Ever wonder what Houston startups and innovators are the best of the best? Here's your chance to figure it out. The inaugural Listies awards program has named its finalists.

The Listies, brought to you by Houston Exponential in partnership with InnovationMap, will name the winning companies and people across 12 awards on November 20 at 3 pm at a virtual event as a part of Impact Hub's annual The Houston Innovation Summit (THIS). Click here to register for the free event.

Nominations were open until Friday, November 6, and then a group of judges made up of members of the Houston innovation ecosystem reviewed the submissions to settle on the finalists. Below, in alphabetical order, the 38 finalists are listed for each category.

DEI champion

• Heath Butler
• Maria Maso
• Grace Rodriguez

Individual contributor

• Michael Matthews
• Slawek Omylski
• Brad True

Mentor of the year

• Keith Kreuer
• Wade Pinder
• Landi Spearman

Outstanding leadership

• Stephanie Campbell
• Grace Rodriguez
• Roberta Schwartz

Corporate innovation

• Chevron Technology Ventures
• Houston Methodist
• Shell Ventures

Investor of the year

• CSL Capital Management
• Golden Section VC (GSTVC)
• Integr8d Capital

SDO superstar

• MassChallenge Houston
• Rice Alliance
• TMCx

Welcome to Houston

• Greentown Labs
• TestCard
• Win-Win

Civic engagement

• Annapurna
• Luminare
• McMac Cx

COVID pivot/phoenix

• Luminare
• re:3D
• sEATz

People choice

• INK
• Liongard
• Luminare
• re:3D
• Topl

Soonicorn

• GoExpedi
• Liongard
• Medical Informatics Corp.