The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Pacific Northwest Award winners were announced in Seattle over the weekend.

An independent judging panel of previous winners of the award, CEOs, private capital investors, and other regional business leaders selected the the group of top entrepreneurs. Judges are looking for entrepreneurs who are successful in various areas such as innovation, financial performance, as well as personal commitment to their business and communities. The program honors entrepreneurs regionally in June, before the national awards in November and the world awards in June 2012.

After 25 years, the program has expanded to now chose business leaders from 140 cities and more than 50 countries worldwide. The regional honorees are invited to the prestigious Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards gala in November, where the nation's top business leaders meet on the final night for the Strategic Growth Forum when the national winner is announced.

One regional winner, Ben Huh in Seattle, Washington, is the founder of the Cheezburger Network of humor sites designed to make people LOL or even ROFL while visiting his sites. The most famous of the sites is I Can Has Cheezburger? which consists of pictures of cats with funny captions.

Huh told Seattle Times, "A lot of internet culture right now is a counter-cultural reaction to popular culture."

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