Halozyme, Edico CEOs Among San Diego’s Entrepreneurs of the Year

San Diego 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year Finalists

Helen Torley, who was highlighted in 2016 as the only female CEO of a public life sciences company in San Diego, was recognized last week for her operational excellence at Halozyme Therapeutics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:HALO]]).

Torley, who joined San Diego-based Halozyme as CEO in 2014, was among five local business leaders to win the 2018 San Diego Entrepreneur of the Year award. The award ceremony, held Thursday night at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar Hotel, culminated a selection process that began early this year. (The 16 finalists are in the above photo.)

The regional competition is part of the global Entrepreneur of the Year program overseen by EY, the business advisory and accounting services firm. EY says the program is intended to highlight business leaders who are excelling in areas such as innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.

The EY dinner gala, which included a performance by dancers wearing LED-enhanced overalls and motorcycle helmets (think Daft Punk, sort of) also gave EvoNexus CEO Rory Moore an award for his outstanding contributions and support for entrepreneurship in San Diego.

EvoNexus CEO Rory Moore (BVBigelow photo)
EvoNexus CEO Rory Moore (BVBigelow photo)

The regional award winners are now eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur of the Year National Program. The overall national award winner will be announced in Palm Springs, CA, on November 10 as part of EY’s annual Strategic Growth Forum. EY says its Entrepreneur of the Year program, now in its 32nd year, has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 60 countries throughout the world.

Of the five winners in this year’s event, four were the CEOs of companies focused in the life sciences sector. Edico Genome, acquired last month for $100 million by Illumina (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ILMN]]) developed specialized hardware and software to accelerate the readout of next generation DNA sequencing. Novacyte is a contract research organization for medical device makers and drug developers.

This year’s Entrepreneur of the Year award winners in San Diego are:

—Life Sciences: Kevin Gorman, CEO, Neurocrine Biosciences

—Technology: Pieter van Rooyen, Founding CEO, Edico Genome

—Operational Excellence: Helen Torley, CEO, Halozyme Therapeutics

—Services: Tim Gleeson, chairman and CEO, Novasyte

—Real Estate and Hospitality: Mark Gleiberman, Founding CEO, MG Properties Group

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.