PORTLAND, Ore. - A lifelong commitment to entrepreneurship and innovation in business will be recognized at Oregon State University's Austin Entrepreneurship Program's annual award ceremony, scheduled Feb. 17 at the Portland Hilton, 921 SW Sixth Ave.

The event starts at 5:30 p.m. with a reception, followed by a dinner and the awards presentation. Tickets are $75 and available until Feb. 12 and can be obtained by contacting Mary McKillop, 541-713-8044 or e-mail [email protected]

"It is innovators and entrepreneurs who are going to drive the economy out of its current malaise," said Christopher Klemm, director of the Austin Entrepreneurship Program. "They are the people who have made our economy thrive in the past, and they will do it again."

The Weatherford Awards are a celebration of some of Oregon's most innovative business owners and visionaries. The award recipients have been selected for their commitment to serving Oregonians and for their innovations that have had a sustaining social and/or economic impact. The awards are named after OSU's Weatherford Hall, which houses the largest residential entrepreneurship program in the country.

"Look at someone like Jim Peterson, whose new breed of wheat is creating a whole new industry in the Willamette Valley that didn't exist a decade ago," Klemm said. "We are looking at durable innovations that make our lives better."

The recipients of the 2010 Weatherford Award will be:

Frank Cloutier, former Chief Technology Officer for Hewlett-Packard's printing and imaging group. During his 32-year career with Hewlett-Packard, Cloutier developed several landmark technologies, including inkjet printers, notebook computers, handheld computers, and the Halo Video Conferencing business. Today, he is CEO of Cloutier Consulting, a firm specializing in new business creation, strategy, and development.

Doug Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse and credited with developing the initial concept of e-mail. Engelbart studied electrical engineering at OSU before launching his career as an inventor and computer pioneer. He is best known for inventing the computer mouse, as well as other technological firsts such as display editing, windows, and networked computers. He is now semi-retired and works out of his office based at Stanford Research Institute.

Doc and Connie Hatfield, of Country Natural Beef, a rancher cooperative dedicated to healthy beef and environmentally sensitive land management. Since its founding, the cooperative has grown to more than 100 artisan ranchers operating on 6.3 million acres of rangeland, with sales exceeding $50 million the past fiscal year. In 2009, the Hatfields completed transition of Country Natural Beef and are back full-time at their ranch in Brothers, Ore.

Bob Moore, of Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods, a Portland-based company and manufacturers of wholesome whole grain foods that enhance the dietary needs of people all around the world. Owner Bob Moore took the company from a small start-up in the 1970s to being the nation's largest producer of minimally-processed whole grains. The company mills, packages and ships natural stone ground whole grain flours, cereals, meals, baking mixes and bulk grains to health food stores and all major grocery store chains in the United States and to 35 other countries around the world.

Jim Peterson is Oregon's only wheat breeder and is the head of OSU's wheat breeding program. His innovations have generated tens of millions of dollars for wheat growers in the Northwest. Peterson, the W.E. Kronstad Endowed Chair for Wheat Research at OSU, has overseen the development of nine wheat varieties, which are grown throughout the Northwest. As chair of the National Wheat Improvement Committee since 2005, Peterson has led efforts to increase federal funding for wheat research.

Cory Schreiber opened Wildwood Restaurant in Portland in 1994 and quickly became a leader in the region's culinary scene. He later helped develop a program that connects Oregon's schools with local farms, with the goal of serving healthy meals in school cafeterias, providing educational opportunities in nutrition and agriculture, and supporting Oregon's farmers. Schreiber won the James Beard Award in 1998 for Best Chef Pacific Northwest, and Wildwood restaurant was inducted into the Nation's Restaurant News Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 2003.

Source: 

Christopher Klemm, 541-713-8044

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