For The Herald Bulletin
Anderson businessman Virgil E. Cook will be honored by The Chamber of Commerce for Anderson & Madison County and Anderson University and present scholarships for deserving students studying through the Falls School of Business.
The special event, scheduled for Friday, Dec. 5, will highlight guest speaker Scott Webber, chairman and CEO of Volatus Management Advisors, and honor Cook with the 2008 Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur Award.
Cook donated the land upon which Hoosier Park is now located.
The special luncheon, speaker and presentation are scheduled for noon at the Anderson Country Club and are made possible through an endowment fund established at the Madison County Community Foundation by Anderson attorney Charles Dickmann and his wife, Hazel.
The purpose of the endowment is to support the presentation of an annual entrepreneur award through the Chamber of Commerce and to underwrite annual undergraduate or graduate student scholarships through the AU Falls School of Business. Cost for the program is $15 per person and $10 for students. For reservations, call the Chamber of Commerce at (765) 642-0264.
The Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur Award honors persons who have demonstrated a true partnership with Madison County, within and outside their organization. The scholarship is designed to motivate future entrepreneurs by providing assistance to Madison County residents who are full-time students pursuing a business degree at Anderson University.
In his 30 years in the technology industry, Webber has successfully guided companies from inception to maturity. Most recently, Webber has been an investor and mentor to young Indiana technology companies. He currently serves as the chairman & CEO of Volatus Advisors, an investment and advisory vehicle for young companies. Successful investments include Performance Assessment Network, which was launched out of the VTG incubator, and Autobase, where Webber also served as chairman & CEO.
Previously, Webber served as chief executive of Corepoint Technologies, a global IBM software company, where he increased flat revenues by 60 percent in a period of eight months. As president and CEO of Software Artistry, Inc., he led the company to the first successful software IPO in the state, and later to an acquisition by Tivoli Systems, an IBM company. Webber also spent 10 years at Pansophic Systems Inc., a software company that grew from a $30 million privately held company to a $230 million publicly traded company during his tenure.
Webber was also a founding member of the Indiana Software Association, the first evolution of the state’s technology association in the early 1990s. In 1995, along with then Mayor Steve Goldsmith, Scott founded and chaired the Central Indiana Technology Partnership, which grew quickly to a membership of more than 700 executives of technology-focused companies in the area. The partnership created the strategic plan for growing a technology community in the region and state, and also launched the annual Technology Summit which continues to deliver a state of the technology community update today.
Webber holds a master’s degree in management from Northwestern University and a B.A. degree from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
