Peerless’ CEO Among Council Honorees

The Software Council of Southern California honored six local companies and executives last week at its annual Southern California Software Industry Awards.

Edward Gavaldon was named CEO of the Year for turning a money-losing Peerless Systems of El Segundo into a successful printer technology company.

The other awards handed out at the Century Plaza Hotel reflect the region’s emerging strengths in entertainment, e-commerce and services. Blizzard Entertainment, an Irvine-based computer game publisher, and its sister company, Torrance-based educational software maker Knowledge Adventure, shared the award for Multimedia Company of the Year. The award for Internet Company of the Year went to Tickets.com, the Costa Mesa start-up whose automated ticketing system is used by more than 4,000 entertainment customers.

Two firms that specialize in helping companies manage their work forces were also honored. Camarillo-based JeTech Data Services was named Developer of the Year for its labor resource planning software. Jim Jonassen, co-founder and chief executive of PeopleMover, received the Software Entrepreneur award because his Manhattan Beach company is poised for strong growth, according to the Software Council.