Dirigo Sponsors 2026 Tech10 Lifetime Achievement Award

Founder Tim Hebert returns to an awards program he helped launch more than fifteen years ago.

Warwick, RI — October 5, 2026 — Dirigo is proud to sponsor the 2026 Tech10 Lifetime Achievement Award, part of Rhode Island Monthly’s annual celebration recognizing individuals whose work in technology is making a difference across Rhode Island and Southern New England.

For Dirigo founder and CEO Tim Hebert, the sponsorship represents something more personal: a return to an idea that began more than fifteen years ago.

In 2010, while leading Tech Collective, Rhode Island’s industry association for information technology and bioscience, Hebert and the organization launched the Tech10 Awards.

The idea behind Tech10 was simple: recognize people doing extraordinary work in technology who often do it behind the scenes.

“So much of technology is invisible when it works,” said Hebert. “There are people inside organizations solving difficult problems, protecting systems, building infrastructure, creating new possibilities and quietly making everything around them work better. We wanted Tech10 to shine a light on those people.”

The first Tech10 honorees were announced in 2011, beginning what has become a longstanding Rhode Island tradition of recognizing technology professionals, innovators and emerging leaders. Today, the program continues through Rhode Island Monthly and the Tech10 Advisory Group, recognizing individuals whose contributions improve the way people live and work throughout Southern New England.

More than fifteen years later, Hebert is returning to Tech10 from a different perspective, with Dirigo sponsoring the program’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“There’s something pretty special about coming full circle,” Hebert said. “To have been there when Tech10 was created and now come back through Dirigo to help recognize someone who has devoted a career to advancing technology and the people around them means a great deal to me.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award has historically recognized individuals whose careers have made a lasting contribution to the technology community. Dirigo’s sponsorship reflects the company’s broader belief that leadership is ultimately about human impact — the people who challenge what is possible, help others grow and leave their organizations and communities stronger than they found them.

Technology itself has also changed dramatically since the first Tech10 Awards. The conversations that once centered heavily on information technology and infrastructure now extend across cybersecurity, data, artificial intelligence, digital transformation and emerging technologies.

What has not changed is the importance of the people behind that progress.

“Technology will keep changing,” Hebert said. “The tools will change. The problems will change. AI is changing what we believe is possible almost every day. But there will always be people behind that technology — imagining, building, protecting, questioning and leading. Those are the people Tech10 was created to recognize.”

Dirigo is honored to support the 2026 Tech10 Awards alongside Rhode Island Monthly, the Tech10 Advisory Group and members of Rhode Island Leaders in Information Technology (RILIT), a volunteer-driven community working to strengthen Rhode Island’s technology sector through collaboration, knowledge-sharing and service.

“For me, this isn’t really about returning to something from the past,” Hebert said. “It’s about seeing an idea continue. The people doing this work deserve to be seen, celebrated and connected to one another. I’m incredibly proud that Dirigo gets to play a small part in continuing that.”