EY US announced Chakri Gottemukkala, CEO of o9 Solutions as finalist in Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Southwest Award

Celebrating the 35th class of unstoppable entrepreneurs who transform the Southwest region and beyond

DALLAS, TX, 15 June, 2021 – Ernst & Young LLP (EY US) announced that Chakri Gottemukkala, co-founder and CEO of o9 Solutions, was a finalist of the Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2021 Southwest Award. Now in its 35th year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors innovative business leaders whose ambition, leadership, and success stood out in a year of global disruptions.

Chakri Gottemukkala was selected by a panel of independent judges. Award winners will be announced on August 4, 2021 during a virtual celebration and will become lifetime members of an esteemed global community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni.

Entrepreneur Of The Year is one of the preeminent competitive award programs for entrepreneurs and leaders of high-growth companies. The nominees are evaluated based on the following criteria: entrepreneurial leadership; talent management; degree of difficulty; financial performance; societal impact and building a values-based company; and originality, innovation and future plans. Since its launch, the program has expanded to recognize business leaders in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries.

Chakri Gottemukkala co-founded o9, along with Sanjiv Sidhu, because he realized the big challenges of siloed planning in global companies and envisioned how emerging digital technologies, like AI, Big Data and Machine Learning, create an integrated, end-to-end approach to supply chain management. His commitment to innovation and excellence is reflected in his leadership style of setting big goals but inspiring the o9 team to “Aim 10x in every process” and embrace the mission to be the Most Valuable Platform (MVP) for global enterprises.

“It is an honor to be a finalist in the EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year 2021 award in the Southwest category. Despite the volatile world disruptions of the last year, the entire o9 team was dedicated to achieving the best results for our customers. Being nominated for this prestigious award is a testament to the great results and value we as a team have delivered. It is an honor to be recognized among the other finalists in the Southwest region,” says Chakri Gottemukkala.

Regional award winners are eligible for consideration for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards, to be announced in November at the Strategic Growth Forum®, one of the nation’s most prestigious gatherings of high-growth, market-leading companies. The Entrepreneur Of The Year National Overall Award winner will then move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in June 2022.

Sponsors

Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards are nationally sponsored by SAP America.

In the Southwest Region, sponsors also include Colliers International, Haynes and Boone LLP, PNC, Donnelley Financial Solutions, RHSB, Smith Frank & Partners and D CEO Magazine.

About Entrepreneur Of The Year®

Entrepreneur Of The Year® is the world’s most prestigious business awards program for unstoppable entrepreneurs. These visionary leaders deliver innovation, growth and prosperity that transform our world. The program engages entrepreneurs with insights and experiences that foster growth. It connects them with their peers to strengthen entrepreneurship around the world. Entrepreneur Of The Year is the first and only truly global awards program of its kind. It celebrates entrepreneurs through regional and national awards programs in more than 145 cities in over 60 countries. National Overall winners go on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ title. ey.com/us/eoy

About EY Private

As Advisors to the ambitious™, EY Private professionals possess the experience and passion to support private businesses and their owners in unlocking the full potential of their ambitions. EY Private teams offer distinct insights born from the long EY history of working with business owners and entrepreneurs. These teams support the full spectrum of private enterprises including private capital managers and investors and the portfolio businesses they fund, business owners, family businesses, family offices and entrepreneurs. Visit ey.com/us/private

About EY

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About the author

o9 Solutions

The Digital Brain Platform

o9 offers a leading AI-powered Planning, Analytics & Data platform called the Digital Brain that helps companies across industry verticals transform traditionally slow and siloed planning into smart, integrated and intelligent planning and decision making across the core supply chain, commercial and P&L functions. With o9’s Digital Brain platform, companies are able to achieve game-changing improvements in quality of data, ability to detect demand and supply risks and opportunities earlier, forecast demand more accurately, evaluate what-if scenarios in real time, match demand and supply intelligently and drive alignment and collaboration across customers, internal stakeholders and suppliers around the integrated supply chain and commercial plans and decisions. Supported by a global ecosystem of partners, o9’s innovative delivery methodology helps companies achieve quick impact in customer service, inventory levels, resource utilization, as well as ESG and financial KPIs—while enabling a long-term, sustainable transformation of their end-to-end planning and decision-making capabilities.