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MWCN Names Amy Rees Anderson 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year

MediConnect Global CEO, Amy Rees Anderson, was selected in April by the MountainWest Capital Network as the Entrepreneur of the Year for 2008, becoming the first woman to be chosen for the honor.

MediConnect Global is a leader in online medical record retrieval. Anderson is responsible for all aspects of the MediConnect business, including the overall management and strategic direction of the company. Under her direction, MediConnect launched an aggressive domestic and international expansion, and posted three consecutive years of record sales growth more than doubling revenues year over year. As an entrepreneur and business leader she has raised more than $50 million in capital, is a well-respected public speaker, and teaches courses on entrepreneurship at several Universities.

Each year, MountainWest Capital Network recognizes a Utah business executive who has built a successful Utah-based company, inspiring others to participate in the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship. Some past recipients of the award include: Kirk Benson (Headwaters); Dr. Ted Stanley (ZARS); Ken Wooley (Extra Space Storage); Dr. Hunter Jackson (NPS Pharmaceuticals); David Evans (Evans & Southerland Computer Corp.); Ray Noorda (Novell); Dale Ballard (Ballard Medical Products); and Dr. Dinesh Patel (TheraTech).

"MWCN has never recognized a more deserving entrepreneur than Amy Rees Anderson," says Devin Thorpe, president of the MountainWest Capital Network and managing director of the USTAR Technology Outreach and Innovation Program. "Amy epitomizes the values we seek to recognize in an entrepreneur, creating a successful business, sharing the wealth and giving back to the community."

 

U of U is No. 2 in Spin-off Companies

The Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) that ranks public and private research institutions throughout the country released its 2006 numbers in February listing the University of Utah as No. 2 in the nation behind No. 1 MIT in the number of new companies formed from university-developed technology.

In 2006, the U of U spun out 20 companies compared to 23 companies from MIT that same year. While AUTM hasn't released 2007 numbers, the U of U is clearly on track to best its 2006 showing.

The No. 2 placement in 2006 is a result of the U of U's revamped technology commercialization pipeline. Thanks to that pipeline and legislation passed by the Utah State Legislature allowing universities to hold equity stakes in companies, we should expect to see increasing numbers of new companies formed from university technology in the future. As USTAR ramps up it will add even more fuel to the spin-off fire.

With the governor's blessing, the vision of U of U Vice President of Technology Venture Development Jack Brittain, and the direction of Technology Commercialization Office Director Brian Cummings, the new pipeline now in place offers components to vet new ideas, study the feasibility of taking certain technologies to market and work with private funding sources to launch new companies around university-developed technology.

 

Fusion-io Closes $19 Million in Series A Funding

Salt Lake City-based Fusion-io recently picked up $19 million in an A round led by New Enterprise Associates.

Founded in 2006, Fusion-io, has reinvented storage and storage architecture using new advances in solid state design and manufacturing. The funds from this round will be used to manufacture the company's first product, the ioDrive — a PCIe Card that delivers the power of a storage area network (SAN) at a fraction of the size and power.

 

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Launch - Summer 2008

 

 

For the full "digital magazine" version of Spring 2008, visit: www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/growutah/launch_2008summer/