Press Releases
May 19, 1998 |
Contact: Carolyn
Foy |
CED Entrepreneurial Excellence Award: Chris Evans
Research Triangle Park-- Chris Evans, president and CEO of Accipiter, Inc., has been named the 1998 winner of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's 1998 Entrepreneurial Excellence Award.
Creativity, leadership, recognition of opportunity, personal drive to excel, persistence and the ability to inspire others--these are the traits that mark true entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurial Excellence Award is presented to the entrepreneur or entrepreneurial team who combine these traits with a winning business concept and achieve great success while providing a role model for aspiring entrepreneurs.
At 31, Evans already has a long history of entrepreneurship. In 1985 he founded DaVinci Systems, a leading publisher of electronic mail software, while still a student at N.C. State University. DaVinci grew to be a $7 million company Evans sold in 1994. He founded HotLinx, an Internet content site, the same year. In the spring of 1996 he founded Accipiter, which develops software for Internet advertising solutions that allow site publishers to profile individual visitors and their activity on their Web sites. The company was recently sold to CMG in Andover, MA, in February 1998. Accipiter was founded with four employees; the company currently employees 50 people.
"Chris had a vision for a product in an immature and scary market space, the Internet. No matter how many people turned him down (me included), he pushed on and on and on, until he made it happen. That's what successful entrepreneurs do. Now lots of others may want to take the credit for the success of Accipter, but it was Chris Evans !"--Robbie Hardy, CEO, IntraSoft, and principal, CI Partners.
"In many respects I think Chris is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in North Carolina. Other people might have higher profile companies or may have hit a home run, but Chris has gotten on the bases a couple of times and there's almost nobody in Raleigh who's done that. With every venture, he's gotten more successful. I think that's a testament to the fact that he is in a unique class, and I'm pleased to see him recognized as such. -- Bill Nussey, president and COO, iXL Worldwide Operations and Co-founder, DaVinci Systems.
About CED
The Council for Entrepreneurial Development, located at the CED Entrepreneurship Center in Research Triangle Park, NC, was formed in 1984 to stimulate the creation and growth of high-impact companies in the greater Research Triangle region. CED provides education, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs. CED sponsors annual conferences, seminars, workshops and monthly programs on entrepreneurial management and finance. CED also offers the FastTrac entrepreneurial training program, youth programs and other outreach programs.
CED is a private, non-profit organization and is the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 3,000 members representing 1000 entrepreneurial companies, financiers and professional firms.