Spirit Of The Entrepreneur Gala Event Honors More Than 130

The Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship (IECE) at Cal State San Bernardino has announced the finalists for the 2015 Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards program. Award winners will be announced on Nov. 10 at the black-tie gala at the Riverside Convention Center. Now in its 13th year, the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Awards event has honored the top business leaders of the Inland region since its inception in 2003. “We continue to be amazed at the truly unique entrepreneurial success stories in the Inland Empire,” said Mike Stull, founder of the event and director of IECE. “This year’s finalists are another group of advanced companies that represent the type of innovation and risk taking that this event celebrates.” The program will feature awards given out in nine categories, and also presentation of the 2015 “Best of the Best” award to one of the nine award recipients that best exemplifies what it means to be an entrepreneur in terms of taking risks and building a successful enterprise that creates jobs and value where none existed before. Entrepreneurial finalists for 2015 include: Social Entrepreneur: Jed Davis - HomeStrong USA - Rancho Cucamonga Dr. Temetry A. Lindsey - Inland Behavioral and Health Services, Inc. - San Bernardino Damien O'Farrell - Path of Life Ministries - Riverside Karen DiCarlo - Santa Claus, Inc. of Greater San Bernardino - San Bernardino Consulting Entrepreneur: Mary Barnett - Another Brilliant Idea, Inc. - Corona Patti Drinville - The PLD Group Inc. - Thousand Palms Virgal Woolfolk - VIRTEK Company - Menifee Corporate Entrepreneur: Kathy Griset - Cibaria International, Inc. - Riverside David J. Greiner - Greiner Buick GMC - Victorville Antonio Myrell - Premier Medical Transportation, Inc. - Colton David Hsu and Ching Liu - SolarMax Technology, Inc. - Riverside Family Business: Bud Luppino - Bud's Tire Pros - Riverside Mark Peabody and Larry Peabody - Peabody Engineering & Supply, Inc. - Corona Wesley L. Golay - Redlands Prosthetic & Orthotic Group, Inc. - Redlands General Entrepreneur: Angela Weymar and Tony Di Guglielmo - ICON Vehicle Dynamics, LLC - Riverside DeAnne Stidham - LuLaRoe - Corona Jeff Van Dam - That Solar Guy – Murrieta Innovator/Technology Entrepreneur: Shahriar "Nick" Niakan - Advanced Flow Engineering, Inc. - Corona David Bertolini - HotelRSV - Murrieta Eddie Rowland - Nexbelt LLC - Rancho Cucamonga Manufacturing Entrepreneur: Taylor Hale - Crown Paper Converting, Inc. - Ontario Dave Grimes - Edge Plastics Inc. / ODI Grips - Riverside Jack Fovell - Southwest Sign Co. – Corona Service-Based Entrepreneu:r Daniel Hallisey - Artic Mechanical, Inc. - Rancho Cucamonga Cory Chalmers - Crime Scene Steri-Clean, LLC - Rancho Cucamonga Manuel Acosta - Pepe's Towing Service - Moreno Valley Small/Emerging Enterprise: Don Gilmartin - APRIS Fire & Water Restoration - Corona Nathan Greenberg - Arkside Marketing, Inc. - Riverside Gene Sherman - Vocademy - The Makerspace – Riverside The finalists and award recipients are selected by an independent panel of judges consisting of past Spirit Award recipients. The 29 finalists represent the culmination of a nomination and evaluation process that included more than 130 nominees. Individual tickets for the Nov. 10 event are $110 per person and tables of 10 can be purchased for $1,000. Special Premier VIP experience ticket packages are also available. Commencing at 5:30 p.m., the gala includes a cocktail reception, dinner, special entertainment guests and the awards presentation. All proceeds benefit the Spirit of the Entrepreneur Scholarship at Cal State San Bernardino.