SSTI Digest

Leland Speed has been named the new executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority.

Janice St. Onge has resigned from the Vermont Department of Economic Development to pursue career opportunities at the University of Vermont. St. Onge, whose resignation is effective Jan. 30, served for four years as the state's technology business development director.

Ann Quinn was recently named managing director of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Venture Capital Fund.

Andy Taggart has been appointed president and chief executive officer of the Mississippi Technology Alliance.

Diane Wirth is new executive director of the Valley Economic Development Corp., a public-private organization for the San Jacinto Valley.

Diffusion of effort can be a great thing in fostering local or regional economic development because there are so many fronts on which the battle must be fought: workforce; business retention and recruitment; entrepreneurship; infrastructure; investing; and, science and technology addressing the needs of different sectors such as manufacturing, retail, service, financial or information technology. Each organization or office can focus its resources exclusively on one or two specific goals head-on for greatest impact.

It can work well when resources are plentiful and when the various economic development organizations recognize and respect the boundaries. Collaboration and constant coordination is key so the individual pieces work as a well oiled, virtual machine. The ability to rise above partisan politics to address the common goal of building a local or regional economy is of utmost importance.

The Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP), an information and communications technology (ICT) advocacy organization comprised of the industry's top chief executive officers, issued a report this week calling for a more activist federal government for encouraging innovation, entrepreneurship and education in the sciences and math.

The 20-page Choose to Compete: How Innovation, Investment and Productivity Can Grow U.S. Jobs and Ensure American Competitiveness in the 21st Century is presented in three sections: performance, competitiveness and partnership. "Performance" points out the contributions information technology and telecommunications have had on America's prosperity and standard of living over the past 30 years.

In what may be the first gift of its kind, a $5 million cash donation has been made to a technology transfer office to endow the commercialization of new health technologies. The Cleveland Clinic announced receipt of the donation from John Ferchill, a Northeast Ohio real estate developer, in mid-December.

CCF Innovations, the commercialization arm of the Clinic, will administer programs funded through the endowment. The gift will be used to support the center’s leadership and partner grants to underwrite programs between companies moving to Cleveland and the Clinic, and early-stage companies located in Cleveland seeking to collaborate with the Cleveland Clinic. A Plain Dealer article reports the donation will support an endowed chair and professorship as well as generate approximately $150,000 for grants to biomedical firms.

In 2003, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano charged the Governor's Council on Innovation and Technology with developing specific recommendations to help diversify the state's economy. With recommendations including new and expanded tax credits, public-private venture capital, angel capital funds, workforce development and internship programs, and lobbying Washington for more funding, the governor now must find a way to finance the plan in a tight fiscal environment.

The draft recommendations from the group, released in December, were developed through five strategic themes: building on Arizona's core competencies; investment versus expenditure; collaboration and partnership – engagement; accountability – measurements, shared responsibility; and leadership and commitment, both public and private. While some of the recommendations are vague, others are very specific:

The impacts of globalization and free trade can make the task of building a vibrant local economy daunting. Given the transformation of agriculture from family farms to mega-corps and factory animal facilities, the cards seem doubly stacked against America's smallest communities — those rural towns and counties with fewer than 10,000 residents.

There are exceptions, however. Exceptions that provide strong examples for other communities around the country fighting to maintain their vitality, for example. The National Center for Small Communities (NCSC) has selected three such exceptions to highlight for the first Grassroots Rural Entrepreneurship Awards, funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The beginning of 2004 finds many folks in the tech-based economic development community making career changes:

Deborah Fleischaker has been appointed deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Economic Development.

The Greater Baltimore Alliance, now renamed as the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore, has appointed David Gillece as chief executive officer and Christian Johansson as managing director.

Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development has reorganized into three geographically defined divisions. Robert Hannon has been named to run the regional program.

Deborah Fleischaker has been appointed deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Economic Development.