Meyer earns technology council's highest honor

North Idaho investor and entrepreneur Steve Meyer has been selected for the Idaho Technology Council Hall of Fame, the council's highest honor.

Don Kemper, founder and chief executive of the Boise-based nonprofit Healthwise, was also chosen.

The two men will be inducted and join technology innovators from across Idaho on Oct. 15 at the Boise Centre for the council's fifth annual celebration.

"Steve Meyer has touched nearly every Idahoan indirectly through his amazing contributions to growing the Idaho technology industry and his deep involvement in the governor's Economic Advisory Council," said Jay Larsen, founder and president of the Idaho Technology Council.

The induction will include video productions featuring the perspectives of leaders from across the technology industry.

Meyer's fingerprints are on many of the most successful Idaho technology enterprises of recent decades. He lives in Hayden Lake, grew up in Boise and went to college at the University of Idaho and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Meyer began his career in Chicago at C.P. Clare and Co. He was named vice president and general manager at Clare Pendar in Post Falls, a technology manufacturing concern which made keyboards for Compaq and IBM, and at its peak employed 1,200 people.

Meyer was a senior vice president for manufacturing and engineering at American Sign and Indicator of Spokane where the firm pioneered huge video displays in major league sports arenas and at New York City's Times Square.

He has been a partner in several leveraged buyouts, investment groups and startups.

Meyer was co-founder of Advanced Input Devices and served as its CEO or chairman. AIS is one of the largest technology employers in North Idaho and is now owned by Esterline Technologies.

At Mountain West Bank, where Meyer was part of the founders group and a member of the board, assets grew from startup to $1 billion in 15 years. He has been an investor and board member at Spider Staging, Centennial Foods, Telemetric and TriGeo.

Meyer's current project is Intermax Networks, a data transport company. Intermax has grown tenfold since its acquisition.

In 1975, Steve Meyer founded Parkwood Business Properties, which has become the leading commercial real estate development company in Coeur d'Alene. With his 30-year partner, Charlie Nipp, Parkwood develops office, medical, retail, industrial and hospitality projects. In recent years, Meyer and Boise developer Bill Clark built high-end residential condominiums at the Jefferson and Crescent Rim.

In 2012, he was awarded the Charles Hummel Lifetime Achievement award by Idaho Smart Growth.

Meyer is currently is the president of the board of the North Idaho College Foundation and serves on the governor's Economic Advisory Council. He recently retired from the board of directors of Mountain West Bank. In 2005, Meyer and his wife, Judy, funded the $1 million Meyer Technology Fund at the North Idaho College Foundation.