Rodolfo Lara-Torres and Olivier Schwab, the outgoing and incumbent head of the Technology Pioneer Program at the World Economic Forum. The Technology Pioneers for 2011 have been chosen by the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, and will be recognized for the achievement during the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, Sept. 13 to Sept. 15.
The innovative companies are: Adimab, Aster Data, Atlassian, Digital Lumens, Ecovative Design, Ferrate Treatment Technologies, Flexoresearch Group, foursquare, GetJar, Ion Torrent, Knewton, Layar, Medicine in Need, Molecular Partners, NetQin Mobile, Neuronetics, Novacem, On-Ramp Wireless, OpenDNS, OPOWER, Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies, Quintas Renewable Energy Solutions, ReputationDefender, Scribd, SecondMarket, Spotify, TaKaDu, Tendril, Topell Energy, Transonic Combustion, Vortex Engineering.
To be selected a company must be involved in the development of a major technology and/or innovation and have the potential for long-term impact on business and society. In addition, it must demonstrate visionary leadership and show all the signs of being a long-standing and sustainable market leader – and its technology must be proven.
Previous winners include 23andme (2008), Amyris Biotechnologies (2006), BloomEnergy (2010) Dr Reddy Laboratories (2001), Google (2001), Gridpoint (2008), Kaspersky Lab (2001), Mozilla Corporation (2007), Nanosolar (2007) and Twitter (2010).
This year, forum members received more than 330 applications from around the world and those were then evaluated by 68 global technology experts. Thirteen countries include Australia, Canada, India, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Nigeria, People’s Republic of China, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Over half are from the U.S.
The Technology Pioneers 2011 represent a diverse range of interests from antibody discovery and optimization platforms, augmented reality, faster and cheaper genome sequencing, location-based social networking, on-line security and reputation management, smart energy solutions, and water management and treatment.
For a complete list, plus selected video interviews with CEOs, founders and chief scientists and more, visit www.weforum.org/techpioneers.
“The World Economic Forum is proud to recognize an outstanding group of innovative companies as Technology Pioneers for 2011,” said André Schneider, managing director and COO, WEF. “Their technologies and business models will have a durable and valuable effect in several industries and society as a whole. We look forward to their unique contributions to the mission of the forum: improving the state of the world.”
