2012 Awards

The Women Tech Council recognized eight technology-focused women who are driving innovation, leading technology companies and contributing to the community in the Fifth Annual Women Tech Awards held September 27, 2012 at the Grand America Hotel.

Award recipients, listed alphabetically, are as follows:

  • Leadership Excellence, Joy de Lisser
  • Technology Leadership, Sheh Bertram
  • Trailblazer, Alison Wistner
  • Professional Excellence, Heather Zynczak
  • Outstanding Entrepreneur, Jeanette Haren
  • Educational Excellence, Susan Thackeray
  • Impact Award, Josh James

STEM Student Awards:
This year the WTC launched a program that presented scholarships to four high school students pursuing STEM degrees. This year’s awards also included the new Academic Excellence Award for university-level students.

Student finalists, listed alphabetically, are as follows:
  • Amberly Evans, Utah State University, Physics
  • Dolly Holt, University of Utah, Biological Engineering
  • Heather Wark, University of Utah, Engineering
  • Margie Rycewicz-Borecki, Utah State University, Engineering
  • Stacey Smith, Brigham Young University, Chemistry

The Academic Excellence Award was given to Dolly Holt. 

Finalists
  • Sheh Bertram, Zions Bancorporation
  • Jennifer Beyer, Allegiance, Inc.
  • Lyda S. Bigelow, University Of Utah
  • Jill Canales, 3form, Inc.
  • Joy De Lisser, ATK Alliant Techsystems Inc.
  • Amberly Evans, Utah State University, Physics
  • Jeanette Haren, TrueNorthLogic
  • Dolly Holt, University Of Utah, Bioengineering
  • Janna J. Lewis, Holland & Hart LLP
  • Malgorzata Rycewicz-Borecki, Utah State University, Environmental Engineering
  • Cory Schaeffer, Listen Technologies
  • Gina Sanzenbacher, Jordan Applied Technology Center
  • Stacey Janel Smith, BYU, PhD Physical Chemistry And Xray
  • Sabrina Stover, BidSync
  • Susan L. Thackeray, Utah Valley University
  • Shauna Theobald, Utah Valley University
  • Heather Wark, University Of Utah, M.D./Ph.D In Bioengineering
  • Christy Whitehouse, The Summit Group
  • Alison Wistner, Mercato Partners
  • Heather Deason Zynczak, Domo

Sponsors:
EnergySolutions, Ernst & Young, Stoel Rives, USTAR, Zions Bank Women’s Financial Group and MountainWest Capital Network

Keynote:
Whitney Johnson, founding partner of Rose Park Advisors and Clayton Christensen’s partner.

Whitney Johnson dared to disrupt herself when she began her Wall Street career as a secretary, eventually rising to become an Institutional Investor-ranked sell-side equity analyst. She is currently a regular contributor at Harvard Business Review, the President of Clayton Christensen’s investment firm Rose Park Advisors’ Disruptive Innovation Fund, and is the author of the book, DARE-DREAM-DO: Remarkable Things Happen When You Dare to Dream (Bibliomotion, May 2012). When Whitney’s not picking stocks, she invests in people, concepts and dreams at daretodream.typepad.com. She is married to Roger Johnson, and they are the parents of two children.

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