Mindjet Founders Win Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2004 Award

    LARKSPUR, Calif., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- In 1994, Mindjet founder Mike
 Jetter checked into a cancer hospital for what he feared would be his last
 battle to survive leukemia. Looking for something to both occupy his mind
 during his treatment and to serve as a parting gift to the world, Jetter
 decided to use his skills as a software developer and create a new kind of
 graphic interface. Ten year later Jetter, his wife and chief operating officer
 Bettina, and their partner Michael Louis have now been named Ernst & Young
 Entrepreneur of the Year(R) award winners in the Information Technology
 category. The award was presented by global professional services firm Ernst
 & Young last Friday night in Frankfurt, Germany.
     "This honor from Ernst & Young is a very much appreciated affirmation of
 the work my wife Bettina, our partner Michael Louis and I have done to make
 Mindjet a successful company," says chief technology officer Jetter. "When I
 entered the hospital ten years ago to battle my third relapse of leukemia, I
 never thought MindManager would find such a receptive audience. I really
 started out with just one user -- my wife. Mindjet now has half a million
 customers around the world who use our information visualization software to
 improve their productivity and creativity. I believed ten years ago that
 computer users needed a more intuitive, visual interface. Our success -- and
 now this award -- proves that this is true."
     Mindjet was founded in Germany in 1994 following Jetter's successful
 treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia. Mindjet now has operations throughout
 the world and enjoys double-digit annual growth due to the popularity of its
 flagship product, MindManager X5 Pro. This visual tool for planning,
 collaboration and business process management enhances the productivity of
 business teams and individuals by providing them with an intuitive visual
 interface for the rapid capture, organizing, and sharing of information, ideas
 and data.
     An independent judging panel selected the Mindjet founders on the basis of
 the company's innovative product line, employee development and current and
 potential corporate performance. The founders will now compete for Ernst &
 Young's World Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
 
     About the Entrepreneur of the Year Awards
     The Entrepreneur Of The Year(R) (EOY) awards program was created in the
 United States in a single Midwestern city by Ernst & Young in 1986 to honor
 entrepreneurs whose ingenuity and perseverance have created and sustained
 successful, growing business ventures.  Today, EOY has been expanded to more
 than 150 cities in over 35 countries with awards presented to over 900 of the
 world's most successful and innovative entrepreneurs.
 
     About Mindjet
     Mindjet software products improve business productivity by combining the
 power of information visualization with the benefits of team collaboration to
 increase the return on people, information and business process management.
 MindManager, the critically acclaimed information visualization application
 with more than 500,000 licenses sold worldwide, helps business professionals
 from the majority of Fortune 500 companies plan, organize and manage business
 processes, projects and information-based activities. Mindjet is a privately
 held software company with headquarters in California and operations
 throughout the world. More information is available at www.mindjet.com.
 
     Press Contact:
      Hobart Swan
      Manager: External Affairs
      Mindjet
      125 E. Sir Francis Drake Boulevard
      Larkspur, CA 94939
      hobart.swan@mindjet.com
      Tel:  415-925-3120, ext. 134
      Cell:  415-250 1178
      Fax:  415-925-3110
 
 

SOURCE  Mindjet