Noozhawk was among the recipients at the 2024 South Coast Business & Technology Awards ceremony, held Tuesday at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort.

Recognized for Excellence in Service, Noozhawk was praised for its unparalleled depth and breadth of trusted reporting over the past 17 years.

Award winners were recognized across a variety of categories, and included Jackie Carrera of the Santa Barbara Foundation (Executive of the Year); Andrew Firestone and Jess Parker of StonePark Capital (Entrepreneurs of the Year); Tecolote Research (Company of the Year); Zohar Ziv (Pioneer Award); and Rabbit and Pearly (Rising Stars).

Created 30 years ago, the annual awards ceremony recognizes innovation, leadership and success in the area’s business and technology sectors, while investing in the leaders of tomorrow.

This year’s event grossed $313,450, with net proceeds benefiting the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara, which has granted more than $3 million in SCBT scholarships to more than 1,100 students countywide since 2001.

After a networking reception in the hotel’s Rotunda, nearly 500 guests were ushered into the Grand Ballroom, where they were welcomed by ceremony emcees Matt Rowe, vice president and wealth management adviser at Raymond James, and Donna Weidl, senior vice president and wealth management adviser at Merrill Lynch.

Janet Garufis, chairwoman and CEO of Montecito Bank & Trust, who co-chaired the event with Rowe, sent a congratulatory video message.

Other speakers included Danna McGrew, a partner at Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf LLP and board chairwoman of the Scholarship Foundation, and scholarship recipient and student speaker David Pacheco.

Pacheco is a first-generation college student in his junior year at UC Santa Barbara studying statistics and data science.

He credits the SCBT scholarship for the freedom it has provided, allowing him to focus on his college education instead of worrying about rent, food and other expenses.

“Your generous support has positioned me for future success,” Pacheco said. “In the past I had to sacrifice a majority of my free time to work, but now I am able to participate in extracurricular activities, like clubs and organizations, which have expanded my peer and professional networks.”

In fact, it’s thanks in part to his new club association that Pacheco secured a summer internship with a top national accounting firm.

The Executive of the Year award went to Carrera, president and CEO of the Santa Barbara Foundation, who described the mission of her organization “to mobilize the philanthropic resources and collective wisdom to build empathetic, resilient, inclusive communities for everyone throughout our county.”

It’s a cause Carrera feels intensely passionate about — calling it her guiding star — and it’s what led her from Maryland to California and to the Santa Barbara Foundation.

“When you have a vision like the Santa Barbara Foundation has for a thriving community for everyone we need to unearth and channel the talents and strengths of many, and I am ever hopeful for Santa Barbara because we have no shortage of gifts in this community,” she said.

“I am continually inspired by the generosity of philanthropy of Santa Barbara’s most compassionate families.”

Noozhawk received the Excellence in Service award for its pioneering 24/7 news platform providing essential, trusted reporting on events that shape daily life, throughout Santa Barbara County.

Founder and publisher Bill Macfadyen accepted the award, noting that two Noozhawk staff members are SCBT scholarship recipients and expressing thanks to the donors whose generosity helped launch their careers.

Macfadyen also extended thanks to business partners Kim Clark and Tom Bolton for their many contributions, including the growth of the news site, which now reaches 23,000 daily readers with 1.5 million monthly page views.

“When I started Noozhawk 17 years ago, our only goal was to provide Santa Barbara and Goleta with the professional, trustworthy and unbiased local news reporting that our community needed and deserved,” Macfadyen said.

“We had no map in the uncharted territory we were venturing into. As pioneers, we made our share of stumbles, but we never lost focus on the community we serve.”

He expressed his gratitude to “our extraordinary staff who embody the ideals of quality journalism, fairness and integrity that are at the center of our community reputation.”

As Company of the Year, Tecolote Research was singled out for its demonstrated profitability (nearly $280 million this year), market leadership and strong growth.

For more than 50 years, Tecolote Research has steadily grown its profile as a valuable provider of consulting, analytics, quantitative analysis, risk assessment and digital solutions to the Defense Department and other federal agencies involved in national security.

The company started with two employees and now employs 800 people nationwide across 27 locations, and remains 100% employee owned.

President and CEO James Takayesu, a previous SCBT executive of the year recipient, credited the individual employees and their commitment to Tecolote’s mission as critical to the company’s success.

Founded in 1973 by two UCSB grads, Tecolote has remained committed to providing support solely to federal governments so that they can be trusted, honest advisers without outside or conflicting interests.

Firestone and Parker are the dynamic principals behind hospitality and investment development firm StonePark Capital, and each was honored with the Entrepreneur of the Year award, recognized for their ability to inspire others with vision, leadership and achievement.

Since founding StonePark, they have distinguished themselves as a uniquely disciplined and savvy team, with the property portfolio to prove it, including the acquisition, rebrand and renovation of El Prado Inn/Courtyard Santa Barbara Downtown in Santa Barbara.

StonePark launched in 2014 and to date has successfully acquired a total of eight properties with more than $200 million in invested capital.

The Pioneer Award was presented to Ziv, an influential force in local business circles for more than 30 years.

Ziv is a director, adviser and investor with decades of executive management experience across a variety of businesses, including serving as a COO of Deckers Brands, where he contributed to grow the footwear company into a $1.8 billion business.

He also served as co-founder of DPC Dash, a publicly held company that today operates 800 Domino’s Pizza restaurants in China. He serves as an adviser to Alante Capital, Toad&Co and SeaVees, among many other local companies.

Over the course of his career, Ziv has participated in multiple public offerings and raised more than $700 million in financing.

He also serves on the boards of the Santa Barbara Foundation, CALM, and CSU Channel Islands.

Born and raised in Israel, Ziv said he arrived in the United States 48 years ago with just a backpack, never imagining that he would make a life in this country and achieve the successes that he has.

He credits public education (Santa Monica College and CSU Northridge) and an opportunity that someone gave him early in his career.

“When you see something in someone give them a chance,” he said. “Even if they don’t look like you, don’t have the same background as you, or even if they have a strange name and an accent.”

Rabbit, a local running and apparel company, received the Rising Star award. As passionate runners, founders Jill Deering and Monica DeVreese originally set out to create a better running short, and now they boast the largest independent running specialty brand in the country.

The company has consistently doubled its business each year for the last five years, and has just introduced its first performance running shoe.

Pearly, a dental practice software company, also received a Rising Star award for its innovative software solution utilized by more than 1,000 dental practices across 45 states.

The software optimizes revenue operations through intelligent workflow automations and seamless integration, with practice management systems, enhancing the financial experience for patients.

The Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara is the nation’s largest community-based provider of college scholarships, having cumulatively awarded in excess of $150 million to some 62,000 county students since its founding in 1962.

The nonprofit organization also provides free financial aid advising services.

Click here for more information about the Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara. Click here to make an online donation.