RIT announces 2024 Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award recipient

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Marc Fiore, president and founding owner of Mindex, a Rochester-based software development company, is the 2024 recipient of the Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award, presented by Saunders College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology. 

The award, marking its 40th year, is given annually to a successful individual or individuals who developed a business that improved the Rochester economy or whose innovative management skills changed the course of an existing business or industry. 

The recipient is selected by a committee of area civic leaders, business leaders, former awardees and RIT faculty and staff.  

“Marc Fiore is a wonderful exemplification of the 40th anniversary of the Vanden Brul Award, honoring the region’s foremost business minds and innovators,” said Saunders College Dean Jacqueline Mozrall. “We are proud to honor Marc, who regularly demonstrates the ideals of successful entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, and an inspiring commitment to the Rochester community.” 

Fiore will be honored at the Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award Luncheon from noon to 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25, inside the Susan R. Holliday Center at the newly renovated and expanded Saunders College. Registration remains open until June 14. 

Fiore graduated from SUNY Polytechnic Institute with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. He started Mindex in 1994 at 27 years old. 

Mindex has grown to a workforce of nearly 400 employees and is recognized for its products and services, including its flagship K-12 student management system, SchoolTool, designed for New York state school districts. 

“It was a humbling experience when I first learned about receiving the award,” Fiore said. “I read about Herbert Vanden Brul and was inspired by his entrepreneurial spirit and everything he did for Rochester. I also looked at past winners and their accomplishments and was honored to receive this award in the same company as many great people.”  

Saunders College also will honor three RIT students with the Hebert W. Vanden Brul Student Entrepreneurial Award, which recognizes outstanding RIT undergraduate or graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to become successful entrepreneurs. The students will find out their placement of finish at the awards ceremony on June 25. 

The honorees are:

• Edis Hadzija, a senior international business student from Zagreb, Croatia, is the entrepreneurial force behind Balkan Exim. His company is actively helping to boost the economies of more than five countries. 

• Nathan Irving (motion picture science) is a creative technologist, software developer, and imaging engineer from Union Springs, Cayuga County. He is advancing metrology equipment to create consumer-accessible measurement tools. 

• Valeria Marin-Montealegre, from Rochester, is a biomedical engineer with a master’s degree in product development engineering, current doctoral student at RIT and the founder of HUMANBX S.A.S, a biomedical design and additive manufacturing company located in the southwest of Colombia. 

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