Amanda Lannert of Jellyvision took home CEO of the Year honors at the Third Annual Moxie Awards at the Park West on Thursday night.
Online food-ordering platform GrubHub, on the heels of its $192 million IPO earlier this year, was named Breakthrough Digital Company of the Year.
The moment was particularly special for Lannert, as the award presenter was Jellyvision founder Harry Gottlieb. He recalled the day he offered Lannert the CEO job by handing her a box of business cards with the new title on it. She had been president.
CEO Amanda Lannert has shaped a culture of humor and hard work at Jellyvision Lab
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“This was so much more special because I was able to share it with our founder, who has helped me so much,” Lannert said Thursday.
Also nominated for CEO of the Year were Logan LaHive of Belly, Shawn Riegsecker of Centro, Justyn Howard of Sprout Social and Rishi Shah of ContextMedia.
“All of the finalists are incredible CEOs and leaders in Chicago’s tech community,” said Built In CEO Maria Katris. “The fact that Amanda won the award is a testament to her strengths as a leader and executor. I have no doubt Jellyvision will continue to exceed expectations in 2014 under her leadership.”
Previous winners of the CEO of the Year Award were Mike Sands of BrightTag (now Signal) last year and Matt Maloney of GrubHub in 2012.
Thursday night’s event was sold out, with more than 850 attendees, Katris said. More than 80,000 individual nominations were submitted for awards this year, and more than 360,000 votes were cast, she said. A panel of judges also voted on the nominees. Voting weight was split 50-50 between the general public and the judges, Katris said.
Built In Chicago Founder Matt Moog said events like the Moxie Awards are important for the community.
“Any community or ecosystem needs to recognize the people in it,” Moog said. “It’s a really important part of the feedback loop. To be recognized by your peers means something to people.”
1871 CEO Howard Tullman agreed.
“This community is pretty (expletive deleted) tight,” said Tullman, known for his salty language. “It’s growing. It’s exciting. And we are celebrating a lot of great stories tonight.”
Dylan Richard, chief technology officer of Modest Inc., said the size of the event “is a good reflection on where this community has come. This kind of thing didn’t exist five years ago.”
Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke onstage briefly, saying the size of the event reflects the growing importance of Chicago’s tech sector.
The full list of winners:
CEO of the Year: Amanda Lannert, Jellyvision
Best Consumer Web: SpotHero
Best B2B: TempoDB
Best New Startup: Civis Analytics
Best Startup Co-Founders: Jimmy Odom, Daniela Bolzmann and Kirk Lashley, WeDeliver
Best Service Provider: VineSprout Public Relations
Digital Agency of the Year: Rise Interactive
Mentor of the Year: Chuck Templeton, Impact Engine
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Investor of the Year: Stuart Larkins, Chicago Ventures
Tech Woman of the Year: Kristi Ross, CEO & President, dough
CTO of the Year: Aaron Rankin, Sprout Social
Best Software Company: Signal
Startup of the Year: Sprout Social
Best Company Culture: Centro
Best Enterprise Web Company: kCura
Breakthrough Digital Company of the Year: GrubHub