The man behind two of the world鈥檚 most popular sharing platforms is being recognized as entrepreneur of the year by his former university.
Stewart Butterfield is the co-founder and CEO of Slack, a cloud-based communication and collaboration tool used by many companies, including Black Press Media. He also helped launch the photo-sharing website Flickr in 2003. Now Butterfield has been named the University of Victoria鈥檚 Peter B. Gustavson School of Business 2018 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year (DEYA).
The UVIC alumnus has spent the past two decades working on the web and has established himself as a top designer, entrepreneur and technologist after graduating with a BA in philosophy in 1996.
鈥淲e are extremely pleased to recognize Stewart Butterfield as our 2018 recipient,鈥� said Peter Gustavson, chair of the DEYA committee. 鈥淪tewart is a true innovator, helping to move forward the role that technology plays in improving communication, collaboration and teamwork for all.鈥�
Butterfield will be the first DEYA recipient to also be an alumnus of UVic. He then went on to receive his Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.
We're delighted to honour a home-grown talent as our 2018 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year! co-founder and CEO and alumnus Stewart Butterfield, , will be recognized at our 15th annual DEYA gala on May 11, 2018:
鈥� Gustavson UVic (@GustavsonUVic)
TIME magazine named Butterfield one of the 鈥�100 Most Influential People in the World鈥� and he has also been listed as BusinessWeek鈥檚 鈥淭op 50 Leaders.鈥� In 2015, Butterfield was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as the 鈥淭echnology Innovator of the Year.鈥� Butterfield has also been featured on Vanity Fair鈥檚 鈥淣ew Establishment List.鈥� He is heavily involved in philanthropic endeavours, including pledging personal shares of Slack to advance science literacy in BC.
Butterfield will receive his award on May 11, 2018 at the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Gala at the Victoria Conference Centre.
Slack was first launched in 2014 and is used by more than nine million people each week. Flickr started in 2003 and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005.
ragnar.haagen@bpdigital.ca
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