Hall of Fame, Innovation Awards salute 2011 tech pioneers

Names that stand out in the annals of technology include: Nikola Tesla, Philo Farnsworth and Jack Kilby. The Idaho Technology Council (ITC), Stoel Rives and Kickstand would like to add a few more: Jack Lemley and Steve Hodges are ITC’s Hall of Fame inductees for 2011. They will be honored at an upcoming gala event, along with 11 finalists for the Idaho Innovation Awards.

ITC Hall of Fame

“Exceptional innovation distinguishes the career work of Steve Hodges and Jack Lemley,” Rich Raimondi, chairman of the Idaho Technology Council, said.

Lemley’s credentials include: CEO of the English Channel Tunnel project – also known as the Chunnel – and vice president of Morrison-Knudsen (MK), president and CEO of Blount, Inc. He headed construction on projects such as Century Freeway in Los Angeles (and other major freeway developments across California), Seattle’s Interstate-90 and Interstate-5 interchange, the
Ok Tedi Gold and Copper Mine Development in Papua, New Guinea, the $300 million Trans-Panama Pipeline, Colombia’s $1.9 billion Cerrejon coal mine, railroad and Caribbean Sea port facility and the $1.3 billion King Khalid Military City project.

Hodges came to Idaho fresh out of the University of Texas, when Hewlett-Packard hired him as an electrical engineer in its disc memory division. After a six-year stint at HP, Hodges left and founded Computrol. Hodges sold Computrol in 1987 for $15.5 million and moved into energy. In the last decade and a half, he has founded three Boise-based companies that provide products for electric utilities – Design Concepts International (DCI), sold for $15 million in 1997; Telemetric, sold for $11.7 million in 2009; and M2M (Machine to Machine) Communications, sold to EnerNOC in 2011 for $33.3 million.

The Idaho Innovation Awards

This is the sixth year for the Idaho Innovation Awards, which recognize innovative products, companies and professionals. This year there are 11 finalists in four categories ranging from a web-based business management system (Recall InfoLink) to a new patented process for potatoes.

The categories and finalists are:

Commercialized Innovation of the Year – Cuff Repair Plate by Shoulder Options, Inc., Recall InfoLink by Recall Infolink, Inc. and Sports Concussion Alert System by Ambient Sensors, LLC.

Early-Stage Innovation of the Year – Alzheimer Protein Antibody by Boise State University, Nanospring Enhanced Osseointegration of Implants by University of Idaho and Potato Products with Enhanced Resistant Starch by University of Idaho.

Innovative Company of the Year – BlueMesh Networks, Meridian and PakSense, Boise.

Innovator of the Year – Norris Krueger, founder of Entrepreneurship Northwest, Sharon Oberleitner, vice president of clinical affairs at Behavior Imaging Solutions and Carl Thornfeldt, M.D., president, CEO and chief scientific officer of Episciences, Inc.

Winners in each category will be announced at the event.

Read about the finalists, award winners and feature stories on the Hall of Fame inductees in a special magazine published as an insert in the Oct. 21 issue of the IBR.

2011 Hall of Fame, Innovation Awards

The second annual 2011 Hall of Fame Celebration, featuring the Idaho Innovation Awards, will be presented by Stoel Rives and Kickstand, Wednesday, Oct. 26, 5 – 9 p.m. at the Boise Centre.

Tickets are $75 for non-members, $55 for members; tables are available. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to www.idahotechcouncil.org.