2016 Blue Diamond Awards – Winners Announced!
More than 300 business, technology, educational and community leaders gathered to celebrate the best of Charlotte’s technology innovation and application at the annual IT-oLogy Charlotte Blue Diamond Awards. All 27 category finalists were recognized with the winners revealed.
Congratulations to the 2016 nine category winners:
Business Value – Corporate: Ally Bank, New Online Banking Platform,
Business Value – Medium: Avidxchange
Business Value – Small: ProductStack
Business Value – Non-Profit: Eliminate Digital Divide (E2D)
Cool Innovation: Ekos Brewmaster
Community Outreach: Charlotte SIM
Human Capital: UNC Charlotte College of Computing and Informatics
IT Entrepreneur: Brian Kelly, CloudGenera
Student Innovator: Tom Nguyen, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools
Other category finalists included: AddShoppers, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools – Rapping Math Teacher – Kristy Johnson, City of Charlotte, CloudGerna, Corporate Information Technologies, DealCloud, Jackson Styers/ Lizbeth Rangel Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, Keith Luedeman, goodmortgage.com; Mark Mahoney, Jackrabbit Technologies, North Highland, Premier Inc – SOLR and Premier Inc – HVBP, Scott Bowman – Charlotte Latin School.
Thank you Blue Diamond Sponsors
Thank you Blue Diamond Volunteers
Blue Diamond Awards Delivers Memorial Tribute to Dr. Magdy Attia
At the Blue Diamond Awards on March 1, the SIM Charlotte Region delivered a posthumous tribute to Dr. Magdy Attia, Chair for the Council of Deans and Dean of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) College at Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Charlotte’s technology community lost Dr. Attia on October 8, 2015. The first ever Blue Diamond Tribute Award will be presented to Mrs. Mona Amin-Gergis, Dr. Attia’s wife, and Mrs. Vera Boulos, Dr. Attia’s daughter.
A James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at JCSU, Dr. Magdy Attia was the founding chair of the university’s computer science and engineering program, and the founding director of the Technology Center. He was the 2006 recipient of the Dr. Richard Neel Career Achievement Award of the Information Technology Charlotte of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, the recipient of the Nations Bank Par Excellence Teaching award and the Carolinas Associate Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Carolinas. JCSU has been ranked in the top 1% in graduating African-Americans in computer science and information systems for the last seven years.
“Dr. Attia was a highly-valued contributor to the Charlotte IT community,” said Elizabeth Austin, President of the Charlotte chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM), CIO of Systems Maintenance Services and IT-oLogy Charlotte Board member. “He was regarded for his expertise in technology and science as well as his vision to the possibilities they could provide.”