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Oleg Kagonovich has been promoted to the position of CEO of the Sacramento Area Regional Technology Alliance. He formerly served as Chief Operating Officer.

Organizations

The influential 5,600-member American Association for Higher Education announced last Thursday that it would close by the end of the year due to financial difficulties stemming in part from a sharp decline in membership.

Organizations The influential 5,600-member American Association for Higher Education announced last Thursday that it would close by the end of the year due to financial difficulties stemming in part from a sharp decline in membership.

Two Southern Arizona tech councils, theInformation Technology Association of Southern Arizona and the Southern Arizona Industry and Aerospace Alliance, decided to merge to have the combined financial resources for a full-time executive director, according to the March 23 edition of the Tucson Citizen.

To reduce administrative costs by up to $500,000 and to improve operational efficiencies, the Slater Fund Board of Directors has approved plans to consolidate Rhode Island's four Slater Centers into a single entity, the Slater Technology Fund, Inc. The fund will retain its four technology thrusts of biomedical technology, interactive technologies, design and manufacturing, and marine and environmental technologies.

The Iowa Entrepreneurs Coalition has been formed to help advance an innovation- and entrepreneur-friendly agenda in the Iowa legislature.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development announced William Boone is the first director for the new Agricultural Center of Innovation.

Dyan Brasington, former president of the Technology Council of Maryland, is the new director of economic and workforce development at Towson University.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney promoted Renee Fry to serve as director of the Department of Business and Technology, the state agency tasked with retaining and attracting jobs and steering economic policy throughout the Commonwealth.

Sylvia Goldman has resigned as director of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, effective at the end of March.

Minnesota Technology, Inc. (MTI), the state's leading tech-based economic development corporation, currently is searching for a dynamic individual with top-notch skills to help bring federal technology transfer activities to Minnesota companies.

Anthony Armstrong returns to the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund as its new director.

Bay Area Regional Technology Alliance (BARTA) has been renamed the TechVentures Network as the Bay Area's leading source of access to financing, business data and services for emerging technology.

Anthony Armstrong returns to the Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund as its new director.

Bay Area Regional Technology Alliance (BARTA) has been renamed the TechVentures Network as the Bay Area's leading source of access to financing, business data and services for emerging technology.

John Bradley is the Tennessee Valley Authority's as its first chief of economic development. Bradley had been senior vice president of economic development at the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Randy Goldsmith resigned as President & CEO of the Oklahoma Technology Development Corp to assume the role of President and CEO of the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative.

J.A. Hans Roeterink, chief technical officer and vice president of network operations for T-Systems in New York, is the new executive director of the Alaska Science & Technology Foundation. Roeterink begins Nov. 1, succeeding Jamie Kenworthy.

Dennis Yablonsky, who has been serving as CEO for both the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse and the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse for most of the past year, has decided to focus exclusively on the biotech initiative. His replacement as president and CEO at the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse is David Ruppersberger.

A ballot proposal being put forth by Citizens for a Healthy Michigan would reduce funding for Michigan Life Sciences Corridor sponsored projects by nearly $50 million annually, estimates a report released by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC).  The annual reduction includes both the cut in direct funding and required matching funds for Corridor funded projects.

The Advanced Technology Program (ATP) has announced 40 awards potentially totaling $101.6 million in ATP funding matched by an industry cost-share of $92 million if carried through to completion. These awards were selected from proposals submitted to 2002 competition.

Construction is underway for the Cool Springs Life Sciences Center (CSLSC), a $74 million biomedical research facility planned for Franklin, TN, 15 miles south of Nashville. When completed, the 10-acre center will be home to life sciences-focused R&D facilities for biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

The National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE) has released the American Formula for Growth – Federal Policy and the Entrepreneurial Economy, 1958-1998, a report that provides an extensive review of the role of public policy during the “entrepreneurial revolution” of the past 40 years.

In the 1990s, the dialogue on information technology (IT) centered on dot.coms and e-commerce, and little focus was placed on the effect of IT on the labor market. Richard Freeman addresses this issue in The Labour Market in the New Information Economy, an NBER working paper released this month.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty committee has suggested that the university provide off-campus facilities to help faculty perform classified public service or research involving the nation’s security. In the Public Interest, a report of the Ad Hoc Faculty Committee on Access To and Disclosure of Scientific Information of MIT, presents recommendations for the university in handling classified work in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

The economic downturn and continuing state and local fiscal problems are not stopping most efforts to develop tech-based economies. Here are a few examples of recent groundbreakings from around the country.