UTAHAN TABBED TO OVERSEE SOUTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PARK

South Dakota State University issued the following news release:

An experienced university research park director from Utah will take the helm of the developing Innovation Campus at SDSU, and part of the reason for landing Teresa McKnight goes to South Dakota cornfields.

McKnight, of Smithfield, Utah, begins Dec. 11 as the first permanent director of the new research park at South Dakota State University.

She has worked in various capacities at the Utah State University for 14 years and has served as interim director of Utah State's research park. On Sept. 21, she was promoted to director. That campus in northern Utah is in the Cache Valley, where the Wasatch Mountain Range frames the campus postcards. But those peaks were no match for the cornfields between Brookings and Sioux Falls.

McKnight flew into Sioux Falls on the night of Sept. 13 and got up early the next morning to drive to Brookings to interview for the job.

"I had an opportunity to see the green, open spaces at 7:30 in the morning. The drive was the most beautiful I had ever encountered. The sun was coming up over the land. It was mirroring off the beautiful cornfields. It was just a sight that took my breath away," surpassing even the vistas of home, McKnight said.

She continued to receive favorable impressions during her two-day stay and by the end of her visit McKnight was ready to become a South Dakotan.

McKnight will succeed Bob Miller, who has served as interim director of the SDSU Growth Partnership since March 17, 2005. The Growth Partnership is a nonprofit organization with seven board members that oversee the Innovation Campus at SDSU. It includes representatives from the City of Brookings, Brookings County, the state legislature, the SDSU Foundation, and the Brookings Economic Development Corp.

The current president of SDSU, Miller's spouse, Peggy Gordon Miller, is designated by the bylaws to serve as the president of the Growth Partnership.

David Chicoine, the vice president of technology and economic development at the University of Illinois, will replace the retiring Peggy Miller as president of SDSU on Jan. 1, 2007. He also will become president of the board of the SDSU Growth Partnership.

Bob Miller, who has been serving on a voluntary basis, called McKnight "a great catch for us." He cited her experience as well as being a "really hard charger with a reputation for getting the job done.

"The Growth Partnership is indeed fortunate to have such strong leaders at both the policy and the operational level. I have been talking with Teresa off and on for over a year, and am delighted that she has accepted this opportunity and challenge, and will be moving with her family to Brookings in December.

"The whole idea of the SDSU Growth Partnership is to effect economy growth and create a lot of good paying jobs in the process. Starting with an experienced and capable leader like Teresa will give us a running start."

She has been recognized by her peers through her election to the board of the National University Research Park Association, where she leads the basic education program for newcomers.

Groundbreaking at the 125-acre SDSU research site on the east edge of campus was Sept. 19 and plans for its infrastructure are now being finalized, Miller said.

McKnight said she is intrigued with the opportunity to help guide the project off the blueprints. She said the Innovation Campus needs to live up to its name and be innovative.

"What innovative things are we going to do -- from the architectural design of the buildings, transportation services, energy use, water conservation, down to the creative ways we retain and detain storm water and building runoff for the landscape and open green spaces? We need to be innovative in everything we do.

"How do we best preserve the environment and the visual attributes that currently exist? You can keep the open spaces by using vista fields. In the Cache Valley we want to make sure we don't infringe on the open spaces. There are certain areas that need to remain open. You can have a healthy balance of development and open spaces," McKnight said.

Utah State University Innovation Campus has kept its open spaces despite tremendous growth.

Ground was broken in 1986 with a vision of locating 20 companies, 12 buildings and 2,000 employees on 38 acres. The campus now is expanding to 173 acres and has more than 45 companies, 2,103 employees (nearly 1,000 of which are Utah State students), 16 buildings, and almost 500,000 square feet of office and lab space.

Annual reported earnings in 2005 for those companies was $132 million. Based on the standard economic multiplier of three, the campus turns $396 million back in the state's economy, McKnight said.

At the groundbreaking for the Innovation Campus at SDSU, Brookings Mayor Scott Musterman said the park would generate more than $200 million in private investment. Miller said the initial plan is to build a "business incubator" for professors, students and local residents who have technology-related business startups.

The second building will be a seed technology building, which already has received a $4 million commitment from state commodity groups, plus a commitment from Gov. Mike Rounds of more than $3 million for drought resistant seed research and development.

Miller said the Growth Partnership board wants to complete infrastructure work on 25 acres this fall and begin building construction in the spring. The land is owned by the South Dakota Board of Regents and is secured through a 99-year lease to the Growth Partnership. That is similar to the Utah State research park, he said.

In addition to being an employee of the Utah research park, McKnight also was once a tenant there. In 1996-97, she was owner of River Park Instructional Technology, a software development company. She was responsible for all business, marketing and financial affairs of the company, which had gross sales of more than $500,000 in its first year, McKnight reported.

That experience in transferring technology out of a university into a private company will serve as a strong asset in her new position, she said.

Miller observed, "About a third of the growth in a typical research park comes from these kinds of startup organizations. Another third is from the university itself, characterized by the seed technology research facility that will be the second building. The other third of the occupants are corporations who want to have a presence close to the scientists with whom they are working."

McKnight noted, "I really enjoy working with small and large companies, particularly spin-outs from university research; watching a company grow from one or two employees to 30, 50 and eventually growing to more than 100 employees, just like I did with my own company and just like I have watched so many companies accomplish at the USU Innovation Campus.

"I have a strong business background (beginning as a cost accountant with Pepperidge Farm in 1984). With my business, management and administration background, I am able to look at all the resources needed to make these small companies succeed - reducing the failure rate that small start-up companies often experience."

One of the resources might be to keep a good view of the surrounding cornfields.