Evan Barrett was named chief business officer of The Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity in Montana.

David Gibson, chief business officer of The Governor's Office of Economic Opportunity in Montana, has accepted a new position as associate commissioner for economic development. Beginning Jan. 3, Gibson will serve under Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns.

Montana Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer tapped Tony Preite to serve as director of the state Department of Commerce. Priete is currently director of the office of commercialization and economic development outreach at the University of Montana and is a former regional director for the Colorado office of the Economic Development Administration.

Fred Kocher has been elected president of the New Hampshire High Technology Council, which advocates technology-based businesses in New Hampshire.

In a move to integrate technology and traditional learning, New Hampshire Governor Craig Benson introduced on Tuesday a four-year pilot program to bring laptop computers into classrooms. The program, Technology Promoting Student Excellence, is intended to provide wireless connectivity to all 7th-grade students and teachers from selected schools.

With the sustained depth of the recession, the IT crash, the rapid growth in unemployment and the speculative office construction craze of the late 1990s, one would expect office vacancies to climb and property lease rates to edge down in many cities. Following this thought further might suggest, with cheaper office space available, the need for publicly supported low-rent technology incubator space would decrease.

Lloyd Chestnut, vice president of research at the University of Montana is leaving to take the position as vice president for research and technology transfer at the University of North Texas.

Sean O'Kane, a hotel manager from Manchester, N.H., has been confirmed as the new commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development.

George Bald, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development, has announced his resignation to become executive director of the Pease Development Authority.

Sean O'Kane, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development, is resigning from the position at the end of his two-year term in March to return to the private sector.

The New Hampshire High Technology Council has announced Paul Houle is the new president and chief executive officer and Mary Collins will serve as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

George Bald is returning to serve as Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Resources and Economic Development. Bald served in the position from 1998-2004.

Besides supporting life science research in universities, one of the other key areas states and communities are using to encourage the growth of a local biotech industry is by supporting an increase in the availability of wet lab and other biotech facilities. Biotech space, however, is extremely expensive compared to other traditional tech incubator facilities for a variety of reasons (design, HVAC, environmental, security, regulatory, etc.)

After two years of partisan politics and court battles, the Montana legislature last week overwhelmingly passed HB 1, a $46 million, five-year appropriations package to fund several state science, technology, and economic development initiatives. The legislation brings to close a saga that began with a successful court challenge to the funding mechanism for S&T programs.

In the June 11, 1999 SSTI Weekly Digest, a mistake was made. The Great Midwest Venture Capital Conference has not yet selected any of the 30 presenting companies for the 1999 conference. The deadline for applications is August 27. More information on the registration process can be found at the conference website: www.greatmidwestvcc.com