FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 12, 2007
For more information contact:

Denny Curran, Executive Editor
Wyoming Business Report
Phone: 307.638.3200

Tom Lacock, Senior Marketing and Public Relations Specialist
Wyoming Business Council
Phone: 307.777.2834

Wyoming innovators to receive awards at BRAVO! Banquet tonight

CHEYENNE – Award winners in five categories will be announced Thursday night at the BRAVO Entrepreneurship Awards held at the Parkway Plaza in Casper. The BRAVO! Entrepreneurship Awards honor entrepreneurs from around Wyoming and this year’s banquet was held in conjunction with the Wyoming Heritage Foundation’s Economic Outlook Forum.

The 2007 Bravo! Entrepreneur Awards are sponsored by the Wyoming Business Report, the Wyoming Business Council, the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce Executives, the Wyoming Business Alliance, the Heritage Foundation and the Wyoming Economic Development Association.

Awards were given in the following categories:

Bravo! Entrepreneur Award – Winners of these awards demonstrate the best traits of entrepreneurship, including vision, drive, perseverance and willingness to take risks. Six winners statewide were named from each of the Wyoming Business Council’s six regions of the state.

Winners of the regional Entrepreneurship Awards included:

Southeast: Dr. Keith Carron (Laramie): Dr. Carron was one of two University of Wyoming chemistry professors who spun off DeltaNu in 1997. DeltaNu manufactures ready-to-use, low-cost, high performance Ramen Spectrometers, which illuminate material with lasers and then identify the materials and its potential hazards. DeltaNu, founded by Carron, fellow UW Chemistry Professor Robert Corcoran and entrepreneur Gene Watson, was recently acquired by Intevac of Santa Clara, Calif. but will remain in Laramie.

Southwest: Cindy Johnson (Green River): Johnson’s company, Mobilitat, provides computer-aided dispatching and tracking systems for small and mid-sized transit systems around the world. Johnson started the firm out of her Green River home less than 10 years ago with $3,000 cash and has since grown the business to serve customers in 29 states and several foreign countries.

West Central: Ward + Blake Architects (Jackson): Tom Ward and Mitch Blake have been recognized by the American Institute of Architects and their innovative designs have been featured in national publications such as Architectural Digest; Western Design and Interiors; Mountain Life and Big Sky Journal among others. The firm, which opened in Jackson in 1996, employs 12 and has made a name for itself by exploring new materials like rammed earth, sod roofs and gun-blue steel.

Northwest: Ric Asherman (Cody): Asherman started Cody Labs, a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, in 2000 and has grown it into a company which employs 45 and produces the active ingredient for various generic medicines and drugs. The company is also awaiting federal permission to add oncology medication ingredients to their product line.

East Central region: Alisha Collins (Casper): Collins publishes Tidbits in Casper as well as a Glenrock-Douglas-Wheatland edition. Collins’ firm prints almost 7,000 copies weekly of the tabloid which is filled with syndicated material and ads zoned to the specific areas of circulation. Since purchasing Casper’s Tidbits franchise in 2003, Collins has taken Tidbits from an 8-page publication to what is routinely a 28-page, full color production.

Northeast Region: Brian Worthan (Gillette): Worthan started Visionary Communications in his basement in Dec. 1994. The firm, which provides internet access to more than 20,000 customers in 11 states has since grown to 24 employees. The company has expanded rapidly through acquisitions and a focus on providing internet access in underserved, rural areas.

Lifetime Achievement Award – Winners of the Lifetime Achievement Award demonstrate a long career of commitment to Wyoming’s growth and well-being of its business community. Among the criteria is a minimum of 10 years as a Wyoming entrepreneur.

This year’s winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award is Homer Scott of Sheridan. Scott’s family established the First Interstate Bank of Commerce, which became Interstate Bank in 1984. Scott served as chairman of the board from 1980 until he retired in 2004. During that time the bank grew from a single facility with $20 million in deposits to 58 branches in Wyoming and Montana with $4 billion in assets. In addition, Scott developed the Powder Horn golfing community between Sheridan and Buffalo.

Emerging Entrepreneur – Winners of this award demonstrate the best traits of entrepreneurship, including vision, drive, perseverance and willingness to take risks. The award is for businesses started within the last three years.

Harvey Jackson of Homes & More Magazine in Gillette is tabbed as this year’s Emerging Entrepreneur. Jackson’s real estate periodical went from nearly closing three times in the first three months to a 64-page publication printed monthly. Currently, Homes & More has 80 advertisers and features a distribution of over 15,000.

Governor’s Award for Economic Development – This award recognizes businesses, organizations, communities and individuals who contribute to significant economic growth in Wyoming. This nominee has been instrumental in creating new jobs and increasing tax revenues in Wyoming.

Randy Bruns of Cheyenne-Laramie County Economic Development Corporation (LEADS) won this year’s Governor’s Award for Economic Development after a two-year period which has seen LEADS help land the new Wal-Mart Distribution Center and persuade the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to build a $530 million supercomputer just outside of Cheyenne.

IQ Award – This award honors the Innovation Quotient among Wyoming companies and seeks to honor those products or services that have demonstrated a high degree of innovation with a strong market potential.

Pharmaceutical Compounding Specialists of Casper took the IQ award for the state of Wyoming. PCS custom compounds medicines for individual orders according to weight, allergic reactions and special needs. It then provides them in alternative forms, such as creams, gels, suspensions, capsules, gummy candies and drops. PCS is owned by pharmacists Richard Johnson, Steve Logan and Scott Soulek of Casper.

For more information on the BRAVO awards, contact Wyoming Business Report Editor Denny Curran at 307.638.3200. Photos of the winners and the banquet will be available the evening of the event for the media. They can be obtained by contacting Tom Lacock of the Wyoming Business Council at 307.631.0958.

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.wyomingbusiness.org.

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