Barnes & Thornburg Partner Stephen J. Dutton received the TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award during TechPoint’s 20th annual Mira Awards gala honoring the best of tech in Indiana

The TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award recognizes visionary leaders who are helping Indiana’s underserved, K-12 student populations gain access to experiential learning opportunities that increase STEM knowledge and inspire STEM career exploration.  

Steve Dutton has spent nearly two decades working to help form and shape the organizations that became TechPoint, Inc. and TechPoint Foundation for Youth, serving a combined 27 years as a member of the Board of Directors for these organizations. As a founding board member of TechPoint Foundation for Youth, Steve’s role in setting the groundwork for the governance and structure of the organization has been a crucial component in allowing the Foundation to invest millions of philanthropic investments into the state and impact hundreds of thousands of students since 2001.

“TechPoint Foundation was envisioned as a way for the tech community to give back,” said Steve. “The focus was always on finding a way to supplement the philanthropy made possible with the influx brought about by the new economy being buoyed by Indiana’s local manufacturing and financial sectors.”

Steve played a crucial role in positioning both organizations to successfully impact thousands of students, professionals, and companies throughout Indiana, and the impact he made continues to influence their direction.

“TechPoint and its predecessors have moved Central Indiana from a technology backwater to a national player,” said Steve. “Techpoint Foundation for Youth has done so much with so little. Its focus on STEM education has moved the needle in Indiana.”

Steve began his career advising on securities, tax, and M&A matters and began advising on technology transactions during what was the very infancy of the tech industry. Steve, a partner with Barnes & Thornburg, LLP, has spent more than five decades in practice, becoming an often under-the-radar fixture within the technology ecosystem. Steve has negotiated and closed a broad range of technology transactions, ranging from software, technology and IP licensing, cloud computing, SaaS and IaaS transactions, as well as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers, and asset transactions involving information technology companies.

Steve’s amazing abilities have been recognized throughout his career, including: The Best Lawyers in America, 2003-2019; The Best Lawyers in America, Lawyer of the Year, Information Technology, 2015 and 2017; Indiana Super Lawyers, 2004-2017. Steve graduated magna cum laude from both Illinois Institute of Technology and Indiana University School of Law. Today, Steve enjoys his continuing practice with Barnes & Thornburg while also traveling the world appreciating art with his talented wife, Ellen W. Lee, Senior Curator Emerita at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and spending time with their two sons and their families, including two grandsons.

“I will be forever grateful for the role Steve has played in our success as an organization,” said Laura Dodds, Executive Director of TechPoint Foundation for Youth. “Ironically, considering his unbelievable humility, I have affectionately referred to Steve as the ‘Grand Poobah’ of the Foundation as there is no question he doesn’t have the answer to from his time with the Foundation. There is truly no one like him.”

Congratulations to Steve on receiving yet another well-deserved recognition for his service to two organizations that have shaped technology in Indiana’s education and workforce.

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