Tech Titans Awards in Frisco Honor North Texas Technology Leaders

Frisco, Texas, September 19, 2025

News Summary

The 25th annual Tech Titans Awards at the Hyatt Regency Frisco‑Dallas at Stonebriar celebrated innovation and leadership across the North Texas tech community. Winners spanned corporate and startup CEOs, university research groups, fast‑growing companies, and community contributors across more than a dozen categories. Highlights included the Corporate CEO, Startup Company CEO, and a Hall of Fame induction, plus awards for cybersecurity, biotech, and semiconductor research. The ceremony showcased emerging talent, regional collaboration, and sponsors from industry and academia, underscoring the region’s growing role in technology development and economic growth.

25th Annual Tech Titans Awards in Frisco Honors Regional Tech Leaders

Top line

The 25th annual Tech Titans Awards were held at the Hyatt Regency Frisco‑Dallas at Stonebriar, with ceremony winners announced last Friday. The event recognized innovation and leadership across the North Texas technology community and honored winners in more than a dozen categories. The awards honored key corporate and startup leaders, university research groups, fast‑growing companies, and community contributors. The awards took place last Friday and drew business and tech leaders to Frisco.

Major award winners and highlights

The Corporate CEO award winner was Chandra Dhandapani of Magnit. Dhandapani is Dallas‑based and was appointed CEO of Magnit Global in December 2024. Magnit is described as a global leader and pioneer in contingent workforce management solutions and is based in Folsom, California, with offices around the world. Since becoming CEO, Dhandapani oversaw the evolution or introduction of two solutions at Magnit: Redeployment Marketplace and Maggi, a new Gen‑AI companion. Prior to joining Magnit, Dhandapani served as CEO of Global Workplace Solutions at Dallas‑based CBRE and previously held several positions at Capital One for nearly 18 years, including SVP, chief information officer, and digital transformation leader in the financial services division. Dhandapani currently serves on the board of directors of Northern Trust and previously served on the boards of Turner & Townsend, Exeter Finance, and OnDeck.

The Startup Company CEO award went to Chris Brickler, co‑founder and CEO of Mynd Immersive. Mynd Immersive is Dallas‑based and provides VR‑based immersive digital therapeutics for aging adults across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. In 2024, Brickler helped launch Mynd Immersive’s Great American Elderverse at CES in Las Vegas in collaboration with Dallas‑based AT&T, HTC VIVE, and the CTA Foundation.

The Tech Titans Hall of Fame inductee was Dr. Richard Benson, retired president of The University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Richard Benson served as UT Dallas president from July 15, 2016, through Aug. 1. Tech Titans’ executive director noted Benson’s leadership grew UT Dallas in enrollment, moved it to NCAA Division II in 2025, helped it qualify for National Research University Fund research dollars in 2018, and secured several important government projects while infusing arts and culture into campus life.

Other category winners

JobTread won the Fast Tech award as North Texas’ fastest‑growing tech company for the second year in a row. JobTread is an all‑in‑one construction estimating and project management software platform. Corporate Innovation award winner 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 in the prior year and signed a memorandum of understanding with Invest Alberta in July to expand operations in that Canadian province.

Emerging Company Innovation winner was DigitalXForce, an Irving‑based startup offering a cloud‑based platform to manage cybersecurity risk through automation and real‑time risk assessments. Lalit Ahluwalia, CEO of DigitalXForce, won the Emerging Company CEO award. Merlin Bise, CTO of Inbenta, won the Emerging Company CIO/CTO award. Inbenta is a global company that automates customer interactions with conversational AI and announced its new headquarters at One Bethany West in Allen in 2023 after relocating from California to North Texas.

The Community Hero award went to Debbie Mrazek, president of Plano‑based The Sales Company. The Corporate CIO/CTO award went to Todd Kackley of Textron, vice president and chief information officer at Textron. The Technology Advocate award winner was Jennifer Sanders of the North Texas Innovation Alliance, who leads a regional consortium working to create the most connected, smart, and resilient region in the country and will help lead the Smart Cities Global Startup Challenge in November, returning for its second year at the 2025 Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona.

The Technology Inventor award went to Dr. David Roberson of Blackbox Bio. Blackbox Bio is a Dallas‑based biotechnology company developing an AI‑driven, automated system for observing and analyzing rodent behavior in drug discovery. Dr. Roberson is founder and CEO and earned his PhD through the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard, where he invented the MoSeq rodent behavioral assessment tool.

Education and future talent awards

The Tech Titans of the Future — College/University award went to The University of Texas at Dallas, North Texas Semiconductor Institute. Dr. Ted Moise is director of the North Texas Semiconductor Institute and in May 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. The Tech Titans of the Future — High School winner was Marcus Edwards of Farmersville Independent School District, director of engineering and a hands‑on STEM educator who helps students build competition‑ready bots, guides them through Fusion 360 certifications, and explores smart city tiny home concepts.

Event format, selection and sponsorship

Winners were selected through a rigorous evaluation process led by a panel of peer judges. The awards recognize innovation and leadership in the North Texas technology community and honor the very best in technology leadership, vision, and impact, with contributions spanning artificial intelligence, robotics, education, automation, and more. The awards show honored winners in more than a dozen categories, and the Fast Tech Awards rank the fastest‑growing technology companies in North Texas and are announced by rank at the ceremony.

The presenting sponsor of the 2025 Tech Titans Awards Gala was The University of Texas at Dallas. The City of Frisco was the program’s first Host City Sponsor. The 2025 Tech Titans Awards were 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 included Comerica Bank, the Dallas Business Journal, Moss Adams, and Baker Tilly.

Organization and governance

Tech Titans: the Technology Association for North Texas is described as the largest technology trade association in Texas with 200 member companies from across the region. Elsewhere in reporting, Tech Titans is said to represent more than 300 member companies and over a quarter‑million tech workers in the region. Tech Titans is headquartered in Richardson. The board elected Marvin Harris Jr., senior foundry engineering manager at Qorvo, as chair of the Tech Titans board of directors; he had served as vice chair of Tech Titans’ STEM program. The board added 16 new board members for 2025, and each new board member is elected for a two‑year term.

Context and additional programming

Ahead of the main event, Tech Titans hosted a Tech Industry Luncheon spotlighting eight finalists from both the Corporate and Emerging Company categories. Tickets and tables went on sale August 1, and finalists were previously announced for the Sept. 12 ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Frisco at Stonebriar. The program and surrounding content also highlighted regional research, startups, and innovation programs.

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Key features

Deeper Dive: News & Info About This Topic

Additional Resources

• Dallas Innovates: 2025 Tech Titans Awards — winners take the stage
• Wikipedia: Tech Titans
• Dallas Innovates: North Texas innovators named finalists for the 25th annual Tech Titans Awards
• Google Search: Tech Titans Awards 2025 finalists
• American Bazaar: Chandra Dhandapani wins Tech Titans 2025 Corporate CEO Award
• Google Scholar: Chandra Dhandapani
• Star Local Media (Allen American): Finalists announced for 2025 Tech Titans Awards
• Encyclopedia Britannica: Tech Titans Awards (search)
• Dallas Innovates: Newly retired UTD president to be inducted into Tech Titans Hall of Fame
• Google News: Richard Benson UT Dallas Tech Titans

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