SSTI Digest

John Kotek, formerly with Argonne National Laboratory-West, has been named deputy manager of the Department of Energy's Idaho Operations Office. The office oversees the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory.

Mike Leavitt of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory has been appointed the Co-chair of the Federal Laboratories Consortium State and Local Government Committee.

Idaho Falls businessman LaMoyne Hyde was appointed by Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to serve as Director of the Idaho Department of Commerce.

Elizabeth Sellars is the new manager of Idaho Operations for the Department of Energy.

Laurence Gebhardt has been selected to serve as the first director of Idaho's TechConnect East.

Gary Mahn, director of the Idaho Department of Commerce, has announced he will resign from the position at the end of the year.

Governor Dirk Kempthorne has announced the creation of TechConnect East, a regional science and technology office to be located at the Idaho State University Incubation Center in Pocatello, Idaho.

Funded with $30,000 from Bechtel, an engineering-construction firm, $25,000 from the Eastern Idaho Economic Development Council (EIEDC), and $15,000 from the state, TechConnect East will support job creation and high-tech business development in southeastern Idaho. Additional office and administrative support will be provided by Idaho State University and the Bannock Development Corporation, an economic development organization in Pocatello.

John Glerum, former president and CEO of Ore-Ida Foods, has been named science and technology coordinator for the Idaho Department of Commerce. Glerum also will serve as director of the new Technology and Entrepreneurial Center, to be built on the campus of Boise State University West.

Building Entrepreneurial Networks, a major report on how and why networks of entrepreneurs nurture economic growth in communities across the country, was released Wednesday by the National Commission on Entrepreneurship (NCOE). 



To illustrate the importance of entrepreneurial networks, NCOE’s seventh report profiles five organizations in Idaho, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas that have succeeded in developing unique entrepreneurial networks. 



The report notes that regions which have developed strong entrepreneurial economies tend to possess several key ingredients — well-organized local networks along with strong universities, access to equity capital, and an advanced public infrastructure. Similarly, regions with strong networks tend to have high rates of new start-ups and fast-growing companies. 

The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) is the nationwide network of federal laboratories that provides the forum to develop strategies and opportunities for linking the laboratory mission technologies and expertise with the marketplace. More than 700 major federal laboratories and centers and their parent departments and agencies are FLC members. 

Bill Shipp has been promoted to president and general manager of the Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory. Currently laboratory director, Shipp will take his new position August 1. Mr. Shipp also serves as Science & Technology Advisor to Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne.