Thomas R. Brown Award

2006 - Sarah Brown Smallhouse— daughter of Thomas R. Brown and President of the Brown Family Foundation.

After earning a B.A. in economics at the University of Washington, Smallhouse went on to earn an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Arizona. She has owned and managed small businesses in southern Arizona as well as in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico, and is currently president of the Thomas R. Brown Foundations. She also serves on the Boards of Junior Achievement, University Physicians Hospital Kino Campus, the Critical Path Institute, and an Advisory Board to the University of Arizona’s College of Engineering. Additionally she serves on several local economic development committees.

2005 - James Wyant—Founder of Wyco Corporation

With over 100 publications, Professor James C. Wyant is an acknowledged expert in the fields of holography, interference, diffraction, and optical testing and he was the co-editor of the book series, Applied Optics and Optical Engineering. He is a pioneer in the fields of phase shifting interferometry, multiple wavelength interferometry, vertical scanning interferometry and holography and holds numerous patents. As a founder of WYKO Corporation, he served as its Chairman and President from 1984 to 1997. From 1992 to 1997 he was the editor of the Optical Technology Division of Applied Optics. He is a former member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Optical Society of America, and the 1986 President of SPIE. Dr Wyant has also been the recipient of numerous awards including the SPIE Governor's award, the R&D 100 award, the OSA Joseph Fraunhoffer award, and the SPIE Gold Medal award. Dr. Wyant currently serves as the Dean of the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona and sits on numerous corporate boards.

2004 - Charlie Horn—Fonder/Chairman of ScriptSave

Horn has founded or co-founded several businesses in the insurance and healthcare field including ScriptSave in 1994 in Tucson, AZ with a workforce of over 150 Tucson-based employees.  For three consecutive years, ScriptSave has been named one of the Inc 500, which lists the fastest growing privately owned companies in the nation.  ScriptSave has also been named one of the 100 fastest-growing inner city businesses by ICIC (Initiative for Competitive Inner City)-Inc Magazine.  The company was awarded the Society for Human Resource Management's 2003 "Workplace Excellence" award for Tucson, the 2003 Wells Fargo Copper Cactus " Best Place to Work" award and the 2004 Wells Fargo Copper Cactus "Business Growth" award.

In 2004 Horn served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the McGuire Entrepreneurship program at the Eller Business College of the University of Arizona and in 2003 he was named an Entrepreneurial Fellow.  He currently serves on the University of Arizona's College of Pharmacy National Advisory Board.

2003 - Co-recipients—Anthony Mulligan and Mark Angier—Founders of Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc.

Anthony C. Mulligan is co-founder and president of Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc. Mr. Mulligan focuses on applications for and marketing of the advanced composite materials developed by the company’s research personnel. He has also been extensively involved in the production startup and volume ramp-up of several new product production lines, including a volume production of precision composite carrier products. Mr. Mulligan is also the founder and principal of a successful medical products manufacturing company (Revdyne, Inc.) and a successful pet products manufacturing company that supplied major U.S. department stores such as Kmart, Walgreen’s, Albertson’s, Fry’s, PetsMart, and Ames. Mr. Mulligan serves in a number of advisory positions, including member of the Industrial Advisory Council to the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Arizona; member of the board of the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a National Institute of Standards and Technology program; member of the board of directors of the Small Business Technology Coalition; and, previously, chair of the Small Manufacturing Executives of Tucson. Mr. Mulligan is a member of ASM, the American Ceramics Society, and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and serves on the Structural Mechanics Committee for the Metallurgical Society.

Mark Angier is co-founder and chief executive officer of Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc. He graduated in 1989 from the University of Arizona with a master’s degree in engineering.

Advanced Ceramic Research ( ACR) was founded in 1989 to develop state-of-the-art high temperature, high strength ceramic materials and processes. What began with only $1,000 in startup funds has since become a world-class company.

Today, ACR continues to develop state-of-the-art high temperature, high strength ceramic materials and innovative processes. Early in the company's life, ACR developed a strong business plan that focused on two core technologies - Fibrous Monoliths (FM) and Rapid Prototyping/Rapid Manufacturing (RP/RM). The same corporate strategies have fostered even greater accomplishments.

Some of ACR's success can be found in their building winning team relationships with university researchers. Together they developed an array of cutting edge technologies leading to commercialization of them by partnering with Fortune 500 companies. Adding to their remarkable growth ACR works closely with government-sponsored laboratories, including Wright Paterson Air Force Research Laboratory and the Army and Naval Research Laboratories.

The company’s long-range mission is to improve the performance of ceramic and composite materials while maintaining their focus on client satisfaction. Their objective is to provide ACR customers with the highest quality product possible and the fastest turnaround in this competitive industry.

2002 - Dr. Thomas Grogan—Founder/Director Ventana Medical Systems

Dr. Grogan is a founder, a director, Chairman Emeritus, Chief Scientific Officer, and Medical Director of Ventana.  He has served as a director since the founding of the Company in June 1985 and as Chairman of the Board of Ventana from June 1985 to November 1995.  He is also currently a Professor of Pathology at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, where he has taught since 1979.  He received a BA in Biology from the University of Virginia and an MD from George Washington School of Medicine.  Dr. Grogan completed a post-doctorate fellowship at Stanford University.

Ventana Medical was founded by Dr. Grogan because he was interested in improving the practice of medicine through automation. In 1991, the Company launched its first instrument reagent system and followed with several further product launches before a successful IPO in 1996. The company’s shares are now traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol VMSI.

Ventana’s first product was an instrument-reagent system designed to automate IHC staining. At the time, all IHC staining was performed manually, or via rudimentary automation. The Ventana system revolutionized the category and the Company has gone on to refine it’s systems culminating in the development of the “baking through staining” technology available on the BenchMark platform which won the Medical Design Excellence award in 2001.

Ventana currently has several IHC instrument systems with a full line of complementary reagents and accessories. Their line of IHC products includes batch-processing and patient-priority systems targeted to hospital clinical and reference labs.

2001 - Thomas R. Brown—Founder of Burr-Brown Corporation

Mr. Brown was one of Tucson, Arizona’s most successful businessmen. He attended MIT and Harvard where he earned a general engineering degree and an MBA respectively. After serving in the Navy in War II, he married Helen Watson Mason and moved to Tucson where he co-founded Burr- Brown Research Corporation with Page Burr in 1956. Several years later, he bought Burr’s interest in the company and focused the rest of his career building the company they had started. He had a manufacturer’s enthusiasm for developing an excellent design, and then replicating it many times.

is attention to detail was relentless and his methodology impeccable. In 1983 Burr- Brown, which had originated in Mr. Brown’s garage, went public. In 2000, it was sold to Texas Instruments for the highest price ever paid in state history for an Arizona company.
Mr. Brown felt strongly about the virtues of free enterprise, and he sought to encourage individual liberty and fiscal conservatism. He believed in the institution of private property and personal responsibility. He stressed the importance of forethought, personal initiative and effort, commitment and disciplined work. He supported achievement of individual goals and was a supporter of education and training to enhance the ability of an individual to reach his/her potential.

Although Tom Brown’s life and work were based in Tucson, his vision was much broader. He thought in terms of mankind as a whole. Central to everything he did was his belief that the welfare of society is advanced through personal initiative, individual self-sufficiency and responsibility, and the preservation of the free enterprise system. It was his desire to encourage economically literate young people who would fully participate in our democracy through informed judgment and personal initiative. Because Burr-Brown grew and prospered in Arizona, the Thomas R. Brown Foundation has been established, and is concentrating its initial philanthropic endeavors in this geographic area.