Each year, we celebrate entrepreneurial excellence by conferring two awards that honor their recipients’ entrepreneurial spirit and transformative business efforts: Entrepreneur of the Year and the Alumni Entrepreneur of the Year. Past honorees include those listed below.
Entrepreneurs of the Year
- Sara Blakely, Spanx
- Janice Bryant-Howroyd, Act 1
- Scott Cook, Intuit
- Mark Cuban, Broadcast.com, Dallas Mavericks
- Sky Dayton, Earthlink
- Kathy Fields, Rodan + Fields, Proactiv
- Robert Greenberg, Skechers USA
- Lloyd Greif, Greif & Co.
- Wayne Huizenga, Waste Management, Blockbuster, AutoNation
- Marcia Israel, Judy's
- Steve Jobs, Apple, Pixar
- Ray Kroc, McDonald's
- Pamela Lopker, QAD
- George Rathmann, Amgen
- Katie Rodan, Rodan + Fields, Proactiv
- Fred Rosen, Ticketmaster
- Howard Schultz, Starbucks
- Eric Yuan, Zoom
Alumni Entrepreneurs of the Year
- Brandon Beck, Riot Games
- Marc Benioff, Salesforce
- Darren Berkovitz, Telesign
- Christopher Cabrera, Xactly
- Kim Camarella-Khanbeigi, Kiyonna
- Chris DeWolfe, MySpace, Jam City
- Ryan Disraeli, TeleSign
- Nolan Gallagher, Gravitas Ventures
- Shannon Gans, New Deal Studios
- Anthony Geisler, LA Boxing, Club Pilates
- Marco Giannini, Dogswell
- James Hart, Star Software, Senn Delaney
- Jonathan Hirshberg, ENI-JR286
- Girish Jhunjhnuwala, Hind Group
- Thomas Knapp, Club Sportswear
- Aaron Levie, Box
- Mark Merrill, Riot Games
- Paul Orfalea, Kinko's
- Craig Pollard, Cancer for College
- Michael Singer, Cherokee Uniforms
- Stacy Stubblefield, Telesign
- Fred Uytengsu, Alaska Milk, Brookstone Holdings
- Michael Uytengsu, Alaska Milk, Brookstone Holdings