The Arizona Technology Council hosted its 10th annual Governor’s Celebration of Innovation Thursday evening at the Phoenix Convention Center to honor Arizona’s pioneers in technological advancement.
The theme for this year’s event was “A Decade of Honoring Technology in Arizona.”
House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, District 24, plus nine other legislators were named the Tech Ten legislators of 2013. Alongside these legislators, Speaker of the House Andy Tobin, District 1, and Sen. Bob Worsley, District 25, were named the Outstanding Tech Representative of the Year and Outstanding Tech Senator of the Year, respectively.
“This is a great honor,” Worsley said during the awards ceremony. “Especially for a rookie, this is the first year I’ve served in the legislature as a senator. I’m truly a reluctant senator. I’m a citizen-legislator; this was not on my bucket list to serve.”
A technology showcase opened the event, with approximately 38 technology organizations displaying exhibits including CyrusOne Inc., Cummings Engineering Corp., Telesphere Communication Inc., Yolia Health Inc. and Strongwatch Corp.
Following the showcase, the awards program began with an introduction by Robin Sewell, host of the Arizona Highways television series, and remarks from Steven G. Zylstra, the president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council.
“The Governor’s Celebration of Innovation is dedicated to honoring the technology sector’s greatest achievements and the individuals who make them possible,” Zylstra said.
The awards presented included the OneNeck IT Services Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year and the William F. McWhortor Community Service Leader of the Year.
Tempe-based Insight Enterprises’ Co-Founders Timothy Crown and his brother Eric Crown were awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.
According to Sewell, voting for the Lifetime Achievement Award was open to the technology community of Arizona, and the Crown brothers received more than half of the votes.
“When I hear about Apple coming up, I hear about the wonderful things Apple is doing,” Timothy Crown said, referring to the Nov. 4 announcement from Gov. Jan Brewer and the Arizona Commerce Authority about Apple’s new manufacturing plant that is expected to be built in Mesa. “It makes me feel good, but it makes me feel even better that all the people in this room, all of us in the last 20 to 30 years, we’ve created the environment that an Apple computer wants to come to.”
The Thomas R. Brown Foundations were named the William F. McWhortor Community Service Leader of the Year. Sarah Smallhouse, the president of the organization, accepted the award. The organization operates an economics in education program with the goal of increasing teachers’ and students’ understanding of economics.
Telesphere’s Chief Executive Officer Clark Peterson was awarded the Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year Award for leadership qualities such as entrepreneurship, community involvement and management expertise.
“This is really deserving of the Telesphere team,” Peterson said. “I’ve had the chance to be a part of three or four small companies that became very large, and I’ve seen in all of those that it’s really about the people, and that if you can instill in them the vision and the yearning to accomplish that vision, then they will do the rest.”
Contact the reporter at Hunter.Marrow@asu.edu
