News

Five Arizona businesses win Spirit of Enterprise Awards

The Spirit of Enterprise awards celebrate ethics, energy and excellence in entrepreneurship. This year’s winners come from a variety of industries, and they’ve all had a great impact on the Valley. The Spirit of Enterprise Awards are just one focus of the Center for Entrepreneurship, which helps hundreds of businesses each year. 

Rebecca Ferriter

2017-11-17

TEMPE, Ariz., (Nov. 17, 2017) — The Spirit of Enterprise awards celebrate ethics, energy and excellence in entrepreneurship. This year’s winners come from a variety of industries, and they’ve all had a great impact on the Valley.

“This year’s theme for the Spirit of Enterprise, ‘Building the Legacy’ is how entrepreneurship can be applied to each and every one of us,” said Amy Hillman, dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, which hosts the event. “We’re honored to celebrate some of the most passionate and compassionate entrepreneurs in our community. To be recognized as a Spirit of Enterprise finalist or winner means these founders and leaders are not only building their business, but building their communities.”

The 2017 Spirit of Enterprise award winners

• The Special Achievement in Entrepreneurship Award: U-Haul International Inc., a Phoenix-based do-it-yourself moving and self-storage company with more than 21,000 locations across North America.
• The Social Impact Award: SwimKids USA, a Mesa-based swim school that helps babies and older children learn how to swim and float to prevent drowning. 
• The Charles Hahn Foundation Emerging Enterprise Award: EndoVantage, a Scottsdale-based developer in visionary computer simulations for surgical pre-treatment planning and medical device development to improve current practices.
• The Gary L. Trujillo Minority Enterprise Award, sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona: Bayless Health Care, a Phoenix-based health care company that provides family medicine, behavioral health, addiction treatment and social health care services. 
• The BBVA Compass Innovation in Entrepreneurship Award: Emailage, a Chandler-based firm whose software-as-a-service platform provides global fraud prevention and identity verification using email address scoring. 
• National Founder of the Year: Heidi Jannenga, co-founder and president of WebPT, the leading electronic medical records software and practice management solution for physical, occupational and speech therapists.

The W. P. Carey Spirit 2017 Students:

The Center for Entrepreneurship works with multiple student ventures throughout the year. Two students who won live-pitch competitions and received funding for their ventures were invited to showcase their ideas at the awards luncheon, held at The Westin Kierland Resort in Scottsdale:

• Trevor Heder, co-founder of BilliBars a detachable handlebar system for bicycles
• Daniel Campbell is the founder of ReneGait a device to help individuals with spinal cord injuries restore mobility

 

The Spirit of Enterprise Awards are just one focus of the Center for Entrepreneurship, which helps hundreds of businesses each year. The center offers companies the chance to recruit and meet with top student talent, while also allowing students to get hands-on business-creation experience. The center is self-funded and utilizes community sponsorships to sustain its activities. For more information, visit  wpcarey.asu.edu/entrepreneurship.

About the W. P. Carey School of Business

The W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University is one of the top- ranked and largest business schools in the United States. The school is internationally regarded for its research productivity and its distinguished faculty members, including a Nobel Prize winner. Students come from more than 100 countries and include over 50 National Merit Scholars. For more information, please visit wpcarey.asu.edu.

For more information / Media contact:
Rebecca Ferriter, W. P. Carey School of Business
Rebecca.Ferriter@asu.edu
310-871-9041

Entrepreneurship Awards W. P. Carey prestige News release