Here's some news that hits close to home for me personally... it was just announced yesterday that RIM's Co-CEO Jim Balsillie is going to receive the 2009 International Distinguished Entrepreneur Award. The award is presented each year by the Associates, a group of more than 250 prominent business leaders who support the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba (that's the biz school I graduated from!).
"We are thrilled to announce that this year's I.D.E.A. recipient is Mr. Balsillie," said Arni Thorsteinson, Chair of the I.D.E.A. Committee for the Associates and President of Shelter Canadian Properties Limited. "Jim encapsulates the idea of I.D.E.A. as a world-renowned entrepreneur who stands among very few Canadians in terms of what he has done, and what we anticipate he is yet to do."
Balsillie joins past I.D.E.A. recipients, including Israel Asper, Richard Branson, award founder Albert D. Cohen, Paul Desmarais, Akio Morita, Ross Perot, Heather Reisman, Dame Anita Roddick, Gerald Schwartz, Martha Stewart, W. Galen Weston and last year's recipient, Peter Munk.
The gala award ceremony goes down on June 2nd, where Balsillie will be presented with a custom-made pure gold medal produced by the Royal Canadian Mint that is created specifically for the award.
Congrats J Ball! You deserve it!! I'd better reserve a CrackBerry.com table for the event so I can be there with an entourage of local BlackBerry Addicts to cheer you on.
