Nothing inspires us more than the remarkable ways our customers drive continuous improvement, innovation, and meaningful impact within their organizations. That’s why each year at KaiNexicon, we take a moment to recognize and celebrate those who go above and beyond through the Nexie Awards. The Annual Nexie Award Ceremony has become a cornerstone of our conference and an opportunity to spotlight the bold thinkers, tireless collaborators, and execution experts who are setting a new standard for operational excellence.

Here are the 2025 Nexie Award categories and winners:

The Outstanding Achievement Award: Hilti

This award is typically given to customers who have made a strong impact on KaiNexus and created a partnership that benefits the organization, us, and other customers. While we often give this award to organizations who have worked with us for many years, sometimes a team is so dedicated, thoughtful, and open to improvement out of the gate that we cannot ignore the impact they’ve made. This team is composed of outstanding individuals who have made an effort to keep us at the forefront of CI processes, shared their own best practices, and contributed quite a bit to our own process improvement. They’ve also seen exceptional engagement due to their excellent change management processes–all within their first year. The Outstanding Achievement award goes to Hilti.

The Collaboration Excellence Award: Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Clinic’s Mortality Review team is being honored with the Collaboration Excellence Award from KaiNexus for their outstanding partnership and commitment to continuous improvement. Over the past year, they have worked closely with the KaiNexus team to optimize their instance post-implementation, ensuring their processes are increasingly more effective and impactful. You’ve all likely benefited from the enhancements they’ve worked with our team to develop, and their mission to improve their work to reduce mortality is an inspiration to all of us. Their dedication to innovation, problem-solving, and cross-functional collaboration has set a high standard for excellence, making them truly deserving of this recognition. This year’s Collaboration Excellence Award goes to the team at Mayo Clinic.

The Team of the Year Award: UMass Memorial Health

This team has been an exceptional partner throughout the year - collaborative, proactive, and always focused on continuous improvement. Their insights, dedication, and willingness to go above and beyond make them truly deserving of the Team of the Year award. We’ve worked with this organization for a long time, on a ton of different types of work - and we’re continuously impressed with their desire to learn- from us, from each other, from other customers. They’re always innovating in how they energize innovation station each year - set new goals, and try various methods to inspire their users. They work as a team to round out their culture, tackle different problems in different ways, and bring more employees into the improvement fold.

The Honorary KaiNexian Award: Robert Conley from Abbott

Some of you have been with us for so long, and worked with us so closely, that it feels like you’re really a part of our team. This year’s Honorary KaiNexian goes to someone with an unwavering dedication to collaboration and continuous improvement, always eager to pitch in and help other departments in finding the right solutions. He has been instrumental in training user groups and fostering a culture of learning, even outside the scope of his own team. His positive attitude and commitment to excellence make him a true champion for our company, consistently providing valuable feedback that drives meaningful progress. This year’s Honorary KaiNexian is Bob Conley, a gem of a KaiNexian that Abbott is lucky to have.

The Rookie of the Year Award: James Hardie

Everyone here knows what a challenge it is to launch a new software platform - our Rookie of the Year award goes to the team that really knocked it out of the park over the past year. This team has been on the ball since day one, getting input from key stakeholders throughout the implementation process and following recommendations about when to make changes and when to sit with the current state for a while to get real user feedback. They pay close attention to enhancements, are proactive about learning how to use the system, and bring positivity and enthusiasm to each meeting, which makes them a joy to work with. This year’s rookie of the year award goes to James Hardie.

The Best New Champion Award: Brooke Ramos Fritz from Cambridge Investment

A lot of organizations represented here today found KaiNexus because a champion left one job and brought KaiNexus along after getting hired in their next role. The flip side of that is that sometimes y’all get hired in companies already using KaiNexus, and you inherit a fully established system. That’s a totally different animal than building your system from scratch - and this year’s Best New Champion award goes to someone who has done an exceptional job of settling in, learning the system, and picking up where their predecessor left off to drive lasting organizational improvement. She has made it her mission to improve the ease of use, quality of work, and value proposition of her company's configuration. With a servant leadership mindset, she has worked closely with her team - and our team - to drive Continous Improvement and maximize her user’s experience. The award for Best New Champion goes to Brooke Ramos Fritz at Cambridge Investment. 

Congratulations to all our 2025 Nexie Award winners. Your leadership and dedication continue to inspire the entire KaiNexus community.