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Follow on Google News | Ben Franklin Announces Innovation Award WinnersBy: Ben Franklin Technology Partners The 2013 Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania Innovation Awards winners are: Entrepreneurial Achievement The company that best exemplifies the quintessential entrepreneurial spirit: a combination of ingenuity, hard work, and innovation that has resulted in the creation of a successful and growing business venture. CyOptics, Inc., Breinigsville Ed J. Coringrato, Jr, Chief Executive Officer CyOptics manufactures Indium Phosphide-based optical components that enable applications in the fiber, cable, data center, and long haul/metro segments of the communications network, as well as in defense and aerospace, high-performance computing, and security sectors. CyOptics is one of the few companies in the optoelectronics components industry with vertically integrated technology and manufacturing platforms that span from device fabrication to proprietary, highly automated assembly and test facilities. Thanks to astute leadership and outstanding execution, CyOptics has grown rapidly and expanded its client base to more than 180 customers worldwide. Despite a recessionary economy, the company achieved a compound annual sales growth rate of 34% from 2005 to 2012. In early 2005, 86 people worked at CyOptics in the Lehigh Valley. Today, the company employs more than 330 regionally and 837 worldwide. Incubator Graduate The company that has best demonstrated successful Ben Franklin business incubation. The business has been operated skillfully and confidently, meeting all challenges from the development of the product concept, execution of the business and technical plan, successful start-up and operation, to graduation from the incubator. Computer Aid, Inc., Allentown Anthony J. Salvaggio, President From its start in the early 1980s, Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI) has focused on building a business that provides dramatically improved productivity for the information technology software sector. For most of its life, CAI has been a worldwide leader in IT metrics, process, and productivity. That capability typically provides CAI’s clients with a 30 percent cost reduction and improved quality and capability. CAI now manages active engagements with Fortune 1000 companies and is a trusted partner of these clients. In addition to its U.S. headquarters, CAI also has offices in the Philippines, India, Australia, England, and Brazil. Starting with just two employees at its inception, Computer Aid today has more than 3,000 full-time associates. Product Innovation The company that best demonstrates the commercialization of a unique, innovative product that creatively and effectively meets a market need. Micro Interventional Devices, Langhorne Michael Whitman, President and Chief Executive Officer Beginning at Ben Franklin TechVentures in 2010, Micro Interventional Devices has developed a new, minimally invasive product for surgeons and cardiologists to use in life-saving and life-extending structural heart valve repair and replacement procedures. The company’s Permaseal™ closure device is a disruptive technology that will enable crucial procedures to be conducted through a small incision between the ribs as opposed to open heart surgery. Before the product, only 10% of patients in need of aortic valve repair were considered candidates for the high-risk procedure. Permaseal will reduce operating room time, abate blood loss, and simplify complex structural heart repair procedures, addressing critical unmet needs in structural heart repair. Manufacturing Achievement The company that best exemplifies achievement in the manufacturing arena, showing a proven track record of success and an unbending commitment to achieving and maintaining excellence in manufacturing. East Penn Manufacturing Co., Lyon Station Robert P. Flicker, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer East Penn Manufacturing has been producing and recycling lead-acid batteries for a wide variety of markets for more than 67 years. The company is a very significant regional employer that has worked with Ben Franklin repeatedly since 1987, partnering with Lehigh University and the Enterprise Systems Partners, the Penn College of Technology’s Plastics Innovation and Resource Center, and Northampton Community College’s Emerging Technology Applications Center. These connections assisted East Penn in implementing innovations that increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and enhance profitability. East Penn’s most recent work focused on developing a special process for the company’s new UltraBatteryⓇ Partnership An individual whose strong vision, dedication, and commitment have helped the Ben Franklin Technology Partners accomplish its goals. This support demonstrates a sincere desire to see the region thrive. Edward Thompson, CPA Consultant, Clarks Summit As a seasoned finance and accounting advisor to a number of Ben Franklin early-stage clients, Ed Thompson is enormously helpful, supportive, and proficient. Many start-ups experience the exhaustion of their initial capital investments, revenues that are not ramping up as quickly as planned, and panic setting in. Mr. Thompson enters with analysis and advice, helping young firms successfully navigate their typically difficult cash flow challenges. Mr. Thompson rapidly and effectively collects data, enhances financial reporting structures, and analyzes a client’s fiscal position. Then he presents the facts, along with short- and long-term solutions, in a clear manner without alienating the company’s management team. Addressing crucial activities from managing cash flow, to restructuring debt, to serving as part-time CFO, Mr. Thompson rolls up his sleeves to help companies at their most vulnerable times. His consulting work has saved companies that, together, have created numerous sustainable technology-based jobs throughout the region. End
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