Guidant Financial Group Blog

On Friday, June 13, Guidant’s CEO David Nilssen had the honor of attending the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 Pacific Northwest awards as a finalist.

Although David did not win in his category (we’re blaming it on Friday the 13th), he was among some of the top entrepreneurs in the Northwest, let alone the nation!

Past Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award winners have been founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberté, David A. Brandon of Domino’s Pizza, and the entrepreneurial minds behind such elite companies as 1-800-Flowers, Southwest Airlines and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

David was nice enough to invite several Guidant employees to attend the black tie awards dinner with him, and we have included some photos of the event in this blog posting.

The winners at this year’s Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 Pacific Northwest awards were:

Financial Services and Real Estate: Duncan Campbell; The Campbell Group, LLC

Food and Beverage: Douglas Schmick; McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants, Inc.
To give you some perspective, not only has McCormick & Schmick’s been in business for more than 36 years, but when people think of the Northwest, they think of seafood. When people in the Northwest think of seafood, they think of McCormick & Schmick’s. David had some pretty prestigious company!

Health Services and Life Sciences: Eric Meier; Calypso Medical Description

Manufacturing, Distribution and Construction: Steve Bell; Pacific Crest Industries, Inc.

Professional Services and Construction: John Tobin; Slalom Consulting

Retail and Consumer Products: David Holcomb; Chef’n Corporation

Services: Peter Findley; Giant Campus, Inc.

Software and Technology: Dave Hersh; Jive Software