SSTI Digest

Victor Hwang has been promoted to the position of president at Larta.

With Randall Olson's resignation, Pat Dillon has become the executive director for Minnesota Project Innovation.

BioCrossroads, the Central Indiana life sciences network, announced Chuck Schalliol is the organization's new chief executive officer and president.

William Tew has resigned as director of the Office of Licensing and Technology Development for Johns Hopkins University.

Flanked by the Kansas Senate President and House Speaker, Republican legislators unveiled on Tuesday a two-pronged agenda to encourage entrepreneurship and biotechnology across the state. The plan calls for the state to invest at least $500 million over the next 10 years through a variety of new programs to encourage research, innovation and technology commercialization.

An interesting and unique element of the plan is the allocation of the tax revenues received from the Kansas bioscience sector over the next decade to pay for the state's increased investment in helping grow the industry. Similar to Tax Increment Financing models used to cover the cost of site-specific infrastructure costs for local economic development projects, the Emerging Industry Investment Program outlined in the Kansas Economic Growth Act identifies the relevant SIC/NAICS codes that would be included in the pool of funds earmarked for the bioscience initiative.

A quick scan of most state innovation indices and report cards will reveal Massachusetts is on the short list for comparison of what others states would like to achieve. But a leadership spot in the innovation economy is not being taken for granted in the Commonwealth.

The dot-com crash and recession hit the state hard, leading Massachusetts Speaker Thomas M. Finneran last summer to recommend that Massachusetts invest more than $100 million toward several tech-based economic development (TBED) initiatives (see the July 11, 2003, issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest).

The 2005 budget request submitted this week by Florida Governor Jeb Bush includes $20 million to establish two more Centers of Excellence at Florida universities. The new centers would join the three selected last year through a competitive process [see the May 16, 2003 issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest.] Each center receives $10 million from the state and is designed to foster innovative, cutting-edge technology research at Florida’s colleges and universities, develop commercially viable applications for that research, and recruit high-tech industries and thinkers to the state. The initial legislation enabling the state's investment in the centers permitted creation of up to five.

To help strengthen the academic research infrastructure, Gov. Bush also recommended the state commit $25 million to match private donations to state universities.

Nearly every region engaged in building a tech-based economy wants more access to seed and venture capital money. It's particularly useful when your largest employer announces it will lay off up to 23 percent of its workforce – as many as 5,000 people in your community and 15,000 across the globe – during the next three years.

The generous but bittersweet offer came from Eastman Kodak Company last week as it announced the creation of a $15 million economic development fund designed to promote business development and job creation in the greater Rochester region. Kodak currently employs more than 20,000 people in Rochester, a third of its total employment of 64,000 worldwide in 2003.

Despite a sluggish national economy, North Carolina held its own over the last three years, according to a measure of 25 broad indicators of innovation, technology and economic growth released earlier this week. In all, Tracking Innovation: North Carolina Innovation Index 2003 considers more than 50 performance measures across five general categories, highlighting the state’s strengths and weaknesses.

North Carolina’s performance on each measure is compared to that of the U.S. as a whole and that of six selected states — Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia. The 76-page index, sponsored biennially by the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology (BST), argues that the state’s technology-intensive economy, fueled by high and increasing levels of inputs, is strong at its core.

It's one thing to call your entrepreneurship education efforts the best, but it's another when more than 950 of your peers from around the country do. The entrepreneurship program at Harvard Business School (HBS) recently won the top award for MBA programs nationwide from the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), an organization devoted to entrepreneurship education and development. USASBE named Harvard Business School as its National Model MBA Program winner at the organization's annual conference in Dallas on Jan. 17-19.

This is the third in a series of articles as SSTI continues its look at the prominence of tech-based economic development in the Inaugural, State of the State and Budget Addresses given by the nation's governors. Highlights from this week's speeches are provided below.

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, State of the State Address, Jan. 26, 2004 "Conservation, waste-to-energy programs and alternative energy initiatives can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and move our state to the forefront of progressive energy policies. To demonstrate the state's commitment and leadership role, I ask you today to pass our bill that mandates 20 percent of all electricity sold in the year 2020 come from renewable sources.

Ohio’s IT Alliance (OITA) invites applications and nominations for the position of President and Chief Executive Officer. OITA's mission as a statewide public/private partnership is to drive the growth and improve the competitiveness of Ohio through the development and support of its information technology industry. The new President will enhance OITA’s role as the key public/private catalyst for industry growth and success. The successful candidate must: demonstrate a strong public presence with the ability to lead through influence; have compelling analytic and strategic problem solving and planning abilities; evidence successful leadership in an IT enterprise or function in both strategy and operating roles; demonstrate a successful track record in sales/marketing, business development, operations, and fund raising in technology based companies or related organization; and possess familiarity/experience with technology based economic development.