Tom Wallace has stepped down as president of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum.

With state revenues posting a surplus, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush used his 2006-07 budget proposal to make his largest request yet to support efforts to diversify the state's economy through technology-based economic development (TBED). In total, the budget provides $630 million for several new research-focused initiatives, business recruitment funds, and other economic development programs.

Judy McKinney-Cherry is the new director of the Delaware Economic Development Office.

Ray Gilley, president of Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, has been appointed chairman of Workforce Florida.

John Wik, director of Delaware's economic development office, is resigning in September to pursue interests in the private sector.

BioFlorida President Diana Robinson is leaving to join a private venture capital company once her replacement is selected.

An economic diversification package recently approved by officials in Orange County, Florida, is intended to offset some of the post-September 11 difficulties experienced by the local economy.



More than $1 million for the Orange County Economic Stimulus Package was approved in late January by the Board of County Commissioners. The initiative provides funding for five measures, including:

Rick Kovar, executive director of the Rhode Island Technology Council for the past two years, resigned from his position. The 242-member Council is beginning the search for a new director.

In his fourth State of the State Address, Governor Jeb Bush outlined a new $100 million university-based initiative focused on nanotechnology and biotechnology.

Encouraging venture capital investments, creating R&D tax exemptions, and establishing three new technology-based organizations are just a few of the recommendations included in the first annual report of ITFlorida.com. The 34-member Information Service Technology Development Task Force was created by state legislation last year to assess the health of Florida's information technology industry.

For the second year in a row, Florida cities dominate the Milken Institute's top 200 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in the ability to create and sustain jobs. The top performer, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, moved up 31 places from last year and is followed by last year's top scorer, Cape Coral-Fort Myers, and Naples-Marco Island, respectively.

Senate Bill 1844, signed by Governor Jeb Bush this week, provides $30 million to create Centers of Excellence and includes several other key elements of the Florida Technology Development Initiative, proposed by Governor Bush in his State of the State speech this year.

The University of Florida is seeking a creative and versatile individual to assist in partnership development and commercialization of technologies for UF and its sponsoring agencies. The primary responsibility for this position will be to serve as Deputy Director for the Environmental Systems Commercial Space Technology Center (ES CSTC), a NASA sponsored environmental research center.

The Center for Economic Forecasting and Analysis at Florida State University has completed a New Economy index for Tallahassee, showing how the Florida capital compares with 66 MSAs and, in a second analysis, a comparison of 20 Florida MSAs. Tallahassee ranks 11th among all MSAs assessed, a finding the authors suggest confirms "the city's economy has a number of very strong advantages."

Florida's High Tech Corridor and LaGrange, Georgia, have been named two of the world's top seven "intelligent" communities in a recent report by the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), a project of the New York-based telecommunication group World Teleport Association.

Enterprise Florida has named Darrell Kelley as its new president and chief executive officer effective August 5. Kelley currently is the president of the defense-related technology incubator, MILCOM Technologies.

Delaware increased its commitment to technology businesses recently with two new initiatives: the creation of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute and the passage of a state research and development tax credit.

Delaware Biotechnology Institute

Bob Dayton was named president of the Delaware BioScience Association.

In what could be the beginning of a new trend in state economic development incentive/inducements, bills receiving bi-partisan support in the Michigan and Delaware state legislatures would address businesses= needs for more technically skilled workers by having the states pick up the students' tab for community college tuition and technical training.

Sue Rhoades, formerly of Delaware, has taken a new position with Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Partnership as State Coordinator. She will be working with the four regional Ben Franklin Technology Centers on a variety of statewide collaborative and strategic initiatives. The Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO) is seeking a Manager of Technology Programs to fill Sue’s position. The DEDO is the state agency responsible for economic development in Delaware.

The Florida legislature recently approved legislation creating the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI), an independent, industry-led organization designed to coordinate the space-related research capabilities of several public and private universities. FSRI will strive to expand the universities’ involvement in space research and education, and to insure that state academic resources are available to support the space-related needs of industry, NASA, and the military.

Brent Gregory has announced his resignation as Vice President for Technology Development with Enterprise Florida to accept a position in the private sector.