Cindy Whitehead will keynote WRAL TechWire Awards

We have a very special bonus headliner for our annual tech awards.

Cindy Whitehead. the CEO who sold Sprout Pharmaceuticals for some $1 billion in 2015, will be the keynote presenter at WRAL TechWire’s upcoming Tech Awards event.

Plus, we have more news to announce very shortly. You don’t want to miss this party, the biggest and best we’ve thrown to date.

Whitehead will be talking about entrepreneurship and opportunities for women.

This is the first time our TechWire awards event has featured a keynote speaker – and we’re honored than Whitehead will be on hand to discuss her experiences as an entrepreneur as well as an investor.

She and her team recently unveiled the Pinkubator, a startup incubator in Raleigh’s North Hills. Whitehead also is now an active investor and mentor for startups, having launched investment firm The Pink Ceiling.

Our awards party is set for April 25 at Google Fiber’s new headquarters in Raleigh from 6-9 p.m.

Voting is currently underway for our 12 awards – six individual and six corporate. And the response has been heavy.

Awards are presented in two categories:Established and growing enterprise plus startups and emerging entrepreneurial companies.

Voting ends March 31, so don’t waste time.

The balloting is very close every year. Your choices count.

More than 100 individuals and companies were nominated by WRAL TechWire readers. The finalists were selected after a review by a WTW awards committee based on nominations received.

Here are the finalists:

STARTUP AWARDS

Fastest Growing Startup (most potential)

Eco-Site
Republic Wireless
Textivia

Most Steady Startup (delivering success consistently)

Adwerx
Republic Wireless
ArchiveSocial

Best Emerging Startup (fast-growing startup emerging from stealth mode)

Eco-Site
RewardStock
Roundtable Analytics

Top Startup Director (CEO/Chairman)

Scott Moody, Co-Founder and CEO, K4Connect
Todd Olson, CEO, Pendo.io
Chris Chuang, Co-Founder and CEO, Republic Wireless

Startup Executive Leader (top leader/executive, not necessarily CEO but a COO, CFO, CIO)

Kevin Barry, Founder and COO, FilterEasy
Tatiana Birgisson, Founder and CEO, MATI Energy
Nate Frechette, Co-Founder and CTO, Dropsource

Most Noteworthy Startup Founder or Investor

Chris Heivly, The Startup Factory
David Gardner, Cofounders Capital
Mark Easley, Goldhat Advisors

ENTERPRISE

Highest Achieving Enterprise (established companies)

Bandwidth
IBM Watson
Sageworks

Most Steady Enterprise (delivering success consistently)

MetLife Global Technology Operations
Red Hat
Bandwidth

Best Emerging Enterprise (perhaps with IPO or exit potential)

Pendo.io
Validic
Bandwidth

Top Enterprise Director (CEO/Chairman)

Allen West, President and CEO, Railinic
David Morken, Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of Bandwidth
Jean Davis, President and CEO, MCNC

Enterprise Executive Leader (top leader/executive, not necessarily CEO but a COO, CFO, CIO)

Jesse Lipson, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Services BU at Citrix
Tara Fitzgerald, President, Clinical Development Services at INC Research
Will Aycock, General Manager at Greenlight Community Broadband

Most Noteworthy Enterprise Founders or Investors