Alumnus Kirk Ririe to be Inducted into the Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame

Other inductees are A. Scott Anderson and Alan Hall - Trio have made major contributions to building Utah’s Innovation Community

The Utah Technology Council (UTC) announced Kirk M. Ririe, A. Scott Anderson, and Alan Hall as its inductees into the 2014 UTC Hall of Fame. These Utah executives will be honored on November 7 at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City at the annual celebration of the technology industry.

This year’s gathering of Utah's technology executives will be keynoted by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com.

“This is a stellar group of leaders in our 2014 inductees,” said Richard R. Nelson, president and CEO of the UTC. “They have helped Utah become a great place for technology companies to thrive as they’ve led their respective companies to success. We’re enthused to celebrate their accomplishments at the UTC Hall of Fame Celebration.”

2014 Inductees:

Kirk M. Ririe

Kirk M. Ririe, born into an entrepreneurial family, pursued a broad education in chemistry, engineering, languages, and communication, receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 2005.

Dr. Carl Wittwer Ph.D., M.D., friend and mentor at the University of Utah, mentioned an idea for an incredible new technology that shortened a cutting-edge DNA analysis technique (PCR) from hours to minutes. Kirk built a prototype, photographed it and ran an ad in a scientific journal. Thus, Idaho Technology, Inc. (ITI) was born in 1990. Working with Dr. Wittwer and the University of Utah, ITI received NIH funding to add real-time fluorescent monitoring of the PCR reaction to its earliest PCR instrument, thus creating the LightCycler.® In 1997, Kirk, Carl and colleague Randy Rasmussen brokered a multi-year, multimillion-dollar licensing and collaborative research agreement with Roche Molecular Biochemicals.

In 1999, Kirk received the National Tibbetts Award on behalf of ITI’s outstanding contribution to the SBIR program and the Franklin Jefferson Award in Science and Technology Innovation. In 2004, Kirk was an honored recipient of the 2004 Utah Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and ITI received awards from Frost & Sullivan for Business Development Strategy Leadership in the Biological Detector Market and Utah Business Magazine as one of Utah’s Top 20 High Tech Companies. ITI was awarded the North American Biological Detection Company of the Year in 2007 and celebrated 20 years in business in 2010.

In 2011, Kirk’s latest invention, the FilmArray® System and Respiratory Panel, a user-friendly PCR system for the point-of-care diagnostic market, received FDA clearance with the ability to test for dozens of different organisms simultaneously in under an hour. Other panels that have since been FDA cleared are the Blood Culture Identification Panel (2013) and Gastrointestinal Panel (2014).

On August 28, 2012, Idaho Technology, Inc. officially changed its name to BioFire Diagnostics, Inc.

On May 2, 2014, the University of Utah, College of Science formally inducted Kirk into the Science Hall of Fame.

Kirk serves on the Board of Trustees of the Utah Technology Council.

About the Utah Technology Council

The Utah Technology Council is the state’s premier professional association for over 5,000 high tech, clean tech and life science companies. At its core, UTC exists to help Utah technology businesses become more relevant and competitive by creating valuable connections with members and others who offer peer experience and advice, by addressing the serious talent shortage faced by member companies and by assisting members to gain access to funding. Members join UTC to share insights with industry peers, counsel with government and academic leaders and receive help from professional service providers and funding resources.