Darrell Kelley, CEO of Enterprise Florida for the past three years, will retire on Aug. 1.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire last week signed a bill creating the Life Sciences Discovery Fund (see the Feb. 7 issue of the Digest).

Many communities around the country have established authorities to oversee the real estate, infrastructure and management issues of their technology parks. Few of those authorities, however, provide direct grants to support industry-university R&D or commercialization projects. This more proactive approach to growing future tenants is the thinking behind a pilot program created last year for the Leon County Research and Development Authority (LCRDA) in Tallahassee.

Jack Faris is the new president of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association.

Statewide efforts addressing all of higher education's public purposes are needed to combat the increasing competition and privatization sweeping the nation's public colleges and universities, says a new report from the Futures Project, Correcting Course: How We Can Restore the Ideals of Public Higher Education in a Market-Driven Era.

The Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), a non-profit start-up organization, seeks an Executive Director to build and operate a successful manufacturing services organization. The Executive Director will guide AME in its mission of assisting smaller manufacturers to adopt more advanced manufacturing technologies and management techniques.

Jay F. Honeycutt, the director of NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC), has announced his plans to retire from NASA in early 1997. He became director in 1995.

A $1.46 million grant from the Economic Development Administration to the Sirti Foundation is making possible a $3 million loan fund to technology companies within a 10-county region of Eastern Washington. The program provides another example of the non-traditional use of EDA funds to support tech-based economic development strategies. In addition, the deal structure may serve as a model to help other public agencies encourage TBED activities typically outside the scope or possibility of many public entities.

The South Florida Manufacturing Technology Center (SFMTC), a regional office of the Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership, is currently seeking a Director. SFMTC is located in Pompano Beach, Florida and serves seven counties along Florida's southeast coast: Broward, Dade, Martin, Monroe, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, and St. Lucie.

The Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (FMEP) is seeking a Director who possesses the skills that are needed for the corporation to excel. The applicant should be an innovator and entrepreneur as well as a leader and a team builder with excellent communication skills.

Although technology sector employment is down slightly from previous years, Washington firms received twice the aggregate amount of venture capital (VC) funding compared to last year, and the state remains above the national average in educational attainment, according to the sixth annual Washington State Index of Innovation and Technology.

The Global Venture Forum is a business development event sponsored by the Osaka Chamber of Commerce to help Japanese and foreign firms find Japanese partners for investment, trade, distribution, and global business.

Since the Global Venture Forum started in 1995, 44 percent of the participants have found business partners.

Washington's technology boom hasn't been enjoyed equally by most communities outside of the Seattle or Spokane urban areas. Two laws recently passed by the Washington legislature are intended to provide tax credits, infrastructure financing, and other incentives to spread the economic benefits of technology into the state's most rural counties.

The Florida legislature recently approved legislation creating the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI), an independent, industry-led organization designed to coordinate the space-related research capabilities of several public and private universities. FSRI will strive to expand the universities’ involvement in space research and education, and to insure that state academic resources are available to support the space-related needs of industry, NASA, and the military.

Chris Hedrick has announced his resignation as the Executive Science & Technology Policy Advisor in the Washington Governor’s Office to join an Internet education company.