Kentucky Highlands Investment Corporation has named Jim Carroll as director of its Center for Entrepreneurial Growth.

Complete descriptions of these opportunities and others are available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

President Bush announced he will nominate Assistant Secretary of Commerce Sandy Baruah to serve as the administrator of the Small Business Administration.

The Rensselaer County Regional Chamber of Commerce has created the Economic Development Partnership to help businesses relocate to or expand in the county.

A complete description of this opportunity and others is available at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

• Tony Armstrong, Indiana University executive director for engagement, has been chosen as the Indiana University Research and Technology Corporations new president and CEO.
• Jeff Costantine will retire this fiscal year as president of the Nashville Technology Council. The board of directors has begun the search for a new president.

John Hindman announced his resignation as secretary of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development.

Governor Rick Perry recently announced Alan Kirchhoff of Austin has been promoted to director of Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF). Kirchhoff replaces longtime Perry advisor and former TETF director Mark Ellison, who left the Governor's Office to become associate vice chancellor of economic development for the Texas A&M University System beginning Oct. 1, 2008.

Karl Fooks, a past managing director for J.P. Morgan & Co. in Asia, is the new president of the Hawaii Strategic Development Corporation. Fooks replaces John Chock who retired last year.

Legislators in New York rejected Gov. David Paterson's proposal to consolidate the state's primary organization for supporting and enhancing technology-based economic development into the state's traditional economic development organization (see the Dec. 17, 2008 issue of the Digest).

In the midst of a national economic recession contributing to a record number of job losses in traditional industries, forward thinking states are exploring ideas and committing funds to help grow and diversify their economies and strengthen their renewable energy portfolios.

Within the last two weeks, both Kentucky and Michigan announced major developments in their ongoing efforts to build a statewide advanced battery industry. With these initiatives, the states hope to better position themselves for upcoming rounds of advanced battery development grants from the federal government and other future sources of investment.

One of the biggest challenges for green technologies and products is breaking into the market. Achieving the critical mass that allows production volume to drive down prices is difficult, particularly when the commodity being sold is, at least initially, more expensive to make because more of the actual cost of production is captured in the green company's business model.

The role of a technology incubator or accelerator for supporting nascent firms generally is regarded with the utmost importance by the tech-based economic development community. Tech incubators provide essential resources for startup companies to develop and commercialize new technologies, leading to the creation of high-quality jobs.

The newly-created Clean Energy Leadership Council, convened by the Washington governor's office and a state-wide public-private clean energy alliance, held its first meeting. The council will deliver a clean energy strategy and recommendations by December 1, 2010.

W. Steven Burke is the new president of Biofuels Center of North Carolina.