The 35th Annual Weatherhead 100 Awards Ceremony was held on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. Over 740 attended the event, and 149 companies from Northeast Ohio were recognized and celebrated as the fastest-growing companies based on revenue from 2018-2022.
Established in 1988, The Weatherhead 100 awards are the premier celebration of Northeast Ohio’s spirit of entrepreneurship and the companies leading the way in the region. Each year, we recognize this elite group of companies who serve as the best examples of leadership, growth and success in our region.
Companies that make the list are recognized for their percent of revenue growth over the past five years. Qualifying companies can enter in one of the following categories:
- Weatherhead 100 Enterprise: (Category formerly known as Upstarts) Fast-growing companies with 15 or fewer employees or net sales of less than $5 million last year.
- Weatherhead 100 Winners: Celebrated for big growth in net sales over the past five years - from at least $100K to $1 million.
- Weatherhead 100 Titan: (Category formerly known as Centurions) Fast-growing companies with at least $100 million net sales last year that help drive the region.
- Weatherhead 100 Emergent Businesses to Watch: (New category for 2023!) Companies in business for two to four years with an increase in sales.
- Companies were recognized as winners in 4 categories this year: Titan (formerly Centurion), Enterprise (formerly Upstart), Weatherhead 100 and Emergent Business (new category for 2023).
KeyBank was once again the presenting sponsor for the event and CWRU Weatherhead School of Management would like to thank our other sponsors, Crain’s, Echo Health, Buckingham Doolittle & Burroughs, BudgetEase Booking and Koehler Fitzgerald for their support as well as saying congratulations to all the winning companies for their well-deserved accomplishments this year!
The 35th anniversary of the Weatherhead 100 offers us an opportunity to reflect on how much
the business world has changed. In the 1990s, the rapid expansion of the Internet was the big
news, with a host of new businesses emerging to support organizations looking to have a
dominate presence on the World Wide Web. Then in the 2000s, eCommerce took centerstage,
with the rapid rise of dot-com startups in 2000, and the dramatic fall of many of these new
ventures three years later. Big Tech then emerged, but the bigger challenge in 2008 was a
global financial crisis. And most recently, a global pandemic.
Today businesses are facing a new paradigm shift. The transition to data-driven and analytics-
based decision making across organizations has led rapid acceleration in data analytics, deep
machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain technologies, digital transformation and
cloud computing. In parallel, the growing social challenges, including ongoing disruptions
created by climate change, social inequalities, digital divide and the new realities of the geo-
political environment, demand business leaders to recognize the interconnectedness between
organizations and society, and how to do well by doing good.
“Our role as a leading higher-education institution is to look into the future so that we can
prepare tomorrow’s business leaders today,” said Andrew Medvedev, interim co-dean of the
Weatherhead School of Management.
One of the ways Weatherhead stays in front of change is through ongoing research. The
school’s faculty have authored research papers on a wide range of topics impacting businesses.
In our region the school, the school’s mission is to serve as the intellectual hub of the corporate
community.
J.B. Silvers, PhD, interim co-dean and professor of health care finance and banking and finance
at Weatherhead explained that the school’s goal is to present curriculum rooted in real-world
scenarios and the ever-evolving challenges faced by businesses here and around the world.
“We want to make courses applicable to real life, informed by ideas and involvement from our
major stakeholders,” said Silvers.
View the photo gallery, video of the awards ceremony and the list of winners.