Ryan Allis and Aaron Houghton, co-founders of e-mail marketing firm iContact, and Matthew Szulik, chairman of Linux software developer Red Hat, took home Ernst & Young Entrepreneurs of the Year for the Carolinas Thursday night.
Allis and Houghton actively contribute to CED and the entrepreneurial community. iContact was a presenting company at CED's Venture 2006 conference and again in 2007. In 2008, the company was a headline sponsor at CED's 25th Annual Venture Conference. In June, iContact received the Entrepreneurial Excellence Award for Growth Company of the Year (technology).
Red Hat has been a member of CED since 2004, and recently sponsored CED's Globalization 2008 and TECH 2007. Szulik spoke at InfoTech 2003, the precursor to today's TECH conference.
Of the 24 finalists for these prestigious Ernst & Young awards, 6 are CED member companies.