Connect with us

Technology

EY US unveils Lance Watkins of Tenant Inc. as an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2025 Pacific Southwest Award finalist

Published

on

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., May 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) announced the finalists for the prestigious Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 Pacific Southwest Award. Now in its 40th year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program celebrates the bold leaders who disrupt markets through the world’s most ground-breaking companies, revolutionizing industries and making a profound impact on communities. The program honors bold entrepreneurs whose innovations shape the future and pave the way for a thriving economy and a hopeful tomorrow.

An independent panel of judges selected Lance Watkins for his entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, growth and lasting impact in building long-term value.

“Being named an Entrepreneur Of The Year finalist is a deeply meaningful honor. My journey in self-storage began over 25 years ago, sparked by mentorship and driven by a relentless pursuit of finding more innovative ways to operate. From pioneering the use of underutilized land like utility easements to being the first operator to embrace the potential of the internet for reaching tenants, innovation has always been at the heart of what I do. That drive led me to pioneer e-commerce capabilities for the storage industry through Storage Outlet, transform auctions with StorageTreasures, launch the first full-service co-op through Storelocal, and ultimately, focus on shaping the future of self-storage software with Tenant Inc., the first operator-focused VSaaS platform. Throughout, my focus has always remained clear: applying innovation to solve the real-world challenges that storage operators like myself face every day. For me, this recognition validates that career-long pursuit, but the real credit for the growth and impact goes to the incredible teams across Storage Outlet, StorageTreasures, Storelocal, Charity Storage, and Tenant Inc. While we’re always focused on what’s next, I’ll certainly pause for a moment to reflect on this acknowledgment and how far we’ve come together.”

Entrepreneur Of The Year honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. The program celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or who raised outside capital to grow their company; transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory; and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.

Regional award winners will be announced on June 6th during a special celebration in San Diego and will become lifetime members of an esteemed community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from around the world. The winners will then be considered by the National judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards, which will be presented in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum®, one of the nation’s most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards include presenting sponsors PNC Bank, Cresa, LLC, Marsh McLennan Agency and SAP. In the Pacific Southwest, sponsors also include Platinum sponsor: Vaco; Gold sponsors: Cooley (San Diego market) and Stradling (Orange County market) and Silver sponsors: ADP and Big Picture.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year

Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 60 countries globally.

The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November where National finalists and award winners are announced. The overall National winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.

About EY

EY is building a better working world by creating new value for clients, people, society and the planet, while building trust in capital markets.

Enabled by data, AI and advanced technology, EY teams help clients shape the future with confidence and develop answers for the most pressing issues of today and tomorrow.

EY teams work across a full spectrum of services in assurance, consulting, tax, strategy and transactions. Fueled by sector insights, a globally connected, multi-disciplinary network and diverse ecosystem partners, EY teams can provide services in more than 150 countries and territories.

All in to shape the future with confidence.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

About Tenant Inc.

Tenant, Inc. empowers self-storage operators with an all-in-one SaaS platform designed to streamline operations and maximize revenue. Their comprehensive cloud-based suite of tools includes property management software, self-storage websites, digital marketing services, and more—giving storage owners and operators everything they need to compete and thrive in today’s competitive self-storage market.

For more information, please visit tenantinc.com.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ey-us-unveils-lance-watkins-of-tenant-inc-as-an-entrepreneur-of-the-year-2025-pacific-southwest-award-finalist-302445227.html

SOURCE Tenant Inc.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Wondershare to Showcase AI-Powered Business Workflows with PDFelement at Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong

Published

on

By

HONG KONG, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Wondershare, a global leader in productivity and creativity software, will participate in the Microsoft AI Tour Hong Kong on April 22, 2026, at the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong. At Booth E10, the company will showcase its AI-powered business workflow solutions across its product portfolio, highlighting Wondershare PDFelement as a key focus, and inviting attendees to experience how intelligent workflows can transform modern business operations.

As Microsoft’s flagship global AI event, the Microsoft AI Tour brings together industry leaders, partners, and innovators to explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping business landscapes. At the Hong Kong stop, Wondershare will highlight its deepening collaboration with Microsoft, showcasing how its product ecosystem works seamlessly within Microsoft’s AI and cloud technologies to enable more efficient, secure, and scalable workflows.

This collaboration comes at a pivotal time for Hong Kong’s rapidly evolving AI landscape. Hong Kong is rapidly emerging as a key AI innovation hub, driven by strong policy support and accelerating enterprise adoption. Despite this momentum, many organizations still face challenges such as fragmented AI adoption, integration complexity, and data security concerns. In collaboration with Microsoft, Wondershare addresses these challenges by enabling connected, end-to-end AI workflows that deliver practical and measurable productivity gains.

Under the theme “Streamline Workflows. Power Content with AI.”, Wondershare presents a unified approach to AI-driven productivity. At the center of this ecosystem is Wondershare PDFelement, enabling smarter and more efficient document workflows within enterprise environments and helping businesses adopt AI in practical, everyday scenarios. Supporting this vision, Wondershare’s broader product portfolio—including EdrawMax, EdrawMind, Filmora, and Reelmate—extends AI-powered capabilities across diagramming, mind mapping, video creation, and premium comic content creation, forming a connected, end-to-end workflow, all of which will also be showcased on-site at the event.

Through live, interactive demonstrations, attendees visiting Booth E10 will be able to explore Wondershare’s full product ecosystem and gain hands-on insight into how AI can enhance productivity across a wide range of business scenarios.

Wondershare warmly invites all participants to visit the booth and discover how AI-powered workflows can unlock new possibilities for business growth.

About Wondershare:

Wondershare is a globally recognized software company founded in 2003, known for its innovative solutions in creativity and productivity. Driven by the mission “Creativity Simplified”, Wondershare offers a range of tools, including PDFelement for document management; EdrawMax, EdrawMind for diagraming, Filmora and SelfyzAI for video editing. With over 2 billion cumulative active users across all products and a presence in over 200 countries and regions, Wondershare empowers the next generation of creators with intuitive software and trendy creative resources, continually expanding the possibilities of creativity worldwide.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/wondershare-to-showcase-ai-powered-business-workflows-with-pdfelement-at-microsoft-ai-tour-hong-kong-302747366.html

SOURCE Wondershare Technology

Continue Reading

Technology

Cohesity Appoints Nigel Lee as Technical Sales Leader, Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ)

Published

on

By

SINGAPORE, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cohesity, today announced Nigel Lee as Technical Sales Leader for Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). Based in Singapore, Lee will lead the company’s technical sales strategy, pre-sales organisation, and solution engineering execution across the region, reporting to Mark Nutt, SVP & GM, International at Cohesity, and reflects Cohesity’s increased investment in the region as a strategic priority.

In this newly created role, Lee will strengthen technical engagement with customers and partners, and drive adoption of Cohesity’s AI-driven data security and cyber resilience platform across APJ.

Lee brings 29 years of experience leading pre-sales, sales engineering, and go-to-market changes across Asia Pacific. He has a strong record of building high-performing teams, driving enterprise growth, and engaging C-level stakeholders in complex markets.

“APJ is a strategically important region for Cohesity, and Nigel’s leadership, passion and deep expertise make him exceptionally well positioned to lead our technical sales organisation,” said Mark Nutt, SVP & GM, International, Cohesity. “As we continue to invest in the region, his ability to align technical strategy with the rapidly developing customer requirements caused by the ever-changing threat and compliance landscape will be critical to accelerating our growth and ensuring our customers’ ongoing business resilience.”

Previously, Lee was Director of Data Storage Solutions, Asia Pacific at Lenovo, where he led the regional business and transformed the go-to-market to drive growth. He also held senior regional and global roles at NetApp.

“Across the region, organisations are under increasing pressure to secure, manage, and unlock value from their data as AI adoption accelerates and cyber threats evolve. Cohesity is uniquely positioned to simplify this complexity through a unified, AI-driven data security platform,” said Nigel Lee, Technical Sales Leader, Asia Pacific and Japan at Cohesity. “Having spent my career scaling organisations and embedding solution expertise early in the customer journey, I’m excited to join at this pivotal time and look forward to working with our teams, partners, and customers to drive meaningful, outcome-led growth.”

Lee holds an Executive MBA from Kellogg-HKUST and a Bachelor of Computer Science.

About Cohesity 

Cohesity protects, secures, and provides insights into the world’s data. As the leader in AI-powered data security, Cohesity helps organisations strengthen resilience, accelerate recovery, and reduce IT costs. With Zero Trust security and advanced AI/ML, Cohesity Data Cloud is trusted by customers in more than 140 countries, including 70% of the Global 500. Cohesity is also backed by industry leaders such as NVIDIA, Amazon, Google, IBM, Cisco, and HPE.

Cohesity is certified as a Great Place to Work in multiple countries. Follow Cohesity on LinkedIn and visit www.cohesity.com to learn more.    

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/cohesity-appoints-nigel-lee-as-technical-sales-leader-asia-pacific-and-japan-apj-302747284.html

SOURCE Cohesity

Continue Reading

Technology

EcoMatcher Unveils Tree Personas

Published

on

By

A New Nature Interface for Engaging with Your Trees, in Any Language

HONG KONG, April 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — EcoMatcher, a Certified B Corporation that enables companies to plant and track trees transparently, today announced Tree Personas, a new Nature Interface designed to make tree gifting and sustainability engagement more personal, interactive, and memorable.

With Tree Personas, companies can assign a distinct digital personality to each gifted tree, enabling recipients to virtually visit their tree in TreeTracker 3D, chat with it through TreeChat+ in their own language, and learn about its growth, local environment, and real-world impact.

Tree Personas build on EcoMatcher’s earlier TreeChat, which introduced chatbot-powered conversations with trees, only in English. While TreeChat enabled interaction, Tree Personas shape how a tree communicates in any language – from curious and playful to calm and reflective – while all environmental data, location, and impact metrics remain authentic and unchanged.

EcoMatcher describes Tree Personas as a Nature Interface — a new category of digital interface that allows people to interact with real ecosystems through digital companions connected to living trees. The company believes Nature Interfaces can help reconnect people with nature in an increasingly digital world.

Rather than passively receiving information about a planted tree, users can build an ongoing relationship with it — asking questions, learning about its ecosystem, and following its growth over time. Even when users are away, Tree Personas continue to evolve digitally, encouraging people to return and discover new reflections, observations, and updates.

“Trees are essential for life on Earth, yet most people rarely have a personal connection with them,” said Bas Fransen, CEO of EcoMatcher. “Tree Personas turn planted trees into interactive companions that help people learn about nature and build deeper connections with the ecosystems that support us.”

Meet the First Tree Personas

EcoMatcher introduces three Tree Personas available to companies gifting trees, all inspired by real ecological stages and behaviours of trees:

Twiggles: A young, curious tree highlighting small discoveries in nature.Oakly: A grounded, thoughtful tree sharing ecosystems insights.Seren: A calm, reflective tree encouraging deeper connections with nature.

Companies can also collaborate with EcoMatcher to create custom Tree Personas aligned with their brand values, sustainability goals, or storytelling needs.

EcoMatcher will share more about the background and opportunities of Tree Personas during its upcoming Demo Day on April 27. To sign up, visit www.ecomatcher.com/demo.

About EcoMatcher

EcoMatcher is a Certified B Corporation that enables companies to integrate transparent tree planting into their business. Through its technology platform, organizations can plant trees, track them digitally, and engage employees and customers in sustainability. EcoMatcher’s customers include Dubai Islamic Bank, Grab, Infosys, and Singlife.

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/ecomatcher-unveils-tree-personas-302741368.html

SOURCE EcoMatcher

Continue Reading

Trending