SSTI Digest

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

Gov. Mitch Daniels, State of the State Address, Jan. 18, 2005

"I ask you, in particular, to provide a Small Business Investment Incentive, giving modest relief...to small firms that take the risk to add jobs. To stimulate the formation of new small businesses, I propose that existing local economic development funds be freed to establish new venture capital funds in each region of our state.

The Board of Directors of BioCrossroads, Indiana's life sciences initiative, announced David Johnson would succeed Charles Schalliol as CEO.

Public policies should seek ways to promote entrepreneurship in order to boost economic growth, according to a review of existing research by David Audretsch of Indiana University. Audretsch seeks to distinguish what is known (supported by existing data and theories) from areas of future exploration related to entrepreneurship and economic development in "Sustaining Innovation and Growth: Public Policy Support for Entrepreneurship," an article from the September 2004 issue of Industry and Innovation.

The article examines academic literature on small enterprises and entrepreneurship since the early 20th century across various disciplines. The review considers three issues in the literature: (1) the role of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in economic growth; (2) theories about the links between entrepreneurs and economic performance; and (3) empirical evidence supporting these linkage theories using different units of analysis, including the firm, region and country.

Indiana Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels recently named Michael "Mickey" Maurer as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corp.

Indiana Gov.-elect Mitch Daniels has named Chuck Schalliol as his budget director. Schalliol had been on loan from Eli Lilly and Co. since April to serve as president and CEO of Central Indiana's BioCrossroads.

Going into yesterday's elections, it was clear at least five states would have freshmen governors as three incumbents chose not to run for re-election and two incumbents lost their parties’ nominations to seek new terms. The five states were Missouri, Montana, Utah, Washington and West Virginia.

With the tallying of the votes, the number had grown to seven new governors as incumbents in New Hampshire and Indiana were unseated by successful challenges. Winning re-election were four sitting governors: Ruth Minner in Delaware, Mike Easley in North Carolina, John Hoeven in North Dakota, and Jim Douglas in Vermont.

At press time, no winner had been declared in the extremely close Washington race for governor. Republican Dino Rossi was ahead of Democrat Christine Gregoire by four one-hundredths of a percent at the last count. (see http://vote.wa.gov for more information)

Effective Jan. 1, Donald Kuratko will be executive director for Indiana University's Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Kuratko is currently runs Ball State University's entrepreneurship program.

The Purdue Research Foundation has appointed Robert J. Wichlinski as executive director of the new Purdue Technology Center of Northwest Indiana and Kathy DeGuilio-Fox as the center’s business development manager.

Indiana Gov. Joe Kernan has named David Dorff as the state's first director for the new Office of Small Business Advocacy.

Elizabeth Gatewood has been named director of Wake Forest University's new Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts. At Indiana University, Gatewood was the Jack M. Chair of Entrepreneurship and the director of the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Don Gentry, vice provost for engagement at Purdue University, has announced his retirement.