The Louisiana Emerging Technologies Center announced Arthur Cooper will serve as its first executive director.

Don Hutchinson is the new director of the Mayor's Office of Economic Development for the city of New Orleans.

Forum Aims to Support Entrepreneurs in Southern New Jersey

Rowan University Wins Approval for Technology Park Loan

Wanted: all managers in private-sector research and development (R&D) facilities. The Southern Growth Policies Board is conducting a nationwide survey to gain insight into drivers and policies of industrial R&D. The survey attempts to illuminate university-company relationships.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has appointed Michael Olivier to serve as Secretary of Louisiana Economic Development. Olivier was president and CEO of the Harrison County Development Commission in Gulfport, Miss., for 17 years.

Two years following its creation, the Louisiana Technology Fund has $2.3 million to help the early-stage technology companies for which it was intended, the Baton Rouge-based Advocate reported earlier this month. The fund stems from 2002 legislation that revived Louisiana's Certified Capital Companies (CAPCOs) program.

When Florida Gov. Jeb Bush surprised the world last October by announcing the state had landed an East Coast campus for the Scripps Research Institute, the draw from the public coffers cost was pegged at $510 million. The state was contributing $310 million and the county's share was up to $200 million for land acquisition and building construction.

While the federal government supports fuel cell research, nearly every state across the country has taken a more active role in advancing the development and commercialization of fuel cell and renewable energy technologies, according to two recent reports from the North Carolina State University Solar Center. A web-based directory of more than 875 state and federal initiatives managed by the center helps prove that point.

John Merrill will serve as executive director for the Greensboro Center for Innovative Development, a joint millennium campus and research park between University of North Carolina Greensboro and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.

Michelle Bauer, executive director of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, announced she will resign from her position in early 2005.

Norma Grace, vice chancellor for technology and economic development at the University of New Orleans, has been elected as the 2004-05 president of the Association of University Research Parks.

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.

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.

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

Gwyn Riddick recently was named director of the new Piedmont Triad office of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center.

North Carolina took another step toward improving technology-based economic opportunity for its citizens when Gov. Michael Easley signed into law House Bill 1194 earlier this month. The bill creates the e-NC Authority, which will continue the work of the existing Rural Internet Access Authority for three more years, beginning January 2004.