Who Was She?

The VBIA Board of Directors established the Donna Noble Incubator Client Award in 2001 in honor of one of its founding Board members, Donna Noble, who passed away on May 29, 2001, at the age of 36. Donna was a very energetic and enthusiastic person and was truly dedicated to the incubation industry and to promoting entrepreneurship.

Donna was the marketing manager for Incubator AMERICA! in Arlington,Virginia. Much of her work involved making international contacts for the Arlington incubator established to help companies from other countries expand into the United States.

Why an Award ?

 This award is intended to be presented annually at the VBIA Conference. Nominations for this award will be accepted from member incubator managers to recognize exemplary tenants who have been in the incubator for a minimum of one year. There will be an award plaque for the winner, and a $500 donation made to the American Cancer Society in honor of Donna.

Virginia has more than 27 incubation programs, many of which have successful incubator clients and graduates. This award is an opportunity for VBIA Member incubator managers to showcase these outstanding clients. One winner will be recognized annually at the VBIA Conference.

Online Application to Download

Award Criteria:

• Must be formal clients and physically located within an existing Virginia incubator for a minimum of one year.
• Must be nominated by the incubator manager who is a member of VBIA.
• Must have exhibited exemplary accomplishments.

Previous Winners

 Congratulations to our 2009 Donna Noble Winner

Highground Services is an engineering company that specializes in process control and instrumentation projects in industrial and municipal markets. It targets small-to-medium sized engineering projects, providing a turn-key solution. It provides project scope and design, equipment specifications and procurement, installation and start-up, or any combination.
Their engineers excel in designing systems, programming, installation, training, and continued support.

Highground Services entered the Franklin Business Incubator program in 2007 with 6 employees and revenue of $171,736. Revenue at the end of 2008 was $1,052,189, with a staff of 10 people. Even with the economic downturn in 2009, the company continued to hire 5 part-time staff and another full-time employee. In recognition of this solid record of business success, the Virginia Business Incubation Association presents the 2009 Donna Noble Outstanding Business Incubator Client Award to Highground Services, Inc.

Not only has Highground Services been an exemplary client within the Franklin Business Incubator, they have also been one who has shown much compassion and concern for other clients within the incubator. They are very willing to assist other companies by providing business advice and expertise to help the companies achieve their goals and objectives. Highground Services credits the Franklin Business Incubator for the invaluable assistance it provided to the company for the past two years. The incubator’s guidance has contributed to Highground Services’ steady growth and overall success.