Rare Opportunity to Hear One of the Top Executives in the World Discuss the Technology Industry at Annual UTC Hall of Fame Celebration
John Chambers, CEO of Cisco, to Deliver Keynote and Dale H. Ballard, Gary L. Crocker and Michael O. Leavitt to Be Inducted into UTC Hall of Fame on Oct. 29
SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Members of the Utah technology community have the unique opportunity to
listen to one of the “Top 25 Executives Worldwide,” Cisco Systems
chairman and CEO John T. Chambers, deliver the keynote at The Utah
Technology Council (UTC)Hall
of Fame Celebration the evening of October 29 at the Grand America
Hotel in Salt Lake City. At the annual celebration of Utah’s technology
industry, UTC
will induct Gary L. Crocker, former Utah governor Michael O. Leavitt and
Dale H. Ballard into the UTC Hall of Fame. While the event is expected
to be sold out, there are still tickets remaining to the
black-tie-invited event.
“This year’s celebration is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our
members”
“This year’s celebration is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our
members,” said Richard
R. Nelson, UTC founder and CEO. “It will be a tremendously memorable
night for Utah’s technology industry as we hear from one of the best
executives in the world and celebrate the achievements of our new Hall
of Fame inductees.”
The UTC Hall of Fame
The Annual Hall of Fame event honors individuals with Utah ties who have
made global contributions to the information technology, life science
and clean tech industries through new technology, innovation and
leadership.
John Chambers, Keynote Address
As chairman and CEO of Cisco, John Chambers has helped grow the company
from $70 million, when he joined Cisco in January 1991, to $1.2 billion
when he assumed the role of CEO, to its current run rate of $40 billion.
In November 2006, Chambers was named chairman of the board, in addition
to his CEO role.
Chambers has received numerous awards for his leadership over his past
14 years at the helm of Cisco, including: Time Magazine’s “100 Most
Influential People,” one of Barron’s “World’s Best CEOs,” the “Best Boss
in America” by 20/20 and one of BusinessWeek’s “Top 25 Executives
Worldwide.”
Gary L. Crocker
Gary L. Crocker is president of Crocker Ventures, a privately-held life
science investment firm funding differentiated technologies in the areas
of biotechnology and medical devices. Since 2004, he has also been
chairman of Merrimack Pharmaceuticals, a personalized oncology drug
company.
In addition, Crocker has held senior executive or director level
positions in several Utah and national life science firms, including:
chairman of ARUP Laboratories, from 1998 to 2003; director of
Interleuken Genetics and LineaGen Genetics, LLC; and co-founder and
director of Theratech, which was acquired in 1999 by Watson
Pharmaceuticals.
Michael O. Leavitt
Michael O. Leavitt is the founder and chairman of Leavitt Partners,
where he advises clients in the health care and food safety sectors. In
previous roles, Leavitt served in the Cabinet of President George W.
Bush (Secretary of Health and Human Services and Administrator of the
Environmental Protection Agency) and as a three-time elected governor of
Utah, exhibiting information technology leadership in each of these
positions.
As governor, Leavitt created a new vision for information technology in
the beehive state. During his first years, he outlined this vision in a
speech to technology leaders and called for the state to build a
high-speed digital highway, place government services online 24/7,
expand the state’s wide-area network and commit the state to greater use
of the Internet, videoconferencing and wireless technologies. As obvious
as these aspirations seem now, at the time, Governor Leavitt was dubbed
“Governor Moonbeam” for his almost too-forward-looking approach to
information technology.
Dale H. Ballard (posthumous award)
A pioneer in disposable medical products, Ballard co-founded Deseret
Pharmaceutical Company with James L. Sorenson and Victor Cartwright.
Under Ballard’s innovative leadership, the company established medical
manufacturing in Utah. In 1977, Ballard sold Deseret Pharmaceutical for
$138 million to Warner Lambert.
In 1978, Ballard started Ballard Medical Products and became its
president, CEO, and board chairman. The keys to its success were the
production of products that nobody else had, being a “self-contained
company,” and one-on-one contact between company reps and users of the
products. In 1983, Ballard Medical became a public company with stock
traded on the NASDAQ exchange. In 1999, Ballard Medical was sold to
Kimberly-Clark for $764 million. One of the stipulations of the
agreement being that the company could not be moved outside the U.S.
while Mr. Ballard was still living to help ensure jobs for the employees
that had been loyal to Ballard Medical.
These inductees join the following past Hall of Fame recipients: Stephen
Aldous, Alan Ashton, David Bailey, Bruce Bastian, H. Raymond Bingham,
Nolan Bushnell, Greg Butterfield, Edwin Catmull, James Clark, Bernard
Daines, David Evans, Philo Farnsworth, Jim Kajiya, Alan Kay, Spencer
Kirk, Drew Major, Peter Meldrum, Raymond Noorda, Dinesh Patel, Shane
Robison, Kevin Rollins, Mark Skolnick, James LeVoy Sorenson, David
Spafford, Theodore H. Stanley, Thomas Stockham, Jr., Ivan Sutherland,
Homer Warner and John Warnock.
