High Tech Award Winners

P> Suburban Maryland High Technology Council's Leadership in Technology Award

Microbiological Associates provides biological safety testing services for biopharmaceutical and biomedical products and processes. Under Capers McDonald's leadership, the company was named High Technology Firm of the Year for 1995 from among more than 200 corporate members of the Suburban Maryland High Technology Council.

McDonald is very involved in the technology community. He serves as chairman of the Maryland Bioscience Alliance, a statewide industry association of more than 100 bioscience companies. He will soon join the University of Maryland's Biotechnology Institutes Board of Visitors and this summer he will chair the Biotechnology Growth Industry Sector Committee of the governor's Economic Development Commission. McDonald is the author of several engineering and scientific publications and holds device patents in the United States and Europe.

Northern Virginia Technology Council's Earle C. Williams Leadership in Technology Award

David Lucien

President and CEO of Interpro Corp.

As one of three founders of the Northern Virginia Technology Council and its chairman in 1993-1994, David Lucien has dedicated much energy to making this organization a vibrant force in the community. NVTC's success is mirrored in many other initiatives where Lucien's leadership has made a measurable difference in the climate for technology industry in Virginia and the metropolitan Washington community.

Lucien is a member of Lt. Gov. Don Beyer's Economic Recovery Commission. He has been instrumental in conceiving and promoting legislation affecting the technology industry and adopted by the Virginia General Assembly, including Revisions to the BPOL, formation of the Virginia Technology Council, continued funding for the Center for Innovative Technology and the Virginia Technology World's Fair Commission.

KPMG Peat Marwick's 1996 High Tech Entrepreneur Award

Katherine Clark

Founder of Landmark Systems

While working as a computer programmer with Blue Cross/Blue Shield in the early 1980s, Katherine Clark teamed with a co-worker to develop an innovative performance management software application. Sensing their product's potential, the two then negotiated for the rights to the software and in 1983 started their own company, Landmark Systems. At the time, the two young entrepreneurs had only high school degrees and little business experience. Today, Landmark employs 230 people and is recognized as a leader in the performance market, both nationally and internationally. It had 1995 revenues of $45 million.

Clark's initiative and determination have helped take Landmark from a start-up operation to a leading-edge technology provider. In 1989, Landmark was ranked 138th in Inc. magazine's list of America's 500 fastest growing private companies and 18th in Washington Technology's list of the 50 fastest growing companies in the mid-Atlantic.

Dr. William Haseltine

Founder of Human Genome Sciences Inc.

As part of Dr. William Haseltine's continuing efforts to move medical advances from the research lab to the patient's bedside, he founded Human Genome Sciences Inc. in 1992. His concept adapted technology from the Human Genome Project to create new medical products. To succeed, he knew his company should be first to discover most of the human genes and convert that knowledge to useful tools for the development of gene-based medicine.

After just three years, HGS is recognized as the world's leader in gene discovery. The company converted its automated gene discovery prototype into an assembly line gene discovery process, which discovered nearly all the human genes. Its library of human genes is the largest in the world. HGS is also developing gene-based drugs that should allow it to grow into a fully integrated pharmaceutical company.

Michael Saylor

Founder of MicroStrategy

Michael Saylor was one of the first people to comprehend the value of having quick and efficient access to critical data. MicroStrategy, the company he founded when he was 24 years old, was a direct offspring of this realization. Saylor founded the company to provide clients with a better, more intelligent way of making business decisions. He wanted to develop customized applications that would allow organizations to collect, synthesize, analyze data and turn it into actionable information. His original vision of "a crystal ball on every desktop" has guided MicroStrategy in six short years to its place as one of the fastest growing firms in the software industry. Since its founding in 1989, the company has had annual growth rates of 100 percent in both revenue and personnel.

MicroStrategy was recently named by Database Programming &amp Design magazine as one of the 1996 Database Dozen, the 12 companies that are defining the direction of the industry.

Wayne Schelle

Founder, American Personal Communications

Wayne Schelle is known as a pioneer in the wireless telecommunications industry. His endeavors have laid the foundations for revolutionizing the way Americans communicate -- from his early work in helping to establish the cellular industry to initializing personal communications services in the United States. In 1989 Schelle founded American Personal Communications. He had felt that the cellular system had deficiencies. After several years of working with the federal government and other industry-related groups to remove all legal, technological and financial barriers to the system's entry into the U.S. telecommunications arena, PCS was initiated in November 1995. In a partnership deal with Sprint Telecommunications, American Personal Communications launched PCS' entry in the U.S. marketplace.

Schelle's goal is to extend the reach of the system from the traditional ranks served by cellular systems to the general consumer. To accomplish this, PCS offers practically unbreachable call security, improved call quality, reliable service and lower costs.