April 18, 2012 : Chris Barbin Recognized by Program for Second Consecutive Year
San Mateo, Calif. – April 18, 2012 – Ernst & Young LLP today announced that Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio, a technology-enabled services provider that helps enterprises power their business with the cloud, was named a semifinalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2012 program in the Northern California region. The award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities. Finalists will be named in May, with awards being presented at a special gala on June 2 at the Fairmont San Francisco.
Chris Barbin has been named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® semifinalist in both 2011 and 2012 for his role in founding Appirio and leading it as CEO since the company's inception. Since the company was established in 2006, Appirio has worked with more than 300 enterprises, including some of salesforce.com, Google and Workday's largest, most complex, global customers. In five years, Appirio has increased revenue 80 percent year over year, grown to nearly 500 employees, expanded into Japan, the U.K. and Singapore, and helped more than 1.5 million people move to the cloud."As a global growth investor, General Atlantic partners with exceptional management teams and we are proud that Chris Barbin is being recognized as an outstanding entrepreneur," said Brett Rochkind, managing director, General Atlantic. "This distinction is testament to his leadership and Appirio's position as an innovative leader in helping enterprises power their businesses with cloud technologies."
Now in its 26th year, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program has honored the inspirational leadership of such entrepreneurs as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Michael Dell of Dell Inc., Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, Fred Smith of FedEx, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Richard Schulze of Best Buy, Andrew Mason of Groupon, Mindy Grossman of HSN, Inc., Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, and many more.
SponsorsFounded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored in the United States by SAP America and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.
In Northern California sponsors include ManpowerGroup, The Big Picture, Smart Business Network, Inc., ADP, RoseRyan, Scherzer International, Orrick and Barney & Barney.
About AppirioAppirio accelerates the cloud-powered business, helping enterprises achieve real results from cloud applications and platforms like salesforce.com, Google and Workday. Appirio has worked with more than 300 enterprise customers including organizations like City of Los Angeles, Facebook, Flextronics, Home Depot, International Hotels Group, Japan Post Network, Ltd., L'Oreal, NetApp, NYU, Starbucks, Thomson Reuters and VMware. Appirio's technology-enabled professional services are supported by a team of nearly 500 cloud experts and CloudSpokes, a nearly 40,000 person-strong global cloud developer community. The company's expertise and innovative brokerage technology have been recognized by organizations such as the World Economic Forum, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, InformationWeek, Gartner, and IDC. Appirio has offices in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and is backed by Sequoia Capital, GGV Capital and General Atlantic.
About Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year®Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 140 cities in more than 50 countries.
About Ernst & YoungErnst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. Worldwide, our 152,000 people are united by our shared values and an unwavering commitment to quality. We make a difference by helping our people, our clients and our wider communities achieve their potential.
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