Back to Entrepreneur Of The Year

The success of the program relies on the efforts of our independent panel of judges. These past Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award recipients and civic and community leaders devote significant effort to review and deliberate the merits of each nominee. We deeply appreciate their dedication to the program. 

2026 judging panel

Amy Porter
Founding Partner
Skylark Private Equity Partner
2016 Regional award winner

Amy Porter is an experienced entrepreneur, CEO and board member. She is the founder and former CEO of 8am (formerly AffiniPay), an Austin-based legal technology and payments company established in 2005. Most notably, Amy created AffiniPay’s original LawPay and CPACharge products, financial technology used by more than 250,000 lawyers and accountants. These innovative concepts have earned the company 15 years on the Inc. 5000 list and Best Places to Work in Austin list, and she is Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2016, Central Texas Region.

Amy currently serves as an executive partner with Skylark Private Equity, a board member of Dell Children’s Foundation and president of the University of Texas Cheer and Pom Alumni Board. Back to top

Blake Brannon
President
Brannon Industrial Group
2022 Regional award winner

President Blake Brannon, of Brannon Industrial Group and Kingdom Pipe & Steel, has a diverse background that spans from his roots in Brenham to his achievements on the national stage. Born and raised in Brenham, Texas, he graduated from Brenham High School and later pursued his higher education at the University of Texas at San Antonio. After a successful stint in the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball organization, Blake returned to his hometown and embarked on an entrepreneurial journey that would define his career. He founded Premier Metal Buyers, an organization that initially focused on metal recycling but rapidly expanded its services to include waste, portable sanitation and demolition services. Under Blake's visionary leadership, Brannon Industrial Group, the parent company of Premier Metal Buyers, BVR Waste and Recycling, and Stop and Go Potties, has experienced exponential growth over the past decade, with operations now spanning Brenham and College Station and employing more than 200 people. In 2022, he was honored with the prestigious Entrepreneur Of The Year® Central South Award. Additionally, he was acknowledged as part of Waste360's "40 Under 40," a testament to his remarkable contributions to the business world at a young age. Blake's commitment to growth and innovation continued with the launch of Kingdom Pipe & Steel, LLC in the fall of 2023. This venture, a spin-off from Brannon Industrial Group, focuses on serving the steel needs of various organizations and industries. With a family-owned legacy in the metal recycling and waste industry, the Brannon Industrial Group, operating through Premier Metal Buyers and BVR Waste and Recycling, has seen revenues surpassing $100 million. Back to top

Daryl Dudum
Co-CEO
Specialty1 Partners
2023 Regional award winner

Daryl Dudum was born and raised in San Francisco, California. After attending UCLA for a BA in Economics, he completed his Dental degree at the University of the Pacific Dental School. Upon graduation, he received his certificate in Endodontics at the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Daryl moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2011 where he started his family with his wife, Katherine. They have three beautiful children: Dylan, Kennedy and Brooklyn. After practicing for 10 years, he cofounded Specialty1 Partners in 2019. He has served as Co-CEO since inception and helped guide it from eight locations to more than 225 locations in 28 states in just four years. Specialty1 is the clear leader in the dental specialty space and has been recognized numerous times by Inc. as one of the fastest-growing companies in the US. In 2022 and 2023, it was the fastest-growing dental company in the country and the 15th fastest-growing company in the US in 2023. Daryl has been recognized as a winner of the Entrepreneur Of The Year® in the Gulf South region as well as being a national finalist. He and his family left their California roots to move to Houston in 2022 to be near Specialty1's headquarters to continue to guide its success into the future. Back to top

Dave Sisk
Co-Founder and CEO
Streamline Innovations
2025 Regional award winner

Dave Sisk is the CEO and Co-Founder of Streamline Innovations, an industrial technology company offering gas and water treatment solutions to the energy, industrial and municipal markets. Founded in 2016, Streamline Innovations has grown into a recognized technology leader, with its proprietary VALKYRIE® units and other technologies enabling the safe, sustainable and efficient removal of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) and other harmful pollutants from vapor and water streams.

In 2025, Dave was recognized by the Entrepreneur Of The Year® program at both the regional and national levels, becoming a regional award winner for the Gulf South as well as a national finalist. In 2024, Streamline Innovations was ranked No. 6 on TIME magazine’s inaugural list of America’s Top GreenTech Companies, and has remained on the list for the past several years for advancing environmental performance across heavy industry.

Dave is a native Texan with more than 22 years of experience spanning military, government, energy, technology and private equity. He served eight years as a U.S. Army engineer officer, deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, and is a recipient of the Bronze Star.  Following his military service, he held engineering, project management and leadership roles in the upstream oil and gas sector before transitioning to entrepreneurship and early-stage company development. He serves on several boards and is a venture partner at Mission 3A, a venture studio.

David holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from West Point, a Master of Arts in Religion from Redeemer Seminary and an MBA from The University of Texas at Austin. He lives in San Antonio, Texas, with his wife and five children and is actively involved in his local church and community. Back to top

Juliet Breeze
CEO
Next Level Medical
2022 Regional award winner

Dr. Juliet Breeze graduated from Northwestern University and earned her medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. After working in family practice for several years, she moved her focus to the business of medicine. As a serial entrepreneur, she developed several large group medical practices, two private hospitals and two surgery centers. Juliet has also served on the boards of directors of several health care tech startup companies. Currently, she is vice president of Vantage Hospice and the founder and CEO of Next Level Medical. Juliet has been focused on developing Next Level PRIME, an innovative model combining urgent, primary, preventive and mental health care with laboratory services via an employer-paid membership.  Now Next Level is helping other organizations nationwide launch similar programs through a white-labeled solution. She has been honored to be a 2022 recipient of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Award. She has also been named a "Most Admired CEO" by the Houston Business Journal and one of Houston's Top 30 Influential Women by D-Mars.com. Supporting women's initiatives and a commitment to developing future leaders are issues that are important to Juliet. She is a longtime supporter of Junior Achievement, having served as the Board Chair in 2021–23. Additionally, she is a past board chair of Fort Bend Women's Center and has held an active role in the Greater Houston Women's Chamber of Commerce, serving on the board as well as other subcommittees. In 2025, she was honored to be an inductee to the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. Back to top

Matt Flake
CEO
Q2
2016 Regional award winner

A visionary leader known by Q2 team members and customers alike for his authentic, engaging and quick-witted communications style, Matt Flake is committed to Q2’s mission to build stronger communities by strengthening their financial institutions. He values direct engagement with customers and prospects and leverages his inquisitive nature to uncover innovative ways to improve the Q2 organization. 

Matt has made significant contributions to Q2’s growth, strategic direction and mission-driven culture. He was instrumental in driving Q2’s growth from a startup to a publicly traded company with a global workforce, more than 1,000 financial institutions across the globe and a market capitalization exceeding $4 billion. 

Matt is a veteran of the financial services industry with more than 20 years of professional experience, 18 of those years with Q2. In addition to his role as CEO, Matt also serves on the Q2 Board of Directors. 

A graduate of Baylor University, Matt is a recipient of the esteemed Entrepreneur Of The Year Award and was also recognized as a national finalist. He is currently the Chair of Dell Children’s Hospital Board of Trustees and serves on the Board of Directors of software company Rentvine. Back to top

Matthew Haddad
Co-CEO
Specialty1 Partners
2023 Regional award winner

Matthew Haddad currently resides in Houston, Texas, where he founded Gulf Coast Endodontics (GCE) in 2010 and Jamboree Pediatric Dentistry (JPD) in 2011. After overseeing the growth of GCE and JPD over the next nine years, he founded Endo1 Partners, which evolved into Specialty1 Partners. Matthew had a successful exit of JPD in 2021 after growing it to five locations and more than $10 million in revenue. Currently, he serves as the co-CEO and a member of the board for Specialty1 Partners, which has seen tremendous growth and success since its inception. Since launching in 2019, Specialty1 Partners has emerged as the market-leading solution to help dental surgical practices optimize their operations and elevate patient care. Specialty1 Partners has achieved an overall ranking of No. 15 in the 2023 Inc. 5000 and No. 1 in the dental sector. Matthew was acknowledged for his achievements in the Houston Business Journal "40 Under 40" and was named Entrepreneur Of The Year® in the Gulf South region and a national finalist. He is also an active member of the YPO (Young Presidents' Organization) Houston chapter. Back to top

Neha Sampat
CEO
Contentstack Inc.
2025 Regional award winner

Neha Sampat is a three-time tech founder and CEO known for building purpose-driven companies that are great places to work. She is currently founder and CEO at Contentstack, the industry's leading digital experience platform. She most recently led the company through the acquisition of CDP Lytics in January 2025, bringing real-time customer data to the Contentstack platform. In 2022, she secured an $80 million series C, taking the total capital raised to $169 million. Neha previously founded and led digital transformation consultancy Raw Engineering and digital experience platform Built.io, which was acquired by Software AG in September 2018.

Neha often speaks at conferences and events about her experience as an entrepreneur, female founder, leader, culture builder and equity champion. She was honored as a 2025 Entrepreneur Of The Year® Gulf South winner, and named to Inc.’s 2025 Female Founders 500 list for the second time. In 2024, Contentstack ranked on the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies for the second year in a row and was named one of its Best Workplaces in America in 2021. She was also named “Female Tech Trailblazer of the Year in 2020” by IT Supply Chain and Aragon Research’s 2018 CEO of the Year.

Neha is on the board of directors for Austin’s Habitat for Humanity, a coowner of Austin Woman magazine and part of Mayor Kirk Watson’s Austin Women Entrepreneurs task force. She is also a relentless advocate for achieving equity in the workplace through initiatives like the ScaleUp Diversity Pledge and Pledge 1%, board participation, incubator programs and mentorship. She is also a certified sommelier. Back to top

Stephen Ellsworth
Founder
Poppi
2023 National award winner

Stephen Ellsworth is a cofounder of poppi, the Austin-based modern soda brand revolutionizing soda for the next generation. In 2016, Stephen and his wife, Allison, began selling their innovative blend of fruit juice, apple cider vinegar, sparkling water and prebiotics at the farmers' market. A successful pitch on Shark Tank sparked national attention and laid the groundwork for poppi’s meteoric rise.

He served as the company CEO and later as CPO where he spearheaded operations, finance and product innovation building out in-house flavor creation, streamlining R&D and modernizing go-to-market strategies.

His leadership positioned poppi as one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in the US. In March 2025, PepsiCo acquired poppi for $1.95 billion, citing the brand’s cultural relevance, consumer-driven innovation and  strong operational foundation as key drivers. Stephen has been recognized as an Entrepreneur Of The Year; TIME named poppi one of "The 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025."  He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three boys. Back to top