David Alston was crowned Industry Champion at the KIRA Awards in Fredericton last night, recognized for his contribution to the innovation community in the province.

The Chief Innovation Officer of Introhive and Radian6 alumnus has become an eloquent campaigner for the new economy in New Brunswick. He is one of the founders of Brilliant Labs, which is increasing technical education in public schools in the Maritimes. He is passionate about developing an innovative and socially responsible economy, as he showed in his recent opinion piece for Entrevestor.

KIRA Awards are handed out annually to members of the public and private sectors to recognize the contributions the people, companies and organizations have made to developing innovation in New Brunswick.

“If there is one thing for certain in New Brunswick, it’s that our Industry remains strong and vibrant,” Alan Gray KIRA Awards Co-Chair, said in a statement. “Not only do we continue to see truly amazing and talented companies emerge through our Most Promising Start-up Award, but the talent and accomplishments across the board are amazing!"

The other winners, announced at a gala in Fredericton last night, were:

Most Promising Start-up:  Resson Aerospace, Fredericton, whose software analyzes data collected from farm fields to maximize production, beat out Eigen Innovation Inc. of Fredericton and Qimple Inc., of Moncton.

Economic Impact – oNBoard Award: The winner was BMM Test Labs, Dieppe, the longest-established private independent gaming certification lab in the world. The runners-up were Blue Spurs and Siemens Canada Limited, both of Fredericton.

Innovative New Product or Service – Private Sector: Excipio Technologies Inc., Moncton, which has developed faster, more specific and efficient exosome isolation for the development of diagnostic tests, won the award. It beat out RtTech Software Inc., Moncton, and Eigen Innovations.

Innovation in the Public Sector: River Watch, NB Department of Environment and Local Government was the winner over the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation and Cancer Prevention and Screening Program.

In the Industry Champion category, Alston was competing with Dhirendra Shukla, head of the University of New Brunswick’s Management, Technology and Entrepreneurship Program and Chris Mathis, CEO of Springboard Atlantic.

The interest in the award peaked when the above photo began making the rounds on Twitter. The originator of the photo is unknown, giving rise to unfair claims that the picture may have been doctored.