Dr. Thomas Wagner and Dr. Peter Plankensteiner, managing directors of Intego GmbH, Erlangen are the winners of the IHK of founder price 2002. The second place goes to Peter Hildebrandt and Nikolaus von der Assen from UroNova GmbH, which resides like Intego in the innovation and founder center (IGZ) in Erlangen-Tennenlohe. The jury assigned the third place to the FCS Fair Computer System GmbH from Nuremberg, which is managed by Dr. Juergen Falk and Thomas Ilgenfritz. For the seventh time since 1996 the IHK has invited young enterprises to this competition. 33 recent enterprises that are members of the IHK and founded after 1 July 1997 applied for the competition. The jury evaluated the innovative enterprise personality and business idea, work and training places as well as sly marketing ideas. The founder price is promoted by the “Nuernberger Versicherungsgruppe” (insurances), who also donated the prize of 15,000 Euro (7.500, 5.000, 2.500). IHK president Hans Peter Schmidt, who at a party handed over the prices to the winners, explained that the 33 applicants created more than 300 jobs and 17 training places. The winners of the IHK founder price have created more than 1.150 jobs and 34 training places since 1996. In comparison to the respective year of the foundation that is a plus of nearly 50 per cent. This price underlines the correctness of the regional economic policy according to a statement from Schmidts: the applicants reflect the authority fields of the Nuremberg region, particularly strongly are the participation of companies from the communication economy.