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UVic alumnus named entrepreneur of the year

Stewart Butterfield helped co-found Flickr and Slack since his graduation in 1996
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Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and CEO of Slack named Gustavson School of Business 2018 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year. (University of Victoria)

The man behind two of the world’s most popular sharing platforms is being recognized as entrepreneur of the year by his former university.

Stewart Butterfield is the co-founder and CEO of Slack, a cloud-based communication and collaboration tool used by many companies, including Black Press Media. He also helped launch the photo-sharing website Flickr in 2003. Now Butterfield has been named the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business 2018 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year (DEYA).

The University of Victoria and St. Michaels University School alumnus has spent the past two decades working on the web and has established himself as a top designer, entrepreneur and technologist after graduating with a BA in philosophy in 1996.

“We are extremely pleased to recognize Stewart Butterfield as our 2018 recipient,” said Peter Gustavson, chair of the DEYA committee. “Stewart is a true innovator, helping to move forward the role that technology plays in improving communication, collaboration and teamwork for all.”

Butterfield will be the first DEYA recipient to also be an alumnus of UVic. He then went on to receive his Master of Philosophy from the University of Cambridge.

TIME magazine named Butterfield one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” and he has also been listed as BusinessWeek’s “Top 50 Leaders.” In 2015, Butterfield was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as the “Technology Innovator of the Year.” Butterfield has also been featured on Vanity Fair’s “New Establishment List.” He is heavily involved in philanthropic endeavours, including pledging personal shares of Slack to advance science literacy in BC.

Butterfield will receive his award on May 11, 2018 at the Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Gala at the Victoria Conference Centre.

Slack was first launched in 2014 and is used by more than nine million people each week. Flickr started in 2003 and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2005.



ragnar.haagen@bpdigital.ca

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