The ceremony recognized immigrants who have achieved significant success since moving to Canada. These included categories for youth, women, innovation, and social enterprise. For this first round of awards, all recipients worked in the information technology field.

Ottawa mayor Jim Watson presided over the award ceremony. He acknowledged the important role that immigrants have to play in driving Canada’s economy and society. These awards are a “chance to thank these risk-takers and entrepreneurs and to encourage young entrepreneurs,” said Watson.

Canada has been taking steps to attract innovative entrepreneurs in a variety of sectors. Recently, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney announced plans for a future entrepreneur visa that will include a mentoring program for those opening a new business in Canada.

The individuals honoured were:

Valery Tolstikhin, of OneChip Photonics, which employs over 85 people to make optical transceivers
Dipak Roy, of D-TA Systems, which creates sonar radar for defense and aerospace industries
Vindo Rajasekaran, co-founder of HUB Ottawa, a social enterprise organization
Obaid Ahmed, of OAK Computing, recipient of the youth award
Supiya Mishra, owner of visionTech4u, an IT consulting firm for non-profits