SSTI Digest

Pamela Goldberg has been appointed as the executive director of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. Currently, Goldberg serves as director of entrepreneurial leadership at Tufts University. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley announced the appointment of Greg Canfield as the new director of the Alabama Development Office. Current ADO director Seth Hammett is returning to his position with PowerSouth Energy. Canfield is expected to begin his duties on or before Aug. 1. Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced that Jim Leftwich is resigning as director of the Development Department. Leftwich, former CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, stepped in as former director Mark Kvamme moved to a different position within the administration. Renew Moline has chosen Janet Mathis as interim executive director. Mathis is founder and president of The Development Consortium, a development consulting firm. Renew Moline has formed a search committee to find a permanent executive director. The St. Gregory's University Board of Directors announced its decision to hire Greg Main, former head of the Michigan Economic Development Corp., as its 15th president. The…

Recent announcements of new and emerging technology incubators range from Google's selection of Cape Town, South Africa to launch a pilot incubator supporting technology entrepreneurs that it hopes to replicate globally to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley's plan to create a statewide business incubator focusing on workforce training. Select announcements from across the globe are highlighted below. Google will set up a new technology incubator called Umbono in Cape Town, South Africa, reports Memeburn. Startup companies selected for inclusion will receive six months of free office space and bandwidth, in addition to $25,000 to $50,000 in funding from a panel of angel investors and Google. The goal is to replicate the model in other parts of the globe. The name means "vision," "sight" or "idea" in Zulu, the article states. Three major energy companies announced a joint venture earlier this year to support clean tech energy companies by establishing a green technology incubator. General Electric, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips will commit $300 million over the next four years to the Energy Technology Ventures enterprise. Funding is…

The seventh installment of SSTI's Tech Talkin' Govs series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Alabama, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. The first six installments are available in the Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Jan. 19, Jan. 26, Feb. 9 and Feb. 23 issues of the Digest. AlabamaGov. Robert Bentley, State of the State Address, March 1, 2011"The Education Budget I present will preserve, protect and bolster areas that should remain a priority for all of Alabama. ... We will protect the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative. ... "... For the first time, our economic development and job creation strategy will include a plan for how we engage our universities and institutions of higher learning. Once we accomplish this, I believe we will forever change the economic landscape of Alabama." FloridaGov. Rick Scott, State of the State Address, March 8, 2011"An important priority in our 'jobs' budget is to consolidate government's economic development efforts into a single, highly focused agency. Working with our public-private partner, we will have the resources to be…

Alabama then-Governor-elect Robert Bentley on January 3 named former House Speaker Seth Hammett as director of the Alabama Development Office, replacing Interim Director Linda Swann. He also appointed the president of the Birmingham-based Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, Bill Taylor, to lead efforts to grow and retain existing Alabama industries, while at the same time recruiting new businesses to the state. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper nominated Dwayne Romero, president of Related Snowmass, to be the new director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Florida Governor Rick Scott fired John Adams, the current president of Enterprise Florida, so that he can choose a new leader to help promote his job creation and economic development agenda. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton chose Mark Phillips, director of development at Kraus Anderson Construction, as his commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the nomination of Kenneth Adams as president and CEO of the Empire State Development Corporation. Gov. Cuomo said the appointment is part of his plan to…

SSTI Board member Phillip Singerman has been named as the Associate Director for Innovation and Industry Services for the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He will assume this position on January 31. Alabama Gov.-elect Robert Bentley named former house speaker Seth Hammett as the director of the Alabama Development Office. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter announced he will become director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University effective Feb. 1. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder named Michael Finney, current president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK, as the new Michigan Economic Development Corp. director, replacing Greg Main. Ann Arbor SPARK announced the appointment of Skip Simms as interim president and CEO. New Mexico Gov.-elect Susana Martinez named businessman Jon Barela as the new secretary for the Department of Economic Development. Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Tom Corbett named Alan Walker as secretary of the Department of Community and Economic Development. Walker, who is the president and CEO of Bradford Energy Company, also currently serves as a member and is past chair of the board of directors of both the…

The Tennessee Biotechnology Association has changed their name to Life Science Tennessee. Ann Arbor SPARK recently added Bill Mayer as director of their business accelerator team. Fred Mondragón, New Mexico's economic development secretary announced that he is retiring. Gov. Bill Richardson has appointed Allan Oliver, the deputy secretary of economic development, to replace Mondragón during the final weeks of the administration. Robert Rosenbaum has been appointed president and executive director of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation. John Wasilisin has been serving as acting president and executive director since Renée Winsky stepped down in July 2009 to become CEO of the Tech Council of Maryland. Wasilisin will now shift to a role as executive vice president and chief operating officer. The Ben Franklin Technology Partners has announced the appointment of John Sider, former deputy secretary for Technology Investment for the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, as its managing director of Statewide Initiatives. Sider is succeeding Terry Singer who is retiring. Linda Swann has been…

Often credited with contributing significant revenue to states' economies, research parks also house facilities for workforce training and provide resources for tech-based industries, which is especially important as the nation's employment begins to pick up steam. In West Virginia, officials are building a $15 million advanced technology-training center at the state-owned research and technology park, and in Utah, officials recently broke ground on a building that will house engineers and analysts working on the nation's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile program. The West Virginia Education Research and Technology Park is slated to receive $12 million in federal stimulus funds from Gov. Joe Manchin's office, which will be used for renovations and operations, reports The Charleston Gazette. The state Higher Education Policy Commission will take over the research park in December with plans to build a $15 million advanced technology training center. Earlier this year, Battelle Memorial Institute won a $400,000 contract to provide recommendations on how to best develop the new park. Plans are underway to develop 32 acres near the University of Minnesota into a science…

The Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the selection of 10 regional economic development and job creation efforts through a new pilot program, Innovative Economies, that supports small business participation in regional economic clusters. SBA's funding is designed to expand the opportunities and the role small businesses play in these regional collaborations. The awardees were selected from among 173 applicants. Awards went to organizations in: Alabama, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina. Read the full release

Neal Wade will resign his position as director of the Alabama Development Office in November and has been named senior vice president of economic development for St. Joe, one of Florida's largest real estate development companies. Business Leaders for Michigan and the University Research Corridor have formed Accelerate Michigan to identify Michigan's best opportunities to grow clusters of innovation based on university-industry R&D. Wisconsin's largest academic energy research organizations have merged to form the Wisconsin Energy Research Consortium to stimulate basic energy research discovery from funded projects. The consortium brings together the state's four largest engineering schools and eight industry partners.

Chris Atkinson is the new director of West Virginia University's Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines, and Emissions (CAFEE). Patrick Scheuermann will take over as director of NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, replacing Gene Goldman. Goldman, who has served at Stennis since November 2008, will assume the position of deputy director at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. Woodrow Whitlow, director of NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, has been named associate administrator for Mission Support at NASA headquarters. Ray Lugo, the deputy director at Glenn, has been named acting director.

Gov. Bob Riley signed a bill last month extending tax credits and incentives to knowledge-based industries and green employers to encourage growth and expansion in these fields throughout the state. Touted by the governor's office as a recruitment tool to influence the location decision for thousands of new jobs, the bill extends capital credits and tax abatements currently offered to new and expanding manufacturers to corporate headquarters, R&D facilities, and producers of electricity or natural gas from biomass or renewable energy resources, cellulosic biofuel producers, and other green employers. The bill also extends Alabama's 20-year credit period existing under the corporate income tax Capital Credit program to 30 years and updates the base wage requirement to $15 per hour. Outlined during his state of the state address earlier this year, the measure is a critical component of the governor's Alabama Economic Recovery Plan to increase the state's competitiveness and emerge as a leader in the green economy (see the Feb. 4, 2009 issue of the Digest). The full text of HB 568 is available at: http://www.legislature.state.al.us/. Gov. Riley…

Karl Fooks, a past managing director for J.P. Morgan & Co. in Asia, is the new president of the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation. Fooks replaces John Chock who retired last year. The U.S. Senate confirmed by unanimous consent President Barack Obama's nomination of Karen Gordon Mills as the 23rd Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation has named Stephen M. Hourigan executive director of the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund. He also will oversee the state's entrepreneurship efforts. Hourigan replaces Bruce Kidd who resigned in December. Innovate Texas Foundation was launched to enhance Texas' competitiveness in bringing promising technologies to the marketplace and creating high-value jobs in the state. David Guajardo Nance will become the Foundation's first executive director. Northern Kentucky University and their alliance partners have formed the Northern Kentucky Entrepreneurial Alliance to promote entrepreneurship in the region. Bill Taylor, the longtime head of Mercedes-Benz's Alabama operations, will become president of the Economic Development Partnership of…