had wanted to use my home as collateral,” she says, “but the housing market crashed and lending [for homes and new businesses] virtually stopped.”

Selling her Northrop Grumman stock to fund the business, Kang started Cognosante above her home’s garage.

Kang made the “big bet” that the health care industry would need to change because of financial pressures brought on by an aging baby boomer population. She also bet that Medicaid would be the transformation’s “center of gravity.” Explains Kang, “Medicaid is a full-blown health plan, and all 50 states have an infrastructure, so it was the best platform to roll out this transformation.”

As an early mover, Cognosante was well-positioned to take advantage of the market trends and provide services to help state and federal health agencies adopt electronic health care records for their patients. Cognosante also

3 Number of 10-year goals set by Kang

216 People employed by Cognosante in 2010

1,500 People employed by Cognosante today


53finalists

Lawrence JaneskyBasement Systems Inc.Founder and CEOSeymour, CT | Founded: 1990

Larry Janesky, Founder and CEO of Basement Systems, started a home-building business after graduating from high school, constructing 23 homes by age 23.

But when the housing market crashed in the 1980s, Janesky didn’t have to look far for a new business opportunity. Instead, he just lowered his sights, starting a profitable basement-improvement business that has since expanded into a nationwide network of more than 120 dealers in its core waterproofing business. Basement Systems now provides a full range of basement waterproofing, crawl space and structural repair services.

Recognizing the critical role lead contractors play in successful projects, Janesky developed a three-phased program to improve the company’s retention rate for these key employees. As a result, not one lead contractor has left Basement Systems in more than 20 years.

In the years since, Janesky has helped the company secure 31 patents for home-improvement and basement waterproofing technologies.

Dr. Setul G. PatelNeighbors Health System, Inc. Chief Executive OfficerPearland, TX | Founded: 2009

Sometimes a vision is so strong that an entrepreneur decides he can’t wait for everything to fall into place.

That was the case for Dr. Setul Patel, who dreamed of a stand-alone emergency care center that emphasizes personalized care and offers patients an emergency care alternative. In 2009, while the State of Texas was still developing a licensing mechanism for such freestanding emergency rooms, he opened the first Neighbors Emergency Center.

But Dr. Patel and his business partners also had to overcome significant financing barriers, resistance from insurance providers and an ongoing debate in the Texas state legislature.

They persevered, opening an emergency care center staffed by board-certified doctors and featuring around-the-clock coverage. And the company’s culture and focus on taking care of employees has resulted in low turnover rates, which helps to improve the patient experience.

The number of Neighbors Emergency Centers has expanded from 1 to 12 since 2009, with more than 20 centers expected by the end of 2016.

Abhi ShahClutch GroupFounder & CEOWashington, DC | Founded: 2005

After graduating from Harvard Business School, an education paid for by selling Bibles for two summers in Alabama, Abhi Shah was working on a research project that required him to interview general counsels of Fortune 500 companies. During the process, he saw an opportunity to resolve a major conflict of interest. The general counsels for large companies were eager to find cost-effective solutions to their legal issues, whereas large legal firms were structured to bill clients for long hours at high rates.

Realizing that certain legal tasks didn’t require expensive, US-based lawyers, Shah founded Clutch Group as a legal process outsourcing firm to perform legal research and other tasks. When the financial crisis of 2008 forced many law firms to significantly reduce spending, Shah shifted his company’s focus to providing risk and compliance analytics to support compliance with new financial regulations.

This pivot helped Clutch Group not only survive but thrive. The company has since expanded from one office in Bangalore, India, to three continents and most of the world’s leading financial centers.


Category: Services

54hree entrepreneurs were selected as recipients of our 10th annual Venture Capital Award of Excellence, which recognizes the role that venture capital plays in the US economy and in the development of high-growth, high-impact companies.

Venture capitalists provide more than funding; their knowledge and experience help turn entrepreneurs’ vision into reality, lead to the creation of new jobs, and have a profound and growing impact on the US economy as a whole. Investment levels for the first nine months of 2015 reached $54.6 billion, already nearly eclipsing the $57.6 billion invested in all of 2014.

Seventy-three of the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2015 finalists are from venture-backed companies. Over the past two years, these VC-backed companies have grown their revenue by 82% and their workforce by 53%, compared with 32% and 26%, respectively, for the finalists as a whole.

“Venture capital firms help grow our economy by funding disruptive companies whose products and services change the way people work, live and play,” says Jeff Grabow, EY’s US Venture Capital Leader. “Venture capital firms give these young companies advice, guidance and the ability to scale.”

The award is sponsored by SolomonEdwards.

This year’s judges were: Steve Goldberg, PhD, Operating Partner, Venrock; Richard Heitzmann, Founder and Managing Director, FirstMark Capital; Dr. Kim Puloma Kamdar, Partner, Domain Associates, L.L.C.; and Evan Morgan, Partner, Revolution Growth.

Venture Capital Award of Excellence™

54 Exceptional Special Edition November 2015

2015 award winners

55Dr. Richard HeymanAragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.Seragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc.CEOSan Diego, CA | Founded: 2009

Looking for proof that a dedicated scientist can become an innovative entrepreneur? Look no further than Dr. Richard Heyman.

In 2009, during the depths of the global financial crisis, Dr. Heyman founded Aragon Pharmaceuticals to develop new molecular approaches to the treatment of prostate cancer. Despite a lawsuit against the originator of Aragon’s pipeline molecules, The Column Group and OrbiMed Advisors LLC saw the value in Dr. Heyman’s fledgling company, investing $8 million in the first product development round.

Not long afterward, Aragon’s research led to a promising second opportunity. It began developing therapeutics for breast cancer as well as prostate cancer. The second product development round brought in $22 million, with Aisling Capital joining in.

There would be two additional rounds of funding, with $42 million raised in the third round, led by Topspin Partners, and $50 million in the fourth round, led by VenBio LLC.

The parallel strategy — pursuing two therapeutic paths at the same time — increased the company’s burn rate, but the reward proved to be well worth the risk. By carefully selecting sale partners for each line of treatment, Dr. Heyman made sure that both lines would get the development they deserved while delivering solid value to his investors. Aragon and its prostate cancer therapies were sold in August 2013; in less than a year, Seragon Pharmaceuticals, focused on breast cancer therapies, followed suit. In both cases, the new owners are well-placed to bring the therapies to market.

And Dr. Heyman? He’s doing what any entrepreneur would do: raising money for two new ventures. The new companies will focus on diabetes and cancer. Based on experience, patients — and investors — have every reason to be excited.

55

56Marcus RyuGuidewire Software, Inc.Chief Executive Officer, President and Co-FounderFoster City, CA | Founded: 2001

It’s fair to say Guidewire is an improbable success story. The company was founded in late September 2001, when the capital markets were at a low ebb, on the premise of selling an innovative product to a very conservative industry.

Today, Guidewire is a leading software provider to property and casualty insurance companies; in fact, its platform is becoming the industry standard.

Guidewire has separated itself from its competitors by focusing on a single industry; by developing symbiotic relationships with system integration partners, complementary software vendors and, most important, insurance carriers; and by posting a 100% customer satisfaction rate. Guidewire is willing to spend its last dollar to make sure every installation of its software is a success; not coincidentally, every installation has been successful.

Although venture capital was hard to come by just after the 9/11 attacks — Ryu and his partners teamed with friends and family to start the company with $200,000, and the founders went 11 months without drawing any pay — venture capitalists soon stepped up to the plate. Three rounds of financing followed, raising a total of more than $36 million. Bay Partners LLC and USVP Management Company LLC played a role in all three rounds, with Gabriel Venture Partners and Battery Ventures joining in the third round.

Guidewire went public in January 2012 and followed that up with a successful follow-on offering. Marcus and his team plan to continue their focus on the property and casualty industry, using their capital for complementary acquisitions in data, analytics and digital interactions.

With customers in 22 countries, Guidewire has become a truly global presence. Its goal is to become the dominant property and casualty insurance software provider around the world — a result that, given Guidewire’s success, is anything but improbable.

Adam NeumannWeWork Co-Founder and CEONew York, NY | Founded: 2010

Adam Neumann takes the “community” in “business community” seriously. In fact, it’s the basis of WeWork, which provides work space, resources and services to innovators and entrepreneurs in cities across the US.

Neumann and Miguel McKelvey opened the first WeWork location in New York’s Soho neighborhood in 2010. Drawing on his experience at a kibbutz and in the Israeli military, Neumann sought to build an organization that would provide its members with not only physical space but also the camaraderie of a traditional company.

Venture capitalists liked the idea. In five venture capital rounds, WeWork has attracted a total of $568.9 million from investors such as T. Rowe Price, Goldman Sachs, Benchmark Capital and Wellington Management.

The resulting growth — WeWork has 29 offices in 13 cities and 4 countries across the world — has brought its share of challenges, but Adam and his team have proved equal to the test. In fact, the past year marked a milestone for WeWork as the company positioned itself for further growth.

WeWork is more than simply a place where people can work. It truly is a community: more than half of WeWork’s members have collaborated or done business together. And it is virtual as well as physical. By the end of 2015, Neumann expects that the number of members connecting with each other virtually will outnumber those who use its physical workspaces.

In the next several years, Neumann plans to continue expanding WeWork, adding more cities and increasing the membership from today’s 23,000 to more than 100,000. As the company scales, it will be able to offer even more to its members. And its unique “business community” will keep on growing.


Venture Capital Award of Excellence 2015 award winners

58ArgentinaDr. Hugo SigmanGrupo Insud

AustraliaJoe DavenportOwen KerrPepperstone

AustriaDr. Werner ThallnerHermann WaltlFriedrich Paul LindnerEV Group GmbH

BelarusArkadiy DobkinEPAM Systems

BelgiumFernand HutsKarl HutsKatoen Natie

BrazilPedro Lima3corações Group

CanadaLinda HasenfratzLinamar Corporation

ChileRolando CarmonaDrillco Tools S.A.

China — Hong KongKenneth LoCrystal Group

China — MainlandXiu LaiguiXiuzheng Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd.

ColombiaGigliola Aycardi Nicolás LoaizaBodytech

CroatiaAlan Sumina Zoran VucinicNanobit

Czech RepublicVlastislav BrízaKOH-I-NOOR holding a. s.

DenmarkMichael SeifertSitecore Corporation

EstoniaJüri RaidlaRaidla Lejins & Norcous

FinlandDr. Mikko WirénPihlajalinna Group

FranceMohed AltradAltrad Group

GeorgiaMamuka KhazaradzeTBC Bank

GermanyJan BeckersHitFox Group GmbH

HungaryGyörgy WábererWaberer’s International Pte. Co.

IndiaDr. Cyrus PoonawallaSerum Institute of India Ltd.

IndonesiaIwan Setiawan LukmintoPT Sri Rejeki Isman Tbk. (Sritex)

IrelandMark Rodending*

IsraelBenny LandaLanda Group

ItalyOscar FarinettiEataly Distribuzione S.r.l.

JapanMorio SaseHotLand Co., Ltd.

Defying all odds

Award winner_Mohed AltradPresidentAltrad GroupFranceFounded: 1985

Congratulations to our country winners

o say that Mohed Altrad’s early life was harsh would be an understatement. The President of Altrad Group, a world leader in construction equipment, was born in the Syrian Desert to a Bedouin tribe. His mother died shortly after his birth, and he was raised by a grandmother who believed that school was for lazy people — so she forbade him from going.

Altrad went nonetheless, spying on what was going on in the classroom through a hole in the wall until a teacher allowed him to sit in on the lessons. He later studied in Raqqa, Syria, and from there earned a scholarship to continue his studies in France. He went


59JordanDr. Thaer Darwish Khaled Darwish Bashar ZawaidehSindbad Group

KazakhstanAndrey LavrentyevAllurGroup

KenyaDr. Simon GicharuMount Kenya University

KoreaDong Nyung KimHANSAE YES24 HOLDINGS

MalaysiaPeng Ooi GohSilverlake Axis Ltd.

MexicoSergio ArgüellesFINSA

NetherlandsWillem Blijdorp Bert MeulmanB&S International B.V.

New ZealandDan RadcliffeInternational Volunteer HQ

NigeriaJubril Adewale “Wale” TinubuOando PLC

NorwayGeir SkaalaNorsafe AS

PeruRosario BazánDanPer

PolandAdam KrzanowskiNowy Styl Group

RomaniaMircea TudorMB Telecom Ltd. SRL

RussiaAlexey Evgenievich RepikR-Pharm

Saudi ArabiaLateefa AlWaalanYatooq Coffee

SerbiaBožo JankovicEnterijer Jankovic Ltd.

SingaporeDr. Kar WongThe Advanced Group of Companies

Slovak RepublicAlexander Varga Eva StejskalováMicroStep, spol. s r.o.

South AfricaAsher BohbotEOH

SpainErnesto Antolín ArribasGrupo Antolín

SwedenSebastian Siemiatkowski Victor Jacobsson Niklas AdalberthKlarna AB

SwitzerlandOtto Fritz HofstetterOtto Hofstetter AG

TaiwanJames WangSercomm Corporation

United KingdomRosemary SquireAmbassador Theatre Group

United StatesDr. David HungMedivation

UruguayJohn Christian SchandySCHANDY

VietnamVu Phuoc LeHoa Sen Group

on to obtain a PhD in Computer Science and worked for large companies in various roles for about 15 years.

But in his heart, Altrad had always been an entrepreneur.So in 1985, together with an English partner, he bought

a nearly bankrupt maker of scaffolding to form the basis of Altrad Group. Thirty years on, the company is a world leader in cement mixers and the European leader in scaffolding and wheelbarrows. The Altrad Group today employs 17,000 people in 110 subsidiaries around the world.

Altrad places the individual at the center of his company and advocates multiculturalism and respect for diversity. He sleeps very little, so by night he writes books. His partly autobiographical novel, Badawi, is now taught in some French schools as part of the literature curriculum. In March 2015, Forbes magazine devoted six pages to Altrad, who has become a member of the Forbes Billionaires List.

At the 2015 award ceremony in Monaco, EY Global Chairman & CEO Mark A. Weinberger called Altrad an inspiration to

entrepreneurs around the world. As Rebecca MacDonald, Executive Chair of Just Energy Group and Chair of the World Entrepreneur Of The Year judging panel, said, “Mohed has built a hugely successful, fast-growing international business having

overcome a humble and very challenging upbringing. The judges were impressed by his ability to build and sustain growth over 30 years and by his humility and character.”

Altrad places great emphasis on sharing with his employees his own personal values: loyalty and integrity, trust and passion, respect for differences and cultures, humanism and the quest to excel.

“I’m so honored to receive this prestigious award, especially as there was such strong competition from such outstanding entrepreneurs around the world,” Altrad said. “I would like to dedicate this award to my family and all the people within the organization, without whom the success of Altrad Group would not be possible.”

“Mohed has built a hugely successful, fast‑growing international business having overcome a humble and very challenging upbringing.”

2,600 Number of people employed by Altrad Group

100 Number of subsidiaries around the world

EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ 2015


60 Proud national sponsor of theEY Entrepreneur Of The Year® awards since 1997.

With research, support, and education for entrepreneurs, theKauffman Foundation is devoted to putting entrepreneurship on the map. We seek to advance the state of startups from coast to coast and everywhere in between.

Congratulations to all EY Entrepreneur Of The Year candidates for creating jobs, growing companies, and strengthening the economy of the United States of Entrepreneurship.

61Growing to scale

here’s nothing like a good business idea, and women have them in abundance. In the US alone, they start companies at one-and-a-half times the rate of men and are at least half-owners of nearly 50% of privately held firms. Yet fewer companies started by women scale up to the degree they could.

We know the potential of women-owned businesses is limitless — if they have access to the right support, talent and knowledge. That’s why we started the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program eight years ago in the US — to help founding women CEOs connect with the advice and resources they need to accelerate and sustain growth. And it’s why we have since expanded its range to reach women entrepreneurs in more than 30 countries.

As both an annual competition and an executive leadership program, Entrepreneurial Winning Women identifies business owners with scalable companies and invites them to join a community of their peers while providing access to EY leaders as well as an influential network of entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors and advisors. Program participants also meet potential business partners, customers and suppliers. This accelerated access typically takes years to achieve, if it is achievable at all.

We build upon our time-tested five ways to win,

a distillation of what all entrepreneurs need to do to scale: think big and be bold; build a public profile; work on the business, not in the business; establish key advisory networks; and evaluate financing for expansion. The entrepreneurs also benefit from learning how to stay true to their purpose and to evolve in their leadership roles as their companies scale.

The results are outstanding, with participation in the program spurring substantial growth. Companies typically see a significant increase in revenue after their leaders are selected. A recent study indicates that, as a group, participant companies’ total revenues were 63% higher since joining the program, and individual participants average 20% revenue growth annually.

The members of the North America Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2015 are revolutionizing point-of-sale systems and developing tools to access and measure the power of the brain. They’ve redesigned the luxury spa and figured out how to reduce hiring cycle times. They are listed among the fastest-growing companies in the US and Canada and stand at the helms of some of the most promising businesses in the world.

Imagine an economy where women-led companies grow to their full potential. We can, and so can the women on the following pages. Congratulations to them all!

EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™

The Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2015 is improving the way

we live and work.


62

Meet the Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2015

Claudia MirzaAkorbiPlano, TX Founded: 2005

Nikki BaruaBeyondCuriousLos Angeles, CA Founded: 2011

Jody Greenstone MillerBusiness Talent GroupPacific Palisades, CA Founded: 2007

Susan CatalanoCognition Therapeutics (CogRx)Pittsburgh, PA Founded: 2007

Aneela ZaibEmergiTEL Inc.Richmond Hill, Ontario Founded: 2006

Rachel MielkeHillberg & BerkRegina, Saskatchewan Founded: 2007

Ariel GartenInteraXon Inc.Toronto, Ontario Founded: 2009

Leah Garrad‑ColeLove Child OrganicsWhistler, British Columbia Founded: 2011

Alissa Bayermilk + honeyAustin, TX Founded: 2006

Lisa FalzoneRevel SystemsSan Francisco, CA Founded: 2010

Michelle VondrasekVon Technologies, LLCOakbrook, IL Founded: 2006

Anne WagnerWaveStrike, LLCCrownsville, MD Founded: 2011

$136m Amount in sales this group generated in 2014

1,400 Number of workers this group provided jobs for

Since it was founded a decade ago, Akorbi has evolved from a home-based translation business into a multimillion-dollar company providing language, technology and staffing services around the world. Its

success has been in leveraging technology and developing business processes to simplify the translation system, reduce costs and increase speed-to-market. The company has been growing aggressively in the past few years and counts among its clients the US Department of Agriculture, the US Department of Homeland Security and many FORTUNE 500 companies.

BeyondCurious, an innovation agency specializing in mobile experiences, aims to help market leaders and disrupters innovate better and faster than their competition. In the few years since it was founded,

BeyondCurious has established itself as a significant force in Los Angeles, with a premier, recognizable client roster that spans the market. It was recently voted Boutique Agency of the Year by marketing collaborative thinkLA. BeyondCurious’ philosophy is “Innovation @ Speed,” employing Silicon Valley techniques for rapid results.

Business Talent Group is a marketplace that brings businesses and top talent together outside of the traditional full-time framework. The company, with its roster of more than 4,000 professionals,

has now served 25% of the FORTUNE 1000 as well as top equity firms and major nonprofits. Business Talent Group was recently named by Forbes as one of the most promising companies in America. In this high-growth emerging market, the company has grown over 60% annually for the past three years.

CogRx is a small molecule therapeutics company focused on the discovery and development of drugs for neurodegenerative diseases. Its research into blocking toxic proteins that cause progressive memory

loss has resulted in a lead program in Alzheimer’s disease set to begin clinical trials by the end of 2015. There are currently no drugs on the market that halt the progression of the disease, and the company is poised to become a market leader.

emergiTEL is a full-solution provider for staffing, outsourcing, consulting and training services in the Canadian telecom and IT marketplace. The company operates as an extension of its clients’ human

resources structure by sourcing hard-to-find IT personnel and partnering with clients for a hire’s entire life cycle. In a short period, the company has become a market leader, and based on projected job growth in the IT sector and among independent contractors, emergiTEL is well-placed to continue its expansion.

Since its founding, Hillberg & Berk has grown into one of Canada’s foremost luxury jewelry brands, sold at 25 retailers across the country, online and in the company’s two stores in Regina. Its designs

have been spotted on Michelle Obama, Carrie Underwood and Celine Dion, and in 2013 Rachel Mielke was commissioned to design a brooch for Queen Elizabeth II. The company differentiates itself by being a female-driven and female-focused company, giving a minimum 2.5% of profits to charities that benefit women around the world.

Thank you to our distinguished panel of judges who worked tirelessly to identify the best among a field of exceptional applicants: Mike Cohen, Managing General Partner, VG Partners; Sarah Kauss, Founder and CEO, S’well (and a member of the Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2014); Christina Lampe‑Önnerud, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Cadenza Innovation, LLC (formerly Founder and CEO, Boston‑Power); and Steve Streit, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Green Dot Corporation.


63Claudia MirzaAkorbiPlano, TX Founded: 2005

Nikki BaruaBeyondCuriousLos Angeles, CA Founded: 2011

Jody Greenstone MillerBusiness Talent GroupPacific Palisades, CA Founded: 2007

Susan CatalanoCognition Therapeutics (CogRx)Pittsburgh, PA Founded: 2007

Aneela ZaibEmergiTEL Inc.Richmond Hill, Ontario Founded: 2006

Rachel MielkeHillberg & BerkRegina, Saskatchewan Founded: 2007

Ariel GartenInteraXon Inc.Toronto, Ontario Founded: 2009

Leah Garrad‑ColeLove Child OrganicsWhistler, British Columbia Founded: 2011

Alissa Bayermilk + honeyAustin, TX Founded: 2006

Lisa FalzoneRevel SystemsSan Francisco, CA Founded: 2010

Michelle VondrasekVon Technologies, LLCOakbrook, IL Founded: 2006

Anne WagnerWaveStrike, LLCCrownsville, MD Founded: 2011

$136m Amount in sales this group generated in 2014

1,400 Number of workers this group provided jobs for

InteraXon launched as a service-oriented company producing brain-sensing experiences for companies such as Microsoft. In 2014, the company’s signature product Muse, a headband

that measures the electrical activity of the brain using EEG sensors, entered the market. Muse sends brain-fitness information to a smartphone or tablet app that can be used to promote relaxation and focus. More than 75 institutions now use Muse as a tool to work with PTSD, ADHD, pain management and anxiety.

Love Child Organics was founded in 2011 to offer parents an organic and nutritious alternative to the ready-made food for babies and young children commonly available in stores. The company’s mission

is not only to leave out the “bad stuff” (preservatives, fillers and sugars), but also to include as many nutritionally dense ingredients as possible. Love Child Organics started selling in Canada in 2013 and a year later in the US. Its products are currently available in more than 2,000 stores in Canada and 1,500 in the US.

milk + honey is an award-winning day spa and salon, with five Texas locations and another under construction. It is also a brand of organic bath and body products sold in its salons and at retailers

such as Whole Foods Market, with which it has one in-store co-branded spa. The company’s focus is on creating a relaxing, design-forward environment, with passionate staff and all natural, organic ingredients. It was recently voted Best Spa in The Austin Chronicle Best of Austin Readers Poll.

Revel Systems has created a point-of-sale platform using cloud-based iPad technology to replace the clunky, inefficient cash registers of the past. Extending beyond the customer transaction, the

Revel platform acts as a “central nervous system” for businesses, offering a full suite of features from payment processing to personnel scheduling and inventory management. The system can be tailored across industries, and its 10,000 terminals so far deployed are with companies such as Goodwill, Little Caesars Pizza and the San Jose Giants.

Von Technologies is an IT services corporation focused on network infrastructure, unified communications, wireless networks and cabling. Its services portfolio encompasses the network life cycle

from planning and consultation, to design and deployment, to optimization and support. The company prides itself on being creative, nimble and flexible based on customer needs. Clients include AT&T, Hilton Hotels and Ford Motor Company. It was recognized in 2015 by the Women Presidents’ Organization as one of the 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies in America.

WaveStrike provides custom software application development services to the intelligence community and the US Department of Defense. Its software analytics, cloud solutions and cybersecurity

applications aid its clients in the defense of national security. The company was conceived in part to bridge a gender gap in a predominantly male industry, and since its founding four years ago, it has already made an impact and experienced significant growth.

This extraordinary group of 12 entrepreneurs averages $11.3 million in sales and 115 employees.


EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women

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EY is proud to support the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in its efforts to help young people achieve their potential through education and entrepreneurship. In addition to raising more than $1m for youth scholarships, EY professionals sit on NFTE boards, mentor students and judge business plan competitions.

Investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs — it’s one way we’re building a better working world.

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We work with the world’s leading organizations to create places that amplify the performance of their people, teams and enterprise.

65Find out how EY’s 7 Drivers of Growth can help your business grow from challenger to leader. ey.com/acceleratinggrowth #BetterQuestions

What’s the right path to accelerate your growth journey?

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Join us next year at the EY Strategic Growth Forum® as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® Program. The 2016 gala will be the culmination of a year of highlighting great entrepreneurs of the past, present and future — those who have had an impact on how we live our lives, build our communities and operate our businesses.

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