Dozens of experienced volunteers from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors have helped and/or will have helped screen and judge the SIFP applicant pool, narrowing 120+ strong applications down to 54 quarterfinalists and then 28 semifinalists and then 14 finalists. That's where the distinguished judging panel's role begins on the night of Monday, October 3. In those few hours, they will be making the hard decisions on which of the talented innovators are awarded the first-place and second-place prizes totaling $88,000! (The remaining $12,000 in grants will be awarded by the audience directly, through text-message voting).
For SIFP Seattle 2011, we're honored to have the following community leaders on our finalist judging panel:
| Akhtar Badshah | Sr. Director Global Community Affairs, Microsoft |
| Tony Benton | Director of Community Affairs, Clear Channel Radio, Seattle |
| Paul T. Cook | CFO, Intelius Inc. |
| Jon Fine | President and CEO, United Way of King County |
| Jean Floten | Chancellor, WGU Washington |
| Michael Free, Ph. D. OBE | Vice President and Senior Advisor for Technologies, Global Program Leader, Technology Solutions, PATH |
| Gillian Muessig | Founding President, SEOmoz |
| Gifford Pinchot III, Ph. D. | Co-Founder and President, Bainbridge Graduate Institute |
| Nicole Trimble | Director, Corporate Social Responsibility for Coinstar, Inc. |
| Binh Vong | Student, University of Washington; Ashoka Youth Venture Alumnae |
| Kevin Washington | Education Chair, Tabor 100 |
Scorecard to be used by judges for the final competition on October 3 is here.
