Young Innovators Receive the YEO Thomas Alva Edison Award

Young Entrepreneurs' Organization Honors Recipients in Sydney, Australia

Washington, DC - The Young Entrepreneurs Organization (YEO) and The Edison Preservation Foundation announce the winners of the Second Annual YEO Thomas Alva Edison Award for Innovation, an award honoring entrepreneurs for their innovative contributions to society. In all, there were 50 nominees from six countries, of which 11 finalists were selected by a panel of judges from YEO and the Edison Preservation Foundation. These finalists were recently honored during a luncheon on February 28th in Sydney, Australia, where more than 300 YEO members and guests gathered for YEOs semi-annual conference.

The winning entrepreneurs of the YEO Thomas Alva Edison Award for Innovation are:

1st Place - Woodie Neiss, co-founder and CFO of FLAVORx, Inc. based in Bethesda, MD, USA

FLAVORx is the leading provider of the FLAVORx medical flavoring system to pharmacies around the world. The company develops, manufactures and markets its flavoring system that is used to flavor more than 450 medications with currently 42 flavors. Founded in 1995, the company is on a mission to take the yuck" out of medicine. FLAVORx is available in more than 10,000 pharmacies in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the Bahamas.

2nd (Tie) -- Jeff Calibaba, founder of Access Medical, Inc., based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Access Medical, Inc. is a supplier of high-quality, leading-edge emergency medical supplies and equipment to EMS, fire departments, industry and allied health organizations world-wide. Access Medical launched a new product called Hearsave awareness program -- a program developed in-house to create public awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and provide the tools necessary to implement a successful public access defibrillation program to increase the rate of survival for sudden cardiac arrest victims.

2nd (Tie) -- Ann Price, founder and CEO of Motek, based in Los Angeles, CA, USA

Motek is the developer of Priya, an advanced Windows NT/SQL 2000 based user configurable warehouse management system that helps mid-to-large sized companies in the retail, wholesale and third party distribution markets save money and improve customer satisfaction by streamlining their warehouse operations.

3rd Place -- Yoshito Hori, founder and chairman of Globis Corporation, based in Tokyo, Japan

Mr. Hori was sent by his employer to complete an MBA at Harvard Business School. Upon returning to Japan, he decided to go out on his own and establish a business school which is now the largest in Japan. Globis Corporation has since expanded into venture capital, publishing and executive placement.

Additional finalists included: Marcel Yon, ZN Vision Technologies AG (Bochum, Germany), a medical technology company; Jeff Jonas, SRD (Las Vegas, NV), a software development firm; Russell Reeder, Rightsline, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA), and intellectual property rights management firm; Jongwook Kim, Open Solution (Seoul, Korea), a semi-conductor manufacturing company; Jonathan Smith, Peak Placement (Detroit, MI), an Internet search engine optimization company; James Russell, Lennard Commercial (Toronto, Ontario), a real estate firm; and Brian Weiner, The Illusion Factory (Los Angeles, CA), an entertainment marketing and public relations firm.

Nominees for the YEO Thomas Alva Edison Award for Innovation were judged on an essay they wrote describing how they implement one of three Edison principles within their own successful companies. Entrants had to choose one of the following three Edison principles:

Principle 1: Build Freedoms into Your Products and Services" - Edison built freedoms into many of his most successful inventions. Business should be a liberating experience for all involved and our greatest businesspeople have understood this. Edison gave people freedom from darkness with the invention of light, and freedom from radio when he invented recorded sound.

Principle 2: Create a Learning Organization" - Edison was a master of bringing together diverse groups of people into his company and having explosions of ideas, learning and company creation. Edison was always learning and encouraging his people to learn, grow and develop. Edison was once asked what his interests were and he replied: Everything."

Principle 3: Develop a System for Ongoing Innovation" - As the worlds greatest innovator, Edison empowered his employees to create work environments and systems which allowed this innovation to flow. Edison learned that you innovate by having lots of prototypes. Prototyping allows you to learn from risks almost immediately. You get a sense of the performance range of a product or service that teaches you more about the idea than just intellectualizing.

"We had a great group of finalists this year from a wide cross section of the entrepreneurial community - some very innovative businesses that are helping the world," says Brien Biondi, Chief Executive Officer of YEO. YEO is proud to partner with the Edison Preservation Foundation in making this an annual honor for our members."    

The Edison Preservation Foundation in 2001 partnered with YEO to increase awareness of the enormous contributions made by Thomas Edison in the areas on innovation, ambition, business theory, philosophy and intellectual toil. Edison - who started over 100 companies - had nearly 1,100 patents and pioneered the motion picture, recorded sound and lighting industries.

We cannot allow the works, dreams and inventions of perhaps the worlds ultimate entrepreneur to be at risk," exclaims John Keegan, president of the Edison Preservation Foundation. This legacy will be used to educate and motivate inventors and entrepreneurs to develop ideas and products that will address the needs and common good of future generations."

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The Young Entrepreneurs Organization is the premier, peer-to-peer, global community, network and resource for entrepreneurs. Since 1987, this international nonprofit educational organization has helped its members build upon their successes through an array of learning and networking opportunities. With members in more than 142 cities, spanning 35 countries, YEO's rapidly expanding membership includes entrepreneurs from every size and type of business. YEO membership has increased by some 20 percent last year, and now is nearly 5,000 members strong. Membership in YEO is by invitation only, and is subject to approval by both YEO International and the sponsoring local chapter. Prospective YEO members must be under 40 years of age and be a founder, co-founder, owner or controlling shareholder of a business with gross annual revenues exceeding (US) $1 million. Members graduate from YEO in the year they turn 40, and are encouraged to then join World Entrepreneurs Organization. www.yeo.org

The Edison Preservation Foundations campaign to advance Thomas Edisons legacy is chaired by Jack Welch of GE with the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh serving as honorary chair. The campaigns mission is to raise the needed funds to restore and enhance the Invention Factory and Glenmont; and to sustain these and other significant Edison locations in the future, including the site of Edisons first Research & Development lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey; Seminole Lodge, in Huron Michigan; the Edison Plaza Museum in Beaumont, Texas; and the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. The campaign also will raise funds to complete the Edison Papers project, as well as to perpetuate his legacy thorough educational programs and outreach tailored to inspire our youth, especially young women and minorities, to pursue careers in science and technology. For more information, visit www.edisonpf.org.