BSA's Distinguished Innovators and Cyber Champion Awards

Technology & Innovation Forum 2009

BSA's Distinguished Innovators and Cyber Champion Awards

Distinguished Innovator Awards

BSA presented its first-ever Distinguished Innovator Awards to five individuals and organizations that have been pioneers in the development and use of information technology in Brazil. BSA commissioned the prestigious University of São Paulo (USP) School of Business and The George Washington University Law School’s Creative and Innovative Economy Center to identify Brazil’s foremost technology innovation pioneers.

BSA Technology & Innovation Forum 2009 - Distinguished Innovator and Cyber Champion Awards Video

Click to view the BSA Distinguished Innovator and Cyber Champion Awards Ceremony.

The winners of BSA’s Distinguished Innovators Award were:

  • João Meidanis, PhD, and João Setubal, PhD, computer science professors who organized Brazil’s most ambitious science project ever: The genetic sequencing of a pathogen that was destroying millions of dollars of citrus crops each year. The renowned project included Web-based collaboration among more than 100 scientists at 34 research centers around the State of São Paulo.
  • The Chamber for Interbank Payments (CIP), a consortium of bankers that developed a world-class system for transferring money between banks in real time, as well as a unique micro-credit system widely used by low-income Brazilians.
  • Claire Feliz Regina, a former executive with the Brazilian internal revenue service who led persistent efforts to modernize Brazil’s tax-filing system and move it online, establishing Brazil as a world leader in e-government;
  • Bruno Ghizoni, founder of a business consulting company called Neos Technology Innovation, which developed a unique form of software-based innovation analysis. Among its successes, Neos helped the Brazilian courts establish an online auction system for seized properties, improving transparency and financial returns for the Brazilian Ministry of Justice. 
  • Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, PhD, scientific director of the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), whose office supports computer science research in academia and encourages IT innovation in the private sector, including enterprise start-ups.

Cyber Champion Awards

BSA also presented its Cyber Champion Award to two leading Brazilian companies:

  • Paradigma Business Technology, whose software has enabled Brazil’s energy industry to negotiate and transact pricing contracts with reduced uncertainty and greater efficiency; and
  • Softon Intelligent Systems, which has developed and implemented software solutions to prevent financial fraud, particularly money laundering. 

A special award was presented to the teachers and students of the Prof. Romulo Pero School of São Paulo, who are active participants in BSA-sponsored Projeto Escola Legal (Project Legal School). This project seeks to raise students’ awareness of the harm that is done to inventors and creative artists when intellectual property such as music, film and software is pirated and abused. Students in the program collaborate on art works, music, skits and other activities which address the issue of piracy from their youthful perspective. The Escola Legal Project is an initiative of the American Chamber of Commerce in São Paulo, and BSA is a sponsor of the program along with ABES. The Brazilian Ministry of Justice and the National Council to Combat Piracy (CNCP) are supporters of the program.

Commenting on the awards, Robert Holleyman said, “The list of ways that IT makes a positive difference in our lives is limited only by our imagination – and by the policy environment that government creates for IT. These awards recognize Brazilians who are leading the way to technological progress for all people.”


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