Lance Crosby, who already sold one outfit for a $2 billion payday, re-emerged with another company called StackPath that put him in EY’s 2018 Entrepreneur Of The Year competition for the Southwest region. Blake Walker of fast-growing Arcis Golf was in EOY hunt, too. So were Alex Danza of Vonlane and Carly Nance and Rachel Bentley, co-founders of The Citizenry. These five were among 46 finalists in EY’s annual awards program, which honors some of the area’s best and brightest business minds. You can find all 46 of their stories—and, we hope, more than a few nuggets of useful entrepreneurial advice—in D CEO‘s July cover article, right here.
Saturday night, by the way, EY announced 12 award winners among all these finalists at a gala attended by 700 at the Hilton Anatole. The winners were: Christopher B. Munday, 2020 Companies (in the services category); Blake S. Walker, Arcis Golf (hospitality); Merrilee Kick, BuzzBallz/Southern Champion (distribution and manufacturing); Sheffield Clark and Bobby Sharp, Coinsource (fintech); Alex Doubet, Door (emerging technology and services); Stuart Archer, Oceans Healthcare (health); Scott Everett, S2 Capital LLC (real estate and construction); John Schmitz, Select Energy Services Inc. (Master Entrepreneur Of The Year); Lance Crosby, StackPath (technology); Lance Taylor, Steward Energy II LLC (energy); Teresa Makintosh, Trintech (technology services); and Alex Danza, Vonlane (emerging retail and consumer products).
The victors, who will go on to compete against other regional EOY winners later this year, were selected by an independent judging panel consisting of previous award winners, CEOs, investors, and other business leaders.