- Innovation Awards Team
2017 Selection Committee
A “Selection Committee” comprised of influencers from the Sacramento region’s civic business, technology and academic communities — all with experience pertaining to one of the program’s categories — carefully review the nominations during a six-week evaluation process.
During this process, each Selection Committee member also reviews nominations in a subcommittee pertaining to their area of expertise. In the event that conflicts exist between Selection Committee members and nominations, members will provide full disclosure to the rest of the committee, and then abstain from voting in the category in which the nomination is being judged. Following the subcommittee evaluation process, each Selection Committee member will vote on ALL nominations submitted in EACH category (except on categories in which a nomination is being judged to which they have a direct tie). As many as three finalists (one being the winner) will be announced per category.
Selection Committee votes are tabulated using an online voting system developed through Qualtrics by Moss Adams LLP. While Stoel Rives attorneys organize the program, no one from the law firm votes.
Members of our 2017 Selection Committee casting votes via mobile devices during the final meeting on September 20, 2017:
ADVANCED MANUFACTURING
Steve Mills, Partner, DCA Capital Partners
Tracy Saville, Co-Founder & Director, FourthWave; CIO, The Disruptive Factory
Gino DiCaro, VP of Communications, California Manufacturing & Technology Association (CMTA)
Tony Lopez, Vice President of Operations, Pride Industries
Louis Stewart, Chief Innovation Officer, MOFIE, City of Sacramento
Mark Haney, Chief Dreaming Officer, HaneyBiz
John Krueger, Executive VP, Greater Sacramento Economic Council
Jordan Darling, CEO, Free Form Factory [2016 WINNER]
Tom Henry, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]Carissa Beecham, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
FOOD & AGRIBUSINESS
Joe Schmidt, Senior VP Business Development & Strategy, BioConsortia, Inc.
Julie Morris, Director of Technology Innovation, World Food Center at UC Davis
Trish Kelley, Senior Vice President, Valley Vision
Helen Singmaster, General Counsel, Raley’s
Ryan Sharp, Associate Director, Venture Catalyst, UC Davis
Ashish Malik, CEO, Bee Vectoring Technologies International, Inc.
Parastoo Yaghmaee, Ph.D., VP of Process Solutions & Validations, Ziel Process Solutions, LLC
Melissa Jones, Office Managing Partner, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
Matt Struhar, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
HARDWARE & ELECTRONICS
Harry Laswell, CEO, Powerhouse Science Center
Amit Gattani, Senior Director of Segment Marketing, Embedded Solutions Group, Micron Technology, Inc.Norman White, Senior Attorney, Intel
Robb Moore, CEO, ioSafeTim Keller, Founder, Inventopia
Philip Wang, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
Traci Keith, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
MEDICAL AND HEALTH TECHNOLOGY & SERVICES – supported by MedStart
Robert Groth, VP Program Development, Social Interest Solutions
John Mesic, M.D., Physician Executive, Sutter Health Valley Area
Cary Adams, JD, CEO, MedForce Accelerator / Almond Tree Capital
Warren Smith, Ph.D., Professor, Electrical & Electronic Engineering Department, California State University, Sacramento
Simon Cherry, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biological Engineering, University of California, Davis
Chris Wood, Senior Director, Mercy Neurological Institute , Dignity Health
Chris Gresens, M.D., Senior Medical Director and Vice President of Global Medicine , BloodSource
Dushyant Pathak, Assoc. Vice Chancellor, Office of Research, ED Venture Catalyst, UC Davis
Matt Phillips, Director, MedStart, Social Interest Solutions
Meg Arnold, Principal, GSD Consulting
Tracy Shafizadeh, Ph.D., Director of Scientific Communications, Evolve BioSystems [2016 WINNER]
Matt Bethards, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
Jon Miles, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
SOFTWARE
Roger Akers, Managing Partner, Akers Capital LLC
Laura Good, Cofounder, StartupSac
Vaibhav Nadgauda, Partner, Moneta Ventures
Corley Phillips, Director, Sacramento Entrepreneurship Academy
Kim Box, President & CEO, Gatekeeper Innovation Inc.
John Peters, Angel Investor
Justin Boatman, VP of Marketing & Communications, Riskalyze [2016 WINNER]
Sylvia Arostegui, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
Eric Skanchy, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
SUSTAINABILITY
Todd Lindstrom, CEO, Enable Energy
Gary Simon, Chairman, CleanStart, Inc.
Nicole England, Teichert Construction
Bill Boyce, SMUDDave Sanders, Managing Partners, WoodBridge Partners
Rob White, Chief Strategist, Sierra Energy [2016 WINNER]
Chris Russell, Program Co-Chair, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]
Shannon Morrissey, Stoel Rives LLP [non-voting liaison]