Consultant to lead Northern Arizona business incubator

Oct. 9--A development consultant hired last year to do a feasibility study of the local business incubator has accepted an offer to be its next president and CEO.

Thomas Rainey, who formerly served as the president of the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, will spend the next year overseeing the construction of the 10,000 square-foot, state-of-the art facility, raising funds for its projected $400,000 budget and attracting the first round of fledgling businesses to the incubator.

The incubator, now called the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies, will be built on the U.S. Geological Survey campus on McMillan Mesa. It was formerly called the Northern Arizona Technology and Business Incubator.

Rainey replaces former President Willard Ott, who returned to Northern Arizona University to teach business management full-time earlier this month.

Michael Kerski, the city of Flagstaff's community investment director, was involved in recruiting Rainey to Flagstaff.

"He brings very valuable experience in business retention, expansion and attraction," Kerski said. "The city and NACET will be working as a team in all of these areas to ensure not only the success of the facility, but sustainable economic development for our community."

Upon learning Ott was planning on leaving the incubator, Rainey applied for the position.

With 19 years of experience in the business development community, Rainey said he believes he brings a unique set of skills perfect for setting up the incubator.

"It is like the stars had aligned for me to take this position," said Rainey.

Rainey will be busy over the next few months as he tries to raise an estimated $60,000 a year in donations from the business community.

An estimate of the incubator's annual budget will be $400,000 a year and the city's current budget for the incubator is roughly $320,000. Local businesses currently have pledged $20,000 annually to NACET's budget.

He has set-up one fundraiser already, a symposium attracting scientists from across the country scheduled for next April. He expects the event to raise thousands of dollars.

This year, Rainey has a much smaller budget. The city has set aside $180,000 to pay for his salary, the small office space he rents on Cedar Avenue and other expenses.

While Rainey hopes to double his operating budget, roughly $90,000 will go toward debt service of the multimillion-dollar bond used to build the facility.

The announcement of Rainey's hiring was made two weeks before city officials break ground on the incubator, part of a larger, planned Science and Technology Park.

The technology incubator building will be part of a 200,000 square-foot "Innovation Campus."

The incubator was originally intended to be part of NAU's Applied Research Facility but the increased cost of construction materials caused the university to scale back the project to half its originally planned size -- 5,000 square feet.

The incubator was then shifted to city control, which proposed locating the incubator in the Science and Technology Park on top of McMillan Mesa.

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