SSTI expands its staff with a vice president for innovation finance

SSTI has recently expanded its staff to include Aaron Hagar as their vice president for innovation finance. Hagar brings over twenty years of experience spanning biomedical research, heath care, public policy, and technology-based economic development to share with SSTI's members. He has significant experience building partnerships, creating innovative solutions, shaping public policy, and developing data-driven strategies.

“I’m excited to have Aaron join the SSTI team,” CEO Mark Skinner said. “SSTI will be in a much stronger position to serve the needs of the nation’s community of non-profit venture development organizations, SSBCI venture programs, and innovation finance initiatives. Aaron brings a rich depth of knowledge of publicly supported finance programs, fresh energy and creativity, and a tremendous understanding the public-private collaboration required to achieve financial and economic development returns simultaneously.

For the past thirteen years, Hagar has worked at the state level to support entrepreneurs and startups in Wisconsin. Most recently, he served for over eight years as vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, where he led a team of professionals working to increase the funding, training, and ecosystem resources for startup and emerging growth companies. 

Hagar notes that his time in Wisconsin has provided an experience that will inform this shift to a national focus. There is a mix of economic landscapes in Wisconsin, including Madison, a densely populated area that has been identified as a tech hub, smaller communities with growth potential that have deals coming through, and larger metropolitan areas with a history of manufacturing innovation. "I relate to the SSTI membership base and understand what sorts of challenges they're wrestling with and what their opportunities might be," said Hagar.

Hagar will be instrumental in expanding SSTI’s community of practice, new product development, and educational and consulting services. He will help innovation finance practices to establish best practices and ensure they have the most updated research, information, and benchmarks in the field to be implemented into their organization. Additionally, Hagar will be working with organizations to troubleshoot issues. “I’ll be helping them to work through what the options might be, being a sounding board, collaborator, or advocate for something they may be stretching for, and maybe pressure testing that a little bit,” he said. 

Throwing out a few examples of the types of projects he may be involved with, Hagar mentioned supporting EDA Build 2 Scale grant winners in their efforts to create a venture development organization from the ground up, helping a university campus that wants to build its local entrepreneurial ecosystem, or assisting a well-established venture development organization to take on new and ambitious opportunities.  "We are uniquely positioned to understand the needs of the TBED community and to cross geographic boundaries with technical assistance, educational resources, and peer-peer networks for organizations helping to grow startup technology businesses." said Hagar. 

“Having worked as a practitioner of technology-based economic development, I have a clear understanding of the support and information I needed as a leader and staff member doing this important and challenging work. I look forward to giving back to the SSTI community and helping them to get ahead of the issues they might face and address the many unexpected obstacles that present themselves when working at the cutting edge of technology and business development."