ANN ARBOR ? During its 20th Anniversary celebration, the New Enterprise Forum honored five companies with its best of the year awards. Each winner represents a person or business that made great strides in 2005 through NEF.
NEF?s Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner is Robert Zerbe of Quatrx,, a pharmaceutical company focused on discovery, developing and commercializing compounds in the metabolic and cardiovascular therapeutic areas. Earlier this month, Quatrx filed an initial public offering with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The NEF Best Business Model went to Terry Dunivin of Mindworks Learning, a company that develops fun and efficient learning programs to improve memory, attention, problem-solving and reading. Mindworks Learning uses research?validated one-on-one learning techniques and a computer game system to boost learning skills.
The NEF Best Presentation Award went to Oliver Baer of Check the Crib, an E-Procurement solution for manufacturing plants. The system helps plant employees identify, order and track mission critical spare and replacement parts for production lines directly from the equipment and part suppliers.
The NEF Best Technology went to Judith Erb of Three Fold Sensors, a company that researches and manufactures biosensor technologies and instrumentation. BioSensors can be used in research settings to measure concentrations of certain substances or chemicals in water, blood and urine.
Jennifer Baird of Somanetics picked up a special Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. Her company develops, manufactures and markets specialized meters for the areas of neurological injuries and heart failure.
