The Legatum FORTUNE Technology Prize was announced at the FORTUNE Brainstorm Tech conference in July 2008. Nominations for the Prize were solicited from a trusted network of experts with experience in technology and development issues and almost 60 individuals and organisations were evaluated by a board of senior editors and writers from FORTUNE magazine, under the guidance of Stephanie Mehta, Assistant Managing Editor.
From this group, nine semi-finalists were selected based upon the demonstrated correlation between technology deployed and development impact; sustainability and scalability of the technology solution; and evidence that the technology solution is conducive to maintaining and sustaining a business environment that recognizes employees, rewards owners, and is environmentally sensitive and forward-looking. A further round of judging produced five finalists who were invited to a final round of face-to-face interviews with the judging panel under the leadership of Iqbal Quadir, at the FORTUNE 500 Forum on 1st December 2009.