CUPERTINO, Calif., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- In its 5th year, the Astia Awards honor exceptional women innovators and recognize the investors and mentors who championed their success. Awards are presented each year within the three areas of innovators (technology, life science and clean technology), investors and mentors.

Trend Micro is proud to announce that its Co-Founder and CEO, Eva Chen, was among those honored by Astia at the awards dinner on November 19th as the recipient of the 2009 Technology Innovator Award.

Astia is a unique, not-for-profit organization whose distinct focus and mission is to foster the full participation and leadership of women in entrepreneurship and as accelerators of high-growth businesses. Astia provides innovative programs that ensure companies gain access to capital, achieve and sustain high-growth, and develop the executive leadership of the women on the founding team.

"We are delighted to announce the winners of the Astia Awards and to recognize the great work of women entrepreneurs and those that support them with their success. The winners of these awards show that innovation and entrepreneurship is still very much alive globally and that women have a place in innovation. It is important that we continue to highlight the very important contribution that women founders and CEOs make in world-beating businesses," commented Sharon Vosmek, CEO of Astia.

"The spirit of innovation comes from everywhere," said Eva Chen, CEO, Trend Micro. "At Trend Micro, we believe we are driving innovation in the security industry that will enable and accelerate the shift to Cloud computing and all the potential it offers. The combination of a constantly changing threat landscape and technology shifts creates a ripe environment at Trend Micro for collaborative innovation that results in ground-breaking products and solutions. We are a collaborative innovation team and there is an endless opportunity to create even more ground-breaking products and solutions."

Innovation is what fuels Trend Micro's spirit. It's the very essence by which Trend Micro's vision becomes reality. For Eva Chen, innovation it is at the heart of everything she has done - and will do - for the transnational billion-dollar company.

Ever since its inception in 1988, Eva has helped spearhead Trend Micro's emergence as one of the world's most innovative Internet content security companies. Before becoming CEO, Eva served as executive vice president from 1988-1996 and CTO from 1996-2004. During that time, she made an indelible mark on the company and the security landscape as a whole. Under her direction, Trend Micro produced a chronology of industry firsts, from unique products to outbreak management approaches to its revolutionary cloud based-threat intelligence and protection infrastructure, the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network. As a result of her innovation and leadership, she was appointed CEO in late 2004. Now with over two decades of expertise in endpoint, messaging and Web security, Trend Micro is focused on innovating smarter security solutions that protect against a wide range of insidious threats that put data at risk in conventional, virtual and cloud computing environments.

About Astia and the Astia Awards

Astia provides innovative programs that ensure companies gain access to capital, achieve and sustain high-growth, and develop the executive leadership of the women on the founding team. Headquartered in Silicon Valley with programs in Silicon Valley, New York, London and from 2010 India, Astia is well positioned to work with start-ups from around the globe. Astia hosts its annual awards reception in order to recognize the success of women entrepreneurs and those who ensure their success.

SOURCE Trend Micro