At last Friday’s 25th annual Tech Titans Awards, the Corporate CEO award went to Dallas-based Chandra Dhandapani, chief executive of Magnit, a global leader and pioneer in contingent workforce management. The Startup Company CEO award went to Chris Brickler, leader of Mynd Immersive, a leading provider of virtual reality services for older adults. And this year’s Hall of Famer? That would be recently retired UT Dallas president Richard Benson.

Those three honorees were among the winners in more than a dozen categories who took the stage at the 2025 Tech Titans Awards show, held at the Hyatt Regency Frisco-Dallas at Stonebriar.

The annual awards recognize innovation and leadership in the North Texas technology community, honoring “the very best in technology leadership, vision, and impact, with contributions spanning artificial intelligence, robotics, education, automation, and more.” Winners were selected for their groundbreaking contributions to the tech industry, both locally and globally, through a rigorous evaluation process led by a panel of peer judges.

‘Fast Tech’ winner

JobTread CEO Eric Fortenberry holds his company’s Fast Tech Award [Photo: RD Images]

Speeding things along as North Texas’ fastest-growing tech company—for the second year in a row—was JobTread, an all-in-one construction estimating and project management software platform that took home the top “Fast Tech” honors.

Innovation got its celebratory due at the awards show, too.

Taking home the award for Corporate Innovation was Prodapt North America, an India-based provider of consulting, engineering, and transformation services for the telecom and technology industry. Prodapt opened its Americas Innovation Center in Richardson last year.

Honored for Emerging Company Innovation was DigitalXForce, an Irving-based startup whose cloud-based platform helps organizations manage cybersecurity risk by automating tasks and offering real-time risk assessments.

“Each of our winners has not only pushed the boundaries of what’s possible in technology but has also inspired others to think bigger and bolder,” Paul Bendel, executive director of Tech Titans, said in a statement. “Their achievements are a testament to the strength of the DFW tech community.”

Check out all the winners

Here’s the full list of 2025 Tech Titans Award winners:

The Sales Company President Debbie Mrazek with her Community Hero award. [Photo: RD Images]

Community Hero
Debbie Mrazek, The Sales Company
As president of Plano-based The Sales Company, Mrazek consults with corporate financial giants, technology companies, and family businesses about how they can “sell better, smarter, and make more doing what they were already doing.”

Textron Global CIO Todd Kackley, winner of Corporate CIO CTO Award [Photo: RD Images]

Corporate CIO/CTO
Todd Kackley, Textron
Kackley is vice president and chief information officer at Textron, where he leads the business unit chief information officers and the Textron Information Services organization. He oversees Textron’s Information Management Council and manages Textron’s information technology supplier and outsourcing relationships. Prior to his current role, Kackley was EVP and CIO for Bell, where he developed and executed IT and digital strategy, aligning business systems, infrastructure, cybersecurity and development capabilities to the needs of the business.

Prodapt North America MD and CEO Manish Vyas accepts his company’s Corporate Innovation Award [Photo: RD Images]

Corporate Innovation
Prodapt North America
Prodapt—an India-based provider of consulting, engineering, and transformation services for the telecom and technology industry—opened its Americas Innovation Center in Richardson last year. In July, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Invest Alberta to expand its operations in the Canadian province.

DigitalXForce CEO Lalit Ahluwalia won the Emerging Company CEO Award [Photo: RD Images]

Emerging Company CEO
Lalit Ahluwalia, DigitalXForce
Irving-based DigitalXForce is a SaaS-based solution that provides provides data-driven, real-time, and continuous DigitalX Risk Management that is “simplified, measurable, integrated, and actionable.”

Inbenta CTO Merlin Bise, right, was the winner of the Emerging Company CIO CTO Award [Photo: RD Images]

Emerging Company CIO/CTO
Merlin Bise, Inbenta
Inbenta—a global company whose platform automates customer interactions with intelligent, conversational AI—announced its new headquarters at One Bethany West in Allen in 2023 after relocating from California to North Texas. CTO Merlin Bise oversees Inbenta’s infrastructure and leads the development of new products to further expand the company’s conversational AI platform with GenAI capabilities.

DigitalXForce won the Emerging Company Innovation Award [Photo: RD Images]

Emerging Company Innovation
DigitalXForce
As noted above, Irving-based DigitalXForce is a SaaS-based solution that provides provides data-driven, real-time, and continuous DigitalX Risk Management that is “simplified, measurable, integrated, and actionable.”

Mynd Immersive Co-Founder and CEO Chris Brickler with his Startup Company CEO Award [Photo: RD Images]

Startup Company CEO
Chris Brickler, Mynd Immersive
Dallas-based Mynd Immersive is a leading provider of VR-based immersive digital therapeutics for aging adults across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. In 2024, Brickler helped launch the company’s “Great American Elderverse” at CES in Las Vegas in what it called a groundbreaking campaign in collaboration with Dallas-based AT&T, HTC VIVE, and the CTA Foundation.

Debbie Mrazek presents Jennifer Sanders of the North Texas Innovation Alliance the Technology Advocate Award [Photo: RD Images]

Technology Advocate
Jennifer Sanders, North Texas Innovation Alliance
As executive director of the NTIA, Sanders leads the regional consortium of municipalities, public agencies, corporations, and academic institutions as it works collaboratively to create “the most connected, smart, and resilient region in the country.” This November, she will help lead the Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge, which will return for its second year at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. 

Blackbox Biotech’s David Roberson PhD, right, accepts the Technology Inventor award [Photo: RD Images]

Technology Inventor
Dr. David Roberson, Blackbox BioTech
Blackbox Bio is a Dallas-based biotechnology company that develops an AI-driven, automated system for observing and analyzing rodent behavior in drug discovery. Roberson, the company’s founder and CEO, earned his PhD through the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard, where he invented the MoSeq rodent behavioral assessment tool.

UT Dallas’ North Texas Semiconductor Institute was the winner of the Tech Titans of the Future-College University award. The institute’s director, Dr. Ted Moise, holds the award at right. [Photo: RD Images]

Tech Titans of the Future — College/ University
The University of Texas at Dallas, North Texas Semiconductor Institute
In May, Dr. Moise received an award of nearly $2.5 million from UT Austin for his research in support of the Texas Institute for Electronics Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing Center, which is creating a new class of energy-efficient computing systems. 

Tech Titans of the Future — High School
Marcus Edwards, Farmersville Independent School District
Seen exuberantly lifting his award atop this article, Edwards is director of engineering at Farmersville ISD. On his LInkedIn page, he describes himself as “a hands-on, solutions-first STEM educator and Lean Six Sigma leader, immersed in CNC machining, robotics, 3D printing, and design innovation.” He adds, “Whether I’m helping students build competition-ready bots, guiding them through Fusion 360 certifications, or exploring smart city tiny home concepts, I bring real industry standards into the classroom.”

Tech Titans Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Richard Benson, retired president of UT Dallas, accepts his award from Stuart Sides of BGSF Professional [Photo: RD Images]

Hall of Fame
Dr. Richard Benson, The University of Texas at Dallas
Benson served as the UTD’s president from July 15, 2016, through Aug. 1, when he retired. “Under his leadership, UT Dallas grew in enrollment, moved up to NCAA Division II in 2025, qualified for elite research dollars from the National Research University Fund in 2018, and secured several important government projects,” Tech Titans Executive Director Paul Bendel said in a statement. “In addition to his support of technology, Benson led efforts to infuse arts and culture into the university, making it highly attractive to internationally recognized artists and performers.”

Magnit CEO Chandra Dhandapani with her Corporate CEO Award [Photo: RD Images]

Corporate CEO
Chandra Dhandapani, Magnit Global
Magnit, a California-based leader in contingent workforce management solutions, appointed North Texan Chandra Dhandapani as its new CEO in December 2024. Dhandapani, who previously served as CEO of Global Workplace Solutions at Dallas-based CBRE, succeeded Teresa Carroll in a planned leadership transition.

 “Fast Tech” Winners: The Fastest- Growing North Texas Technology Companies

1. JobTread
2. Worlds
3. Leadsonline
4. Qualizeal
5. FieldPulse

You can see the full list of this year’s finalists in our article here.

Awards show sponsors

In addition to The University of Texas at Dallas, presenting sponsor of the 2025 Tech Titans Awards Gala, the City of Frisco was the program’s first “Host City Sponsor.” The 2025 Tech Titans Awards is also supported by BGSF Professional, BravoTECH, Deloitte, Ericsson, Veritis, Prodapt North America, Amazech, CyrusOne, the City of Richardson, Argent and Associates, Murata, Inbenta and Qorvo. The Fast Tech sponsors are Comerica Bank, the Dallas Business Journal, Moss Adams, and Baker Tilly.

Tech Titans: the Technology Association for North Texas is the largest technology trade association in Texas, with 200 member companies from across the region. From start-up companies to major corporations, its members collaborate to create the innovation and business opportunities that help technology companies thrive in North Texas, the organization says. 

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