History is replete with tales of those blessed with great ideas but unable to blend their inventive thoughts into that mercurial formula of innovation that seems to comprise of equal parts passion, foresight and dogged conviction.

In the world of business, it is even more rare to see this nigh alchemic mix turn the lead of good ideas into the gold of a successful business. When the spark happens…when it coalesces into greatness, you can feel it. When you meet a person that brings these disparate characteristics together into a single unstoppable force of will, you know you have met that rarest of business talent…the true entrepreneur.

Part salesman, part thinker, part philosopher, with a sliver of Midas thrown in, the entrepreneur mantle is claimed by many, but successfully worn with grace by few.

Each year, the Long Beach Chamber of Commerce seeks out those in the Long Beach business community that have risen to this Olympuslike level…a single champion to represent the best and the brightest of what makes the city shine.

This year the Chamber has selected Laserfiche founder and chief executive officer Nien-Ling Wacker as its City National Bank “Entrepreneur of the Year”.

“We consider this award the most prestigious of any we bestow on an individual in the course of a year,” said Chamber President and CEO Randy Gordon.

The annual award, since its inception nearly 15 years ago, has been awarded to some of the most prominent business innovators in Long Beach. Wacker joins such past recipients as Skip Keesal, James Hankla and last year’s honoree, Catalina Express founder Greg Bombard. She also joins prior honoree Diane Creel as the only two women on the list of Chamber luminaries.

“We think that Nien-Ling is just the perfect example of entrepreneurism at its very best. She is someone that had an idea and a vision that was just so far ahead of its time,” said Gordon.

After earning a Masters of Science degree in chemical physics from the University of Southern California, Wacker began her career in the computer industry as a systems analyst and programmer before founding her own software firm, Compulink Management Center, Inc., in 1974.

Recognizing a need by her clients to be able to store digital versions of volumes of paper documents in a secure and searchable way, Wacker began developing a vision of an electronic document repository, long before the terms “paperless office” and “document management” had even been coined.

Overcoming the technological storage and system limitations of the early 1980s, Wacker’s vision came to fruition with the introduction of Laserfiche for DOS in 1987 — the first PC platform document imaging system in the world.

As the Laserfiche products have grown over the past two decades in sophistication and capabilities — last year’s release of Laserfiche 8 and this year’s release of Rio were soundly praised by experts — so too has the company now bearing the system’s name.

The Chamber’s Gordon notes that Wacker’s decision to move Laserfiche to Long Beach nearly ten years ago was important not just for the company, but also for the city.

“When they moved to Long Beach, we knew it was something special,” said Gordon. “It is nice to see a very successful company where the CEO lives here in Long Beach, is involved in the business as well as the civic community, and has such an extraordinary sense of social responsibility.”

For Wacker, this sense of community extends from the customers who purchase Laserfiche products to the more than 200 people who work for Laserfiche — all as a foundational part of her personal and business philosophy. “Laserfiche reflects both my personality and the personality of our staff,” she said. “We tackle a problem head-on, we develop an ingenious solution, and we are pretty accomplished at doing both.”

Wacker said that in order to bring out the best in her Laserfiche team, she has always tried to foster a sense of belonging to a community. “Laserfiche is our family in a way. We create a supportive cocoon for ourselves, a comfort level so that we can be as creative a team as possible.”

And this philosophy filters beyond the doors of the Laserfiche headquarters. The company has created sophisticated networks among the resellers and customers, holds regular meetings and education programs for both, and routinely seeks out the advice and needs of everyone along the developer-to-user chain.

“More than just carrying your products, [resellers] are helping to promote you and helping to support your customers. So we created the Laserfiche Institute, an annual conference where we present our knowledge base and educate them,” she said, adding that “the goal is to raise the ability level of the reseller so that they can, in turn, help service and support the customers directly.”

Wacker has also developed her company as a role model of civic involvement, which the Chamber’s Gordon points out, puts Laserfiche in a unique group of firms.

“Not every successful entrepreneur, for whatever reason, gives back to the community. Nien-Ling and Laserfiche have really given back to the community,” said Gordon.

For Wacker, though, the reason is obvious. “We support the local community — we want to help it when we can — because that is where we live. The majority of our people live here. We like Long Beach and as a part of the city, we want this to be a very vibrant community.” And Wacker’s genteel approach and business success has not gone

unnoticed. In addition to numerous technology and industry awards over the years, Wacker has been recognized both for her roles as a business leader and as an entrepreneur.

She earned a finalist position in the 2004 and 2005 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year competitions and achieved a place on the Los Angeles Business Journal’s list of 100 Women Who Make a Difference.

In June 2005, Wacker was named Luminary of the Year by the Moms in Business Network, and two years ago was named to the National Association of Women’s Business Owners’ Hall of Fame.

Despite the acclaim that all her hard work has brought, Wacker still believes that her original business philosophy still holds her in good stead, although she acknowledges she has grown somewhat after more than 30 years in business.

“You have more experience, you are wiser,” she said. “You see things from different angles rather than from a single direction. I think your basic philosophy doesn’t change that much because you can’t really change the person. But, as the environment and the times change, you do evolve a bit.”

And what keeps her going? “I am having fun everyday,” she said. “I truly do enjoy what I am doing.”