Philly EY Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist Pool Is Tech Heavy for the First Time

A few tech community EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2017 finalists for Greater Philadelphia. Clockwise L to R: Andrew Voudouris & Steve Voudouris of Turn5; Darren Hill of WebLinc; Yasmine Mustafa of ROAR for Good; David Lindsay of Oncora Medical; and Felicite Moorman of StratIS. 

Now in its 31st year, the coveted Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards boasts another impressive list of entrepreneurs, and in Philadelphia, the pool of finalists serves as a barometer of the city’s innovation landscape.

For 2017, 45 percent of the 45 finalists are in the tech sector, the largest representation of the industry yet. “We’ve seen a big shift this year to the tech sector,” Corinne Good, EY Entrepreneur of the Year program co-director for the Greater Philadelphia region told Philadelphia magazine, “And we believe the pool of finalists is directly connected to the activity and focus that our city government has on our startup and entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Tech companies represented on the list include the Malvern-based after market auto parts e-commerce company Turn5, precision radiation oncology software platform Oncora Medical, and digital commerce solutions company WebLinc. This increased representation of tech entrepreneurs on the list makes sense. The region has created 25,000 new tech jobs since the early 2000s, and we’re likely to see as many as 44,000 new tech jobs in the region over the next decade, according to a new report from the Economy League.  

Across the board, the list also includes entrepreneurs from companies of various stages from pre-revenue and mid-sized firms to billion dollar public companies that have had significant success, Good said. This year also represents a boost in representation for women and people of color. About 35 percent of the nominees are female and 18 percent of the group are people of color.

From the finalist group of 45, there will be 12 winners for 12 categories total including “financial services,” “retail and consumer products,” “life sciences,” and “energy, cleantech and natural resources.” According to Good, the judges will evaluate the nominees according to their company’s financial success and growth, the uniqueness of their idea, the challenges their company has faced and the impact the entrepreneur has on the Greater Philadelphia community.

The local winners have the opportunity to advance and participate at the national level in the same categories. In previous years, a number of Philly entrepreneurs have won on the national stage, beating out 24 other regions across the country. In 2015, SEI CEO Alfred West won nationally for financial services and Mark Casale, CEO of Essent Group Ltd. Won the same award in 2014. AMETEK, Inc. CEO Frank Hermance won the national award for distribution and manufacturing. In the last decade, Philly’s top categories on the national stage have been technology, financial services, distribution & manufacturing, and energy & cleantech.

Philly’s 2017 finalists are listed below. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on June 7th.

1. Joseph Panebianco | AnnieMac Home Mortgage
2. Bryan Dori | Archer
3. Manik Arora | Arora Engineers, Inc.
4. Michael Carter | BizEquity
5. Ken Davies | City Fitness
6. Ned Moore | Clutch Holdings, LLC
7. Claudia Timbo | CompanyVoice, LLC
8. Cosmo DeNicola | Cosmo DeNicola Companies
9. Anurag Singh | Education Management Solutions, LLC
10. Bruce Aronow | eLocal.com
11. Gene Schriver | GLOBO Language Services
12. Jason Halpern | Gridless Power Corporation
13. Pat Murphy | Gridless Power Corporation
14. Jaron Rhodes | HJ Laboratories, LLC
15. David Jaindl | Jaindl Farms
16. Brian Fitzpatrick | LoanLogics, Inc.
17. Sam Wolf | LuckyVitamin
18. Marie Capp | Matt & Marie’s
19. Justin Sapolsky | Matt & Marie’s
20. Geoff Gross | Medical Guardian
21. Chris Annas | Meridian Bank
22. Morgan Berman | MilkCrate
23. Rob Almond Jr. | NEST
24. Dawn Zier | Nutrisystem, Inc.
25. David Lindsay | Oncora Medical Inc.
26. Dr. Lawrence Goren | Onsite Innovations
27. Bob Platzer | P.J.W. Restaurant Group
28. Bruce Lerrner | PeroxyChem LLC
29. Angelo Perryman | Perryman Building & Construction Services
30. Jess Edelstein | PiperWai LLC
31. Sarah Ribner | PiperWai LLC
32. Anthony Gold | ROAR for Good LLC
33. Yasmine Mustafa | ROAR for Good LLC
34. Dr. Ray Quinlan | Sallie Mae
35. Nick Bayer | Saxbys
36. Felicite Moorman | StratIS
37. Jagath Wanninayake | Suvoda LLC
38. Conor Delaney | The Good Life Companies
39. Eileen McDonnell | The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company
40. Chris Pappas | Trinseo
41. Andrew Voudouris | Turn5, Inc.
42. Steven Voudouris | Turn5, Inc.
43. Darren Hill | WebLinc
44. Ameet Shah | Wodify
45. Doug Claffey | WorkplaceDynamics, LLC

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