The Blue Diamond Awards have been a prestigious part of Charlotte’s technology community tradition for decades
The Blue Diamond Awards recognize organizations that have developed innovative technology to better realize their mission and achieve their business goals. As such, they provide a highly regarded way to celebrate and support Charlotte’s thriving technological community, critical as our city grows in its technological prominence.
In 2023-2024 we celebrated our seven Blue Diamond winners at the 20th Anniversary Celebration and during the Apparo CXO Tech Insights series.
TechExec Community Impact Award
On November 30th at the 20th Anniversary Celebration, Arno Czverney of Wells Fargo was awarded the TechExec Community Impact Award celebrating a local technology leader with a proven track record for donating their time, talent and treasure to supporting area nonprofits in need.
Over the past year, Arno has organized groups of volunteers and sponsored 4 projects for 3 different nonprofit organizations including Big Brothers Big Sisters, Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, and Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy. He assisted with technology assessments, application selections and organizing volunteers to help these nonprofits increase their efficiency and amplify the impact of their missions.
Cool Innovation Award
The Cool Innovation Award winner was also announced at the 20th Anniversary Celebration. American Tire Distributors PolyATOM Team received the award as the team with the best example of creativity, execution and applied innovation, which delivers a new approach to a problem that will make lasting and meaningful impact and change.
ATD spent 2 years building PolyATOM from the ground up to best meet their customers’ rgowing expectations. PolyATOM includes containerized microservices, platform automation and integration, CI/CD builds and deploys, database integrations, and cloud agnostic edge proxy integrations.
Business Impact SMB
At the January 24, 2024, CXO Tech Insights, Open Broadband received the Business Impact SMB award as the company/organization of up to 750 employees, or an individual or team from that company/organization, that achieves the greatest business value via the deployment and use of an information technology solution
They formed an Internet Service Provider company with a mission to bridge the digital divide and get high-speed internet to underserved areas that need it the most.
AI, Analytics, Big Data
Wells Fargo received the Business Impact Analytics, AI, and Big Data award at CXO Tech Insights on March 20, 2024, for being the company/organization that achieves the greatest business value through the use of an analytics, artificial intelligence and/or big data-based technology solution.
They created a transformative Check Fraud Detection Solution – a major advancement in combatting check fraud, a prevalent and complex issue in the financial industry, using an innovative AI-based solution.
Community Solutions
E4E Relief received the Community Solutions award at CXO Tech Insights on May 22, 2024, for being the company/organization that demonstrates the greatest social impact through a community service program that leverages technology and/or addresses a technology related need.
They created an Emergency Financial Relief platform designed to help companies support the mental and financial well-being of their workforce during times of disaster and hardship.
Business Impact Corporation
On October 9, 2024, Positec/Kress Commercial, receive the Business Impact Corporation award for being the team from a company/organization of >750 employees that achieves the greatest business value via the deployment and use of nominated information technology solutions.
Created a CyberSystem Battery platform fueled by the Kress Commercial CyberTank for landscapers to use which reduces noise pollution and gas pollution, and health hazards to landscapers.
IT Entrepreneur
The IT Entrepreneur Award will be announced on November 13th at CXO Tech Insights. You can register here.
Thank you to our 2023-2024 panel of judges:
| Randy Alexander |
| Sandra Bumstead |
| Dinesh Ejanthkar |
| Aaron Pierce |
| Terry Morgan |
| Cam Faison |
| Sean Gallagher |
| Keith Luedeman |
| Raja Musunuru |
| Stuart Pallant |
| Peter Prakash |
| Kay Read |
| Sara Roselli |
| Andrew Swistak |
| Nancy Templeton |
| Rob Watkins |
| Rose Chambers |
| Van O’Neill |
| George Taulbee |
