SSTI Digest

Bill Kirkland will head the new Office of Economic Engagement that will begin operations July 1 at the University of South Carolina. The new entity will facilitate business development statewide, and work through USC&'s seven regional campuses. John Carey, a former state representative, was appointed by Gov. John Kasich as the chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents. Nancy Bryan will be welcomed as the new president & CEO of BioFlorida at their 10th Annual Celebration of Biotechnology on May 9. Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has created a new Office of Innovation to make government services more efficient and transparent, and to help with economic development. The city has hired Kristine LaLonde and Yiaway Yeh as co-chief innovation officers.

Chris Coburn, the founding executive director of Cleveland Clinic Innovations, is leaving at the end of May to join Boston-based Partners Healthcare, the largest healthcare system in Massachusetts. Mary Jo White has been confirmed by the Senate as the new head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Marcel Valois has been nominated for executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Develop Corporation by Gov. Lincoln Chafee. Erik Mitisek has been named the CEO of the Colorado Technology Association, effective April 29. Richard Sutton has been named executive director of the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education. Anthony Dennis CEO of BioOhio announced his retirement. John Lewis Jr., vice president and chief operating officer, will serve as interim president.

Rebecca Blank, the acting U.S. secretary of Commerce, is expected to be the next chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The Board of Regents is scheduled to vote on the recommendation April 5. President Obama announced he has chosen Thomas Perez, the head of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, to be the next secretary of Labor. The nomination, announced Monday, will require Senate confirmation. Lars Hasselblad Torres has been named the director of the Vermont Department of Economic, Housing and Community Development's Office of the Creative Economy. David Goodman was appointed director of the Ohio Development Services Agency by Governor John R. Kasich. Previously, Chris Schmenk held the position. Vincent Mikolay has been hired as managing director of business outreach and international trade for the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development. Tim Priest has been hired as Innovate Washington's chief marketing and development officer. Aram Nerpouni has been named president and chief executive officer of BioEnterprise. Last Sept., Nerpouni was named interim president of BioEnterprise in…

In the January 2011 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer called for a redesign of the existing business model and their role within society. Instead of simply embracing corporate responsibility and corporate giving, businesses should work to create shared value within their community by helping to support local clusters and institutions to address societal needs and issues. In the face of great uncertainty for the overall venture capital industry, it seems that some corporations might be heeding their advice. Over the last few years, there has been a rapid rise in the number of corporate-backed venture capital funds with long-term acquisition and absorption as the driving force. However, the lack of early stage capital in regions across the country also may be ushering in an era of public-private partnerships to create industry-led, locally focused venture capital funds. In the last three years almost 182 corporate venture funds (CVCs) have been launched and in 2012, 16 percent of all companies acquired had CVC backing, according to a recent article from Forbes magazine. Many multinationals headquartered in tech hubs (e.g., New York,…

President Obama nominated Ernest Moniz as the next secretary of Energy, Gina McCarthy as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Sylvia Mathews Burwell as director of the Office of Management and Budget. The nominations require confirmation by the Senate. Draper Triangle Ventures is opening a Columbus, OH, office. Will Indest, formerly of TechColumbus, has been named managing director. Jim Stefansic has been named commercialization director of Launch Tennessee. The position previously was held by James Stover, who stepped down from his full-time role in 2011 but served as a consultant to LaunchTN in the interim. Jasper Welch has been named president & CEO of the National Business Incubation Association.

Karen Mills, head of the Small Business Administration since 2009, has announced her departure. She will stay on until her successor is confirmed. New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan has nominated Jeffrey Rose to be the state's commissioner of Resources and Economic Development. Carnegie Mellon University has named Subra Suresh as its ninth president, to succeed President Jared Cohon. Suresh currently is director of the National Science Foundation. Maryann Feldman has been awarded the 2013 Global Award for Entrepreneurship Research. Cheryl Watkins-Moore has joined the BioGenerator as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence.

Upbeat revenue forecasts and shared economic principles have Republican governors in four states requesting more funds for higher education tied to performance metrics or workforce outcomes. Recent budget proposals introduced in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas focus on competing for talent and jobs through efforts to encourage STEM learning and teaching and incentivizing outcomes such as graduating more students in high-demand fields, conducting research and more. College affordability is addressed through measures that would freeze tuition or cap increases. Highlights from the governors' budget proposals as they relate to higher education and economic development for the upcoming year or biennium are outlined below: FloridaThe FY14 budget introduced this week by Gov. Rick Scott would maintain last year's level of funding for higher education and restore some of the $300 million previously cut from colleges and universities. The increased funds are tied to performance metrics, including a goal to help the University of Florida (UF) achieve a national ranking in the top 10 research universities. With a $393.3 million increase over last year, the…

In July 2009, President Obama challenged community colleges to graduate an additional five million students by 2020. According to the president's speech, community colleges uniquely are positioned to fuel the future of U.S. competiveness by developing an educated, skilled workforce to address the needs of a 21st century workplace. However, community colleges across the country are going beyond the president's challenge and establishing new initiatives to help support regional innovation ecosystems focused on encouraging entrepreneurship and nurturing tech-based startups. The Innovation Fund America (IFA), a partnership between the Kauffman Foundation and Lorain County Community College (LCCC), recently announced it will expand its innovate model to three community colleges — Long Beach Community College in California, Johnson County Community College in Kansas and Catawba Valley Community College in North Carolina. Based on the LCCC highlysuccessful Innovation Fund model, these pilot programs will offer vital support to their community's new and young firms through pre-seedstage access to capital for proof-of- concept, intensive coaching, mentoring,…

SSTI is pleased to welcome Reese Neader to our team as a research associate. Reese is the former policy director for the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network and is a political science graduate from Denison University. Renée Winsky has been appointed the executive director of the Chesapeake Innovation Center. Mark Kvamme has resigned from JobsOhio effective Nov. 1. He is succeeded as president and CIO by John Minor, formerly the managing director at JobsOhio. Reed Hall has been named the interim CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Hall will fill the position until a permanent CEO is selected to replace Paul Jadin, who announced in September he would be leaving the post.

On Thursday, the Obama administration announced it had selected the TechBelt region, encompassing northeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia, to host the pilot institute of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation (NNMI). The new National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) will operate as a partnership of more than 60 companies, research universities, community colleges and nonprofit organizations from the region. As the pilot effort of NNMI, the partnership will receive $30 million in initial federal funding, with another $40 million from regional partners. The institute will be housed at Youngstown Business Incubator in Youngstown, OH. The president first announced his proposal to create a network of up to 15 institutes around the country that would bring together industry, universities, community colleges, nonprofits and government to invest in industrially-relevant manufacturing technologies in March (see the March 14 issue of the Digest). The proposed institutes would serve as regional hubs of manufacturing excellence that will help improve U.S. manufacturing competitiveness and commercialize new technologies with…

Caren Franzini, the CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, stepped down after leading the agency for 21 years. Michele Brown, Gov. Chris Christie's appointments counsel, will take over as CEO. Karen Merrick has joined the Iowa Innovation Corporation as CEO. Merrick previously had been with the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Thomas Dann, the founder and managing director at CastleHaven Advisors, a Washington, D.C., private-equity firm, was named managing director of the Maryland Venture Fund. Baiju Shah, the president and CEO of BioEnteprise, is leaving to become the CEO of BioMotiv, a drug development company that spun out of University Hospitals. Mark Wdowik has joined the Office of the Vice President for Research at Colorado State University as an assistant vice president for Research and Industry Partnerships. Wdowik has been at CSU Ventures since 2006. Jack Brittain stepped down July 1 as vice president of technology venture development at the University of Utah. Vice president for research Tom Parks will oversee tech ventures on an interim basis. Arati Prabhakar will join the Obama administration on…

A new report from the Ohio Board of Regents proposes a statewide commercialization ecosystem to create jobs, promote economic growth and increase wealth in the state. According to the report, recent research suggesting that, when compared to other states, Ohio lags behind in the commercialization of technology. In The Condition of Higher Education in Ohio: Advancing Ohio's Innovation Economy, there are several recommendations to improve the state's technology transfer pipeline to turn academic research into market-ready products and services including: Expose Students to co-op/internships — to provide students with real life entrepreneurial experiences, and supported in promoting their intellectual property ideas; Expanded tenure review process — to ensure that professors' commercialization activities are recognized in the tenure and promotion processes; Open innovation Intellectual Property (IP) Methods — that increase the frequency and sophistication of interaction between seekers and solvers to include advanced data base techniques, marketplaces and possibly IP auctions; More exposure to entrepreneurial education — through new…