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Tino Mantella has been appointed president of the Technology Association of Georgia, a nonprofit organization that focuses on promotion and economic advancement of the state's technology industry.

Secretary Aris Melisssaratos of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development recently announced two new appointments. Leslie Sipes-Pachol will serve in the position of executive director for the Maryland Economic Development Commission, and Paul Mauritz has been promoted to become Assistant Secretary for Technology Strategy and Business Development.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco appointed state bond commisssion director Sharon Perez to serve as undersecretary for the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, and Secretary Michael Olivier named Dane Revette director of the agency's energy cluster.

The Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network recently selected Lisa Blakely, a former Bank of America executive, as its CEO.

Earlier this month, Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced Darrell Brock and Jim Host as new co-chairmen of ConnectKentucky. Brock, commissioner of the governor's Office for Local Development, and Commerce Cabinet Secretary Host joined existing chairman John Hall, retired chairman and CEO of Ashland Inc.

The Alaska MEP, a new nonprofit entity formed by the Alaska Native Arts Foundation and the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, has named Robert Pope as the first Interim Director.

The Metropolitan Development Association, of Syracuse and Central New York, also recently named a new chairman, John Zawadzki, of its Regional Development Alliance.

The Piedmont Triad Entrepreneurial Network recently selected Lisa Blakely, a former Bank of America executive, as its CEO.

Utah State University named J. Michael Brooks as director of its Innovation Campus. He will also serve as associate vice president for research and economic development, beginning Sept. 20.

Utah State University named J. Michael Brooks as director of its Innovation Campus. He will also serve as associate vice president for research and economic development, beginning Sept. 20.

A two-year grant from the Pennsylvania Dept. of Community and Economic Development enabled Lehigh University to announce last week the appointments of Glenn Doell and Graham Mitchell to serve respectively as director of the office of technology transfer and director of the entrepreneurship program.

Effective Jan. 1, Donald Kuratko will be executive director for Indiana University's Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Kuratko is currently runs Ball State University's entrepreneurship program.

Reports suggest New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, resigning his office in mid-November, will be named the first director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. Securing funding for the center has been a legislative priority for the Governor this year.

David Winwood is the new director of North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus.

State lottery would be leased to private company to finance fund, scholarships

Two initiatives recently proposed by Gov. Mitch Daniels would keep graduating college students in-state and lure world-class researchers to Indiana's public universities. However, a lottery lease plan that would, in part, finance the initiatives may be more the center of attention with Indiana legislators.

The Oregon Innovation Council (Oregon InC), which spent a year reviewing how best to expand the state’s economy by leveraging industry-supported initiatives with public investments, may get to see the toils of its labor come to fruition. Gov. Ted Kulongoski released earlier this month his 2007-09 budget, with full support for the innovation plan put out by Oregon InC.

A recent report from Hawaii’s Tax Review Commission recommends the state eliminate or drastically overhaul its five-year old tax credit for high-tech investors. According to the report, the current credit provides no clear advantage to the state and appears open to taxpayer abuse. The commission was particularly troubled by the lack of data provided by taxpayers who were approved for the credit and by the lack of transparency concerning the credit within the state’s Department of Taxation.

 

SSTI's most recent publication, A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development, provides valuable insights into three of the most important elements of transforming regional economies:

The Kansas City region is obtaining funding for high-tech research in the life sciences, but entrepreneurship is stifled because of fragmented efforts to improve the innovation environment and the region’s lack of an overall strategy for its various stakeholders. This finding and others were identified in Completing the Puzzle: Creating a High-Tech and Life Sciences Economy in Kansas City, a recent report prepared for the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program.

In what is often seen as a leading indicator of future total international student enrollment numbers, the percentage of newly enrolled foreign students has increased 8.3 percent between the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years. This trend and others were highlighted in the annual Open Doors Report published by the Institute of International Education. The attractiveness of the U.S.

Due to the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays, the next issue of the SSTI Weekly Digest will be published during the week of Jan. 8, 2007. Publication of the Funding Supplement also will resume in January, following this week's issue (Dec. 18, due out by Thursday).

Congress isn't the only place looking at dramatic changes in January. With 11 governors and hundreds of state legislators taking office for the first time, tech-based economic developers across the country are presented with both opportunity and challenge. A change in state leadership often presents the opportunity for positive changes in direction of outdated economic development policies and programs.

A handy resource for bringing new staff, board members and legislators quickly up to speed on TBED, A Resource Guide for Technology-based Economic Development targets a primary audience of existing practitioners looking to implement new or update older programs. SSTI compiled the book's recommendations after conducting extensive interviews with dozens of the countries leading TBED experts.

Both the Bush Administration and incoming Congressional Democrat leadership plan to put higher education under the spotlight in 2007, stressing issues of accessibility and cost containment. While their approaches to the problems will be different, both sides agree universities will play even greater roles in maintaining U.S. economic leadership in the 21st century than they have in the past.

It is unfortunate the word entrepreneurship has become as overused a buzzword as innovation because developing vibrant climates to support tech entrepreneurs remains one of the most important elements of successful state and local TBED.



Not all entrepreneurship is created equal, however. The country's standard of living will decline if it were based entirely on low-wage retail and service businesses – even if every single one of them was created by budding entrepreneurs.