Publisher's Note: SSTI notes with much sadness the March 5 passing of Indiana State Sen. David Ford, following a battle with pancreatic cancer. David was a good friend not only of SSTI's, but also of the tech-based economic development community across the nation. In addition to being a tireless and cheerful advocate for investing in science and technology, he was also a gentleman in the true sense of the word, and we miss him greatly.
The Beaver County (Pa.) CO-OP announced it will change its name to StartingGate. The incubator will continue to assist entrepreneurs and new business start-ups and help expand existing businesses.
Joe Dedman was chosen as the first executive director of the Southeast Indiana WIRED.
Brian DuBoff was named the director of Maryland's southern region Small Business Development Center, which is hosted by the College of Southern Maryland.
Offering customized workspace such as wet laboratories and specialized research equipment is one of the many benefits provided by technology-focused incubators. Access to university research, business mentoring and administrative support services often accompany the reduced rent facilities with the goal of growing technology companies into successful, self-sustaining enterprises. Following are select announcements of recently launched incubators and partnerships from across the nation.
The SSTI Offices will be closed Wednesday, October 6 - Monday, October 11 due to the SSTI conference and in observance of the Columbus Day holiday.
Due to SSTI’s 3rd Annual Conference next week, the SSTI Weekly Digest will not be published on October 8.
Rose-Hulman Ventures President Jim Eifert and Executive Vice President Brij Khorana resigned their positions to return to faculty duties at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
The first two installments of SSTI's annual look at how TBED will play in the 2005 legislative priorities of the governors can be found in the Digest archives on our website: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm
Indiana
Frank Sabatine has been appointed to the newly created position of associate vice president of economic development and community engagement at Ball State University.
Over the past several months, universities, city and state governments, and private companies alike have announced the creation of high-tech incubators that will serve as springboards for developing specialized companies to help grow the regional economy. Following is a sampling of recent incubator news from across the nation.
A complete description of this opportunity and others is available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
Bill Bradley is the new executive director of the Jay County Development Corp. Bradley fills the vacancy left by the late Bob Quadrozzi.
Over the last few months, three states have announced new strategies to encourage regional tech-based economic development. Several states have experimented with how best to support or encourage regional TBED in the past, resulting in both successes and failures. In some cases, state sought partnerships at the local level in the creation of new programs while other states took a more hands off approach, such as providing seed funding to create regional technology councils.
Complete descriptions of the position openings described below are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.
A new initiative to target and promote Indiana's manufacturing and logistics sector will do so in a similar manner to the 2002 BioCrossroads initiative that aided in transforming the region’s life sciences industry, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP) recently announced.
Conexus Indiana, a new initiative focused on the state’s advanced manufacturing and logistics industries, will be led by President and CEO Carol D’Amico, former executive vice president and chancellor of Ivy Tech Community College.
Charles Sparks was named business development director of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation.
Indiana University announced that William Stephan will be the university's new vice president of engagement, a newly created position that becomes effective in September.
Ron Gifford is the new president and CEO of the Indy Partnership. Gifford replaces Gordon Hendry, who left to take an executive position with CB Richard Ellis.
John Hertig was appointed executive director of the Alfred Mann Institute for Biomedical Development at Purdue University.
Kenneth Kahn will be the Avrum and Joyce Gray Director of the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship at Purdue University, effective Jan. 1. In addition to directing the center, Kahn will be a professor in the university's Department of Industrial Technology.
The Illinois Technology Development Alliance (ITDA) this week promoted John Noel to become ITDA's permanent president. Noel had been serving as interim president over the past 15 months.
Governors in several states recently unveiled spending proposals for the upcoming fiscal year or biennium. While fiscal conditions in most states remain fragile, new or continuing investments focused on science, technology and innovation were introduced as pro-growth measures to aid in states' recovery efforts. With the exception of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's ambitious economic development plan (see the Jan. 9 issue of the Digest), most of the proposals were on the modest side.