2013 Washington Manufacturing Awards: Innovator of the Year | Midsize Firms

Winner: B.E. Meyers, Redmond
When operating in hostile environments, military and law enforcement personnel need all the advantages they can get. Providing that advantage in the form of optoelectronics technology is the operating niche of B.E. Meyers & Co. With more than 150 employees, the 38-year-old firm makes night-vision systems, nonlethal lasers for identifying targets and disrupting the vision of potential foes (used at checkpoints in Iraq and Afghanistan), and muzzle-flash hiders.

As military budgets tighten, B.E. Meyers, cofounded by Brad and Nancy Meyers, is finding new applications and markets in law enforcement and homeland and maritime security.