The Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation has announced the three Atlantic Canadian companies whose founders are in the running for the $145,000 in cash prizes to be distributed later in the year.
The foundation said this week the Atlantic Canadian shortlist comprises: Mark Wood of Ocean Sonics in Great Village, NS; Chris Cowper-Smith, Stephen Fitzgerald and Robert Garrish of Spring Loaded Technology in the Halifax area; and Scott Everett of Eigen Innovations in Fredericton.
These entrepreneurs will be recognized at a reception at the Emera headquarters in Halifax on June 14. The reception will feature a keynote address by former Emera CEO Chris Huskilson. (You can register for the event here.)
They will be considered for the national awards at a gala in Toronto in November. The Manning Awards will present winners with four cash prizes, ranging from the $100,000 Principal Award to $10,000 Innovation Awards.
Mark Wood has been working with ocean acoustics in Great Village since 2000. His company Ocean Sonics designs and manufactures robust ocean acoustic instruments. Every product is evaluated for usability and ease of deployment, and the team strives to make products small and user-friendly.
Dartmouth-based Spring Loaded Technology produces the Levitation knee brace, which not only stabilizes the joint but adds power to it, allowing people with mobility problems to move more freely. The Spring Loaded nominees include: CEO Chris Cowper-Smith; his Co-Founder and original CTO Bob Garrish, who left the company last year for health reasons; and the current CTO Stephen Fitzgerald.
Spring Loaded Shows the Impact It Makes in People's Lives.
Headed by CEO Scott Everett, Eigen is an industrial internet of things company whose Intellexon platform helps manufacturers improve production efficiency and reduce waste. The system uses algorithms developed under the guidance of researcher and co-founder Rickey Dubay at the University of New Brunswick. Everett worked with Dubay and has been the technical expert developing the product for the past few years.
Past Atlantic Canadian winners of Manning Awards include Robert Niven, Founder and CEO of Dartmouth-based CarbonCure Technologies, and Glenn Cox, Founder of Charlottetown-based Rupture Seal. They won Innovation Awards in 2016 and 2014 respectively.
