EY Names 6 Startup Leaders as San Diego Entrepreneurs of the Year

EY SD Entrepreneur of Year 2016 (photo used with permission)

Six San Diego business risk-takers have been inducted into the pantheon of EY Entrepreneurs of the Year, joining over 10,000 people around the world who have been honored over the last 30 years by the multinational professional services firm.

An independent panel of judges selected the six winners at a Monday evening gala attended by over 500 people at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar Resort Hotel, about 20 miles north of downtown San Diego. The winners were selected from a field of 17 finalists who represented 15 local companies that collectively employ over 2,700 people and have combined revenue of more than $1 billion.

The EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards program now recognizes entrepreneurs in over 145 cities in 60 countries who “demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance, and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.” Award winners from San Diego and other regions are now eligible for consideration for the national Entrepreneur Of The Year 2016 program.

The overall Entrepreneur Of The Year award winner will be announced on November 19 at EY’s national awards gala in Palm Springs, CA.

The winners are:

—Life Sciences: BioLegend CEO Gene Lay

San Diego-based BioLegend develops and manufactures reagents for biomedical research in immunology, neuroscience, cancer, stem cells, and cell biology.

—Financial Services: Renovate America co-founders JP McNeill and Nick Fergis

San Diego’s Renovate America specializes in software and financing for residential PACE (property assessed clean energy) programs that improve residential energy and water efficiency. The company has provided about $1.4 billion worth of funding for home improvements through its HERO program.

—Tech Services: GreatCall CEO David Inns

San Diego-based GreatCall is a mobile virtual network operator targeting the 65+ market with mobile phones, health apps, medical alert devices, and other technology for active and independent living.

—Consumer Products: Fashionphile President Ben Hemminger

Carlsbad, CA-based Fashionphile is an online shopping site for buying and selling luxury handbags and accessories that authenticates and certifies every item sold. Fashionphile says it has enabled thousands to “reclaim designer bags and accessories at exceptional value.”

—Real Estate and Renewable Energy: Westcore Properties President and CEO Donald Ankeny

Westcore is a commercial real estate firm managing over 20 million square feet of office space valued at more than $1.5 billion.

EY San Diego Entrepreneur of Year 2016
EY San Diego Entrepreneurs of the Year (from left to right) Renovate America co-founders JP McNeill and Nick Fergis; GreatCall CEO David Inns; Westcore Properties CEO Donald Ankeny; BioLegend CEO Gene Lay; and Fashionphile President Ben Hemminger.

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.