SSTI Digest

The North Carolina Solar Center promoted Steve Kalland to the position of executive director.

The Greensboro, N.C.-based Nussbaum Center for Entrepreneurship has a new president, Michael Hentschel.

Dan Lynch was named president of the Greensboro Economic Development Partnership.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center selected John Chaffee and Randall Johnson as directors of the center's new eastern and southeastern regional offices.

The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University announced that Jon Fjeld is the executive director of its recently unveiled Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Christopher Price is the executive director for the Piedmont Triad Research Park and senior vice president, Wake Forest University Health Sciences.

RTI International, an independent, nonprofit research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., is seeking someone for the position of economic development analyst. Activities include designing, managing and supporting technology-based economic development research and implementation projects; preparing strategic, economic, evaluation and policy analyses; collecting data and information from secondary sources; preparing literature reviews; and constructing protocols, complete interviews, site visits and case studies. Candidates should have a master’s degree in planning, public administration, policy or business administration, or related field, with 3-5 years of experience in technology-based economic development. For more information on this position, visit SSTI's online Job Corner at http://www.ssti.org/posting.htm.

Two years ago, Kannapolis, N.C., was reeling from the announcement that Pillowtex Corp, a major textile manufacturer, was filing for bankruptcy. Pillowtex's failure resulted in more than 4,500 jobs lost in just two North Carolina counties and thousands more in the Southeast U.S.

The mood had to have been better last week with an announcement by billionaire David Murdock, owner of Dole Food Company, and Molly Corbett Broad, president of the University of North Carolina system, of plans to create the North Carolina Research Campus on 250 acres at the former Cannon Mills plant and 100 acres of downtown Kannapolis. Press reports put the total investment in the complex at a billion dollars with more than one million square feet of office and laboratory space.

With the passage of the state's biennial budget, North Carolina's small businesses are now eligible for follow-on support from the state for research projects funded under the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.

A provision in the budget creates the One North Carolina Small Business Fund, a special revenue fund of up to $3 million to be used for the North Carolina SBIR/STTR Incentive Program and the North Carolina SBIR/STTR Matching Funds Program. Both programs will be administered by the North Carolina Board of Science and Technology.

Joan Myers, president and CEO of Raleigh-based N.C. Technology Association, is the 2005-2007 president for the Council of Regional Information Technology Associations (CRITA).

Ronnie Bryant, president and chief operating officer for the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, is leaving to become president and CEO of the 16-county Charlotte Regional Partnership in North Carolina.

Building high-quality communities is the underpinning of long-term economic development, suggests new Southern Growth Policies Board research. A report published by Southern Growth, The New Architecture of Rural Prosperity, states that although measurable progress has been made in the past several decades, the rural South continues to lag the nation in educational achievement, health care and economic performance.

The inclusiveness in the development of the report's recommendations is a credit to Southern Growth. More than 2,200 southerners participated in focus groups, forums and surveys to provide input. Participants indicated that lack of job opportunities for educated young people and quality of education are the biggest barriers to economic prosperity in their communities.