One of the true champions of the startup community was recognized in Fredericton last night when Nicole LeBlanc, CFO of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, received the Special Recognition award at the Knowledge Industry Recognition and Achievement Awards.

The Kira Awards each year bring together a broad range of people in the New Brunswick knowledge industries, and startups as you’d expect play a huge role in the celebration.

In selecting LeBlanc for the special recognition, the Kira judges chose someone who defies every cliché about accountants. Certainly LeBlanc uses her bean-counting brilliance to manage the books of NBIF, but she’s known throughout the region as one of its finest mentors because of her vast range of talents.

LeBlanc brings a keen understanding of financing to her role as mentor, but more than that she brings a great understanding of the market and technology to the task. Her ability to work with and inspire people is tremendous.

One final attribute is LeBlanc’s pan-regional perspective. When her husband Philip  -- who I had the pleasure of meeting at UNB on Monday – was studying at NSCAD University in Halifax, she worked with the First Angel Network. She’s at home in both the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia communities, and works effortlessly with startups from across the region.

The Kiras recognized some of Atlantic Canada’s leading startups. Fresh from the announcement of its $3.9 million funding round, Smart Skin Technologies of Fredericton won the Kira in the Tech Advancement -- Private category. The other nominees were SHIFT Energy of Saint John and Ara Labs Security of Fredericton.

Ara Labs captured the Most Promising Startup award, edging out FoodTender.com of Shediac and Xiplinx of Saint John. The leading exporter was Fredericton-based LuminUltra, which provides microbiological biotechnology and IT solutions. The other nominees were Smart Skin and IronFlow Technologies of Dieppe.