Tina Van Camp has been named the director of the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development.

Gov. Mike Rounds announced Steve Zellmer will replace Dave Snyder, who resigned his position as board member for the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority. Zellmer previously served as Commissioner, Bureau of Finance and Management and Secretary of Revenue in Pierre.

Mark Benedetto, president of the University of Sioux Falls, has been elected chairman of the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce.

Norma Grace, vice chancellor for technology and economic development at the University of New Orleans, has been elected as the 2004-05 president of the Association of University Research Parks.

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology has named Dr. Gautam Pillay to the new position of vice president for research. Pillay was executive director of the Inland Northwest Research Alliance.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco appointed state bond commisssion director Sharon Perez to serve as undersecretary for the Louisiana Department of Economic Development, and Secretary Michael Olivier named Dane Revette director of the agency's energy cluster.

The Louisiana Emerging Technologies Center announced Arthur Cooper will serve as its first executive director.

Don Hutchinson is the new director of the Mayor's Office of Economic Development for the city of New Orleans.

John Calvin, Secretary of the South Dakota Department of Tourism and State Development, has announced his resignation effective Dec. 15.

In 2010, the end of Gov. Mike Round's second term – should South Dakota voters choose to grant him one – residents of the state will have several precise ways to measure whether or not he delivered on his economic development goals. Gov. Round's 2010 Initiative, released Oct. 15 at Mount Rushmore, is built on a few, very specific and quantifiable goals in tourism revenues, entrepreneurship, and R&D. They include:

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds has appointed Jim Hagen to serve as secretary of the governor's Office of Economic Development.

With the recent passage of much economic development legislation in South Dakota, Gov. Mike Rounds' 2010 Initiative would seem to be moving along as planned. The 2010 Initiative, an economic stimulus plan introduced last fall, outlines a series of goals for growth in South Dakota by the year 2010 (see the Oct. 31, 2003, issue of the Digest).

George Swift is the first executive director for the new Southwest Louisiana Partnership for Economic Development.

Sherry Farwell has been named as the new head of the National Science Foundation's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR). Dr. Farwell currently serves as dean of graduate education and research at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

"If our children are to have the kind of jobs we want them to, this type of facility is one of the finest advantages we can give them for many generations," said South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds in his 2004 State of the State Address on Tuesday.

The governor is urging legislators to approve plans to help transform an exhausted 8,000-foot-deep gold mine into a one-of-a-kind national laboratory to study subatomic particles.

To promote biotech in Baton Rouge, a new study sponsored by Capital Region Competitive Strategy (CapStrategy) recommends constructing an "idea pipeline" to better commercialize the intellectual property and research generated in the region's universities, hospitals and research institutes. CapStrategy, a nonprofit, cluster-based economic development initiative, operates under the Chamber of Greater Baton Rouge and represents nine parishes in the region.

To keep alive the underground deep science laboratory, a National Science Foundation (NSF) research priority for scientific discovery in geophysics, Gov. Mike Rounds is asking lawmakers to approve $5.4 million in special appropriations for bridge funding through May 2011. During his budget presentation to the legislature last week, Gov. Rounds told lawmakers the $35 million allocated toward the effort in 2004 and 2005 would run out this month and $250 million in anticipated NSF funding would not be available until 2011.

The third installment of SSTI’s Tech Talkin’ Govs’ series includes excerpts from speeches delivered in Delaware, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah and Wisconsin. The first and second installments are available in the Jan 13 Digest and Jan. 20 Digest, respectively.

W. Steven Burke is the new president of Biofuels Center of North Carolina.

South Dakota shows a $3 million TBED investment in strategic research areas can yield impressive results for a state strengthening its position in an innovation-based economy. 

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick's secretary of Housing and Economic Development, Daniel O'Connell, resigned for personal reasons and was replaced by Greg Bialecki, an undersecretary who has been responsible for business development

For many states facing a challenging budget year, level funding for science and technology is welcome news to the tech-based economic development (TBED) community. With the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year, governors are seeking solutions to stimulate their respective states' economies through new and expanded programs within specific priority areas.

The Louisiana State Legislature recently approved several bills as part of a comprehensive package designed to revamp the state’s workforce development programs to focus on job training in emerging industries to ensure these fields have a highly qualified labor pool in the coming years.
 

Steve Bazinet has been hired as executive director of the Maine Center for Enterprise Development.

Rahindra Bose is Ohio University's new vice president for research and creative activity and dean of the graduate college.