May 27, 2016 6:00:08 am

Awards – May 27, 2016

By BizWest Staff

Executives from eight Boulder Valley companies were among 24 named finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Mountain Desert Region. The award program honors entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence in innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Winners, who will be announced June 23 at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, are considered for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year national program, for which winners are announced in November. This year’s Mountain Desert Region finalists from the Boulder Valley include Brook Eddy, chief executive and founder of Boulder-based Bhakti Inc.; Andrew Cousin, CEO of Circle Graphics in Longmont; CEO Andy Grolnick, chief technical officer and co-founder Chris
Petersen and chief scientific co-founder Phil Villella, all of LogRhythm in Boulder; chairman and founder Larry Gold and chief executive Byron Hewett, both of SomaLogic in Boulder; Paul
Berberian, CEO of Sphero in Boulder; Dave DuPont, CEO and co-founder of TeamSnap in Boulder; Rob Katz, chairman and CEO of Vail Resorts in Broomfield; and Dick Williams, president and CEO of Webroot in Broomfield.

J. Robert Wilson, president and owner of Columbine Health Systems in Fort Collins, received an honorary doctorate degree from Colorado State University.

The “Choice City” is among the top choices among small metropolitan areas for those seeking good places to find work and live after they graduate from college. Fort Collins
ranked fourth on the list of small metros in the American Institute for Economic Research’s Employment Destination Index, just behind Ann Arbor, Mich.; Bridgeport, Conn.; and Lincoln, Neb. Denver was fourth among the largest metropolitan areas, behind Washington, San Francisco and Boston.