Trevor MacAusland, the Executive Director of PropelICT, won the Special Recognition Award at the 15^th annual KIRA Awards in Fredericton last night in recognition for his success in the developing the Launch36 accelerator.

Under MacAusland’s leadership, the program since late 2011 has accepted 20 startups and launched 18 of them. These companies have raised $5 million, are employing 70 fulltime staff and most are generating revenue. The accelerator has developed into a regional resource, as the graduate companies have come from all three Maritime provinces.

And MacAusland served notice that he, Propel Chairman David Baxter and their board plan to continue to grow the operation.

“We’re getting together this weekend to see how we can amplify it,” he told the crowd of about 600 people at the awards dinner.

The KIRA Awards celebrate excellence in the knowledge industries in New Brunswick, and what is noteworthy is that the innovation sector is considered a cornerstone of the province’s industry and economic strategy. Premier David Alward, who attended the entire dinner, recently named the Premier’s Advisory Council on Technology to help shape strategy on the segment, and has committed $80 million over five years to develop the industry.

The theme throughout the evening was the success New Brunswick has had in information technology, and the need to perpetuate that success. In particular, several award winners and speakers highlighted the need to train more students in computer science to meet the crying need for talent in the sector.

David Alston, an exec of IntroHive, which won the Most Promising Start-Up Award, called on the Premier to expose all high school students to even two weeks of mandatory computer science training, hoping it will spark an interest in the field in many of them.

IntroHive helps large corporations to avoid having to make cold calls – especially for sales but in developing other relationships as well – by determining who in your company already has a strong relationship with a company you want to reach.

Larry Sampson, the Executive Director of the New Brunswick Information Technology Council, announced that his organization plans to “get in front of every Grade 9 or 10 student in the province” to discuss careers in technology. He called for volunteers to speak to students or provide content for the mission.

The other winners of 2013 KIRA Awards were:  

Exporters, Green Imaging Technologies Inc.;

Technological Advancement and/or Innovation – Private Sector, Inversa Systems, whose technology can detect structural flaws through backscattered radiation techniques;

Technological Advancement and/or Innovation – Public Sector, Department of Health, Horizon Health, Vitalité & FacilicorpNB;

And Community Engagement and Industry Commitment, T4G.