PrecisionHawk CEO Bob Young, inducted into Entrepreneur Hall of Fame

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) today revealed the inaugural class of the North Carolina Entrepreneur Hall of Fame: Dennis Dougherty, Dennis Gillings, Fred Hutchison and Bob Young. The 2016 class will be inducted on May 17 as part of the first annual CED Founders Day celebration, taking place at The Frontier in RTP, from 5pm to 7pm. CED assembled a small selection committee, which included leaders from the investment, entrepreneur and service provider communities, to identify and vote on the 2016 Hall of Fame class.

The North Carolina Entrepreneur Hall of Fame was established to honor individuals who have made a significant impact on the growth and success of our entrepreneurial community over the years. The inductees are leaders in North Carolina’s community who have had outsized influence on the growth of the ecosystem. They have achieved excellence in founding, leading and advancing entrepreneurial companies and are dedicated to the future success of entrepreneurship in North Carolina.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to the 2016 North Carolina Entrepreneur Hall of Fame class for their leadership, vision and commitment,” said Joan Siefert Rose, CED president & CEO.

“The selection committee adopted a guideline of ‘would the entrepreneurial community be dramatically different if this candidate had not founded a business here, made investments here, or provided services or support here?’ In looking at the contributions of each of our inductees the answer, unequivocally, is ‘yes.’”

Eight leaders among North Carolina’s investor, entrepreneur and service provider communities comprised the selection committee. The committee considered over three dozen candidates for the 2016 class. Inductees needed to receive more than 80% of the committee’s votes.

Bob Young CEO of PrecisionHawk, Founder and CEO of Lulu.com, Co-founder and former CEO of Red Hat Red Hat, now home to nearly 9,000 employees, started in a sewing closet in 1993.

That’s where co-founders Bob Young and Marc Ewing shaped their interest in open source software into a company. Bob and Marc had to build the company one customer at a time, convincing each one that they had customizable solutions for that company’s challenges.

As CEO and Chairman of Red Hat from 1993-2000, Young was responsible for the early success of the business. Red Hat is credited with driving the global, industry-wide adoption of open source development practices. Young’s efforts developing Red Hat into a household name have won him prestigious honors such as Business Week Magazine’s “Top Entrepreneurs” in 1999. Following Red Hat Bob began another entrepreneurial journey in 2002, with Lulu.com.

After an unsatisfying traditional publishing experience with his book Under the Radar, which was based on his success as the co-founder of Red Hat, Young wanted to make content creation and consumption a simpler and more rewarding experience for people around the world. Since 2002, Lulu.com has empowered creators in more than 225 countries and territories to produce nearly two million publications.

As a result of Bob’s ability to attract top talent to his companies, Red Hat and Lulu.com have spun out a number of successful entrepreneurs who are building great companies, including: Bronto (Red Hat), PrecisionHawk (Red Hat), rpath (Red Hat), and Spoonflower (Lulu.com).

Currently, Bob serves as CEO of Raleigh-based drone developer PrecisionHawk.

He was also PrecisionHawk’s first investor.

On May 17, 2016, Bob Young will be part of the inaugural class inducted to the North Carolina Entrepreneur Hall of Fame. Event Details: The 2016 North Carolina Entrepreneur Hall of Fame class will be inducted on May 17 at CED’s Founders Day celebration. The event will be held at The Frontier in Research Triangle Park from 5pm to 7pm and is open to the public (CED members may attend for free, all others may attend for $20. Registration for the event is available through this link: http://bit.ly/CEDFounders)

About CED

CED is the largest and longest-running network for entrepreneurs in the country. CED’s network propels emerging Triangle companies into highly successful businesses. Members include a wide range of startup and growth stage companies, investors, corporate partners, academics, service providers, and individuals interested in benefiting from CED’s powerfully connected network. Read more at http://www.cednc.org. – See more at: http://cednc.org/about/ced-newsfeed/north-carolina-entrepreneur-hall-of-fame-inductees-announced#sthash.fcz9el1w.dpuf