TBED agencies in two northwest states have released proactive wish lists for state TBED investment in their respective 2007 legislative sessions.



Idaho

In a Sept. 12 teleconference, Idaho Gov. Jim Risch's Science and Technology Advisory Council agreed upon a $38.8 million package to attract and grow new technology businesses, as well as a tax credit program to encourage private investment in high-tech companies.

Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne named Idaho National Lab Director John Grossenbacher as the new chairman of the Governor's Science & Technology Advisory Council.

In its third special session of the year, Mississippi legislators passed House Bill 3, an economic development package of grants and loans for high-tech and existing industry, including Gov. Barbour’s Momentum Mississippi Initiative.

Angie Dvorak is leaving her position as CEO of the Mississippi Technology Alliance to become vice president of research for the University of Southern Mississippi. The University saw a 25 percent increase in research funds last fiscal year, climbing to a record $62.6 million.

Governor Dirk Kempthorne has announced the creation of TechConnect East, a regional science and technology office to be located at the Idaho State University Incubation Center in Pocatello, Idaho.

The Mississippi Technology Alliance has released a second annual index focusing on the process of innovation, the links between innovation and technology-based economic development, and activities that government, academia and the private sector provide to support innovation and economic development.

Elizabeth Sellars is the new manager of Idaho Operations for the Department of Energy.

John Kotek, formerly with Argonne National Laboratory-West, has been named deputy manager of the Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office. The office oversees the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

LaMoyne Hyde, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce, also announced he will resign his position by the end of the year.

U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Thomas Q. Donaldson, V has been appointed Director of the John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC), effective Jan. 5, 2004.

Bill Shipp, president of Bechtel BWXT Idaho and lab director of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, is retiring effective Oct. 25. Paul Divjak will be his replacement.

Tony Jeff has been selected to serve as executive director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Mississippi.

Tony Jeff is the new executive director of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Mississippi.

Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne dedicated a portion of Monday's State of the State and Budget Address to describing how tight the 2005 fiscal environment would be for his state. The temporary sales tax will lapse, costing the state $170 million in foregone revenue. The one-time $83 million in federal bailout funds are depleted. State employees will get a 27th biweekly paycheck this calendar year, resulting in an additional budgetary burden of approximately $20 million.

Leland Speed has been named the new executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority.

Andy Taggart has been appointed president and chief executive officer of the Mississippi Technology Alliance.

The Acting Director for the Idaho Department of Commerce is Roger Madsen. Madsen also is serving as director of the state Department of Labor.

The Idaho Economic Development Association has named Jan Rogers as new president.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) is the nationwide network of federal laboratories that provides the forum to develop strategies and opportunities for linking the laboratory mission technologies and expertise with the marketplace. More than 700 major federal laboratories and centers and their parent departments and agencies are FLC members. 

Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians (MBCI) Tribal Chief Phillip Martin and Mississippi Technology Alliance President and Chief Executive Officer Angie Dvorak recently announced a partnership to help foster science-based economic development for the state of Mississippi. The alliance's partnership with a tribal government is possibly the first of its kind in the U.S.

John Glerum, former president and CEO of Ore-Ida Foods, has been named science and technology coordinator for the Idaho Department of Commerce. Glerum also will serve as director of the new Technology and Entrepreneurial Center, to be built on the campus of Boise State University West.

Building Entrepreneurial Networks, a major report on how and why networks of entrepreneurs nurture economic growth in communities across the country, was released Wednesday by the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE). 



To illustrate the importance of entrepreneurial networks, NCOE’s seventh report profiles five organizations in Idaho, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas that have succeeded in developing unique entrepreneurial networks. 

Science policy and tech-based economic development have taken center stage in Idaho with last week’s release of the Idaho Science and Technology Strategy and the supporting new initiatives included in Governor Dirk Kempthorne’s recent budget message.

James Ellick is taking a leave of absence as director of the Idaho Department of Commerce for personal reasons.