Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney appointed Kathy Kottarodis to serve as the state’s first small business advocate. Kottarodis had been director of small business and entrepreneurship within the state’s office of business and technology.

Gov. Mitt Romney outlined a legislative package on Monday totaling $125 million designed to create more jobs. Many elements of the package target the science and technology communities.

The first three installments of SSTI's four-part look at how TBED will play in the 2006 legislative priorities of the governors can be found in the Digest archives at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm

Oklahoma

Harvard University President Lawrence Summers announced his resignation this afternoon. Former Harvard president Derek Bok is to serve as interim president for the university.

The Massachusetts Technology Council named Carol Meier as its new Executive Director, succeeding Katherine Raphaelson who is relocating to Washington D.C.

Robert Pozen, secretary of economic development for Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, announced his resignation, effective at the end of 2003.

The high tech economy of Massachusetts is emerging from the recent recession with its fundamental strengths in science, technology and entrepreneurship in good shape, according to the Executive Index of the Massachusetts Innovation Economy. Significant innovation in the state’s industries, however, is necessary to make up for the jobs lost since 2000, the index states.

Sonya Buckner has resigned her position as director of the small business incubator for the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce to become vice president of special projects for the Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce. Douglas Jones will assume leadership of the Montgomery Incubator.

With the establishment of a $1 million trust fund to serve as seed money, the new Oklahoma Institute of Technology intends to position the state as a national leader in information technology, engineering, and biotechnology. Governor Frank Keating signed Senate Bill 694 into law June 8, creating the public-private collaboration. Tulsa World news reports indicate supporters of the institute anticipate raising a $100 million endowment for the project and securing additional state support.

Is a strong university research component critical to local tech-based economic development? Many argue this position, including SSTI (Using Research and Development to Grow State Economies). Using data on royalties, licenses, and job creation figures, others have demonstrated the economic contributions of university R&D.

It only seems natural that SSTI celebrate a decade of convening the premiere professional development event for the nation's tech-based economic development community in a state that, for nearly 20 years, has been a pioneer for innovative approaches to transform regional economies — Oklahoma. SSTI's 10th annual conference and pre-conference intensive workshops will be held at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City on Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

Douglas Foy, Secretary for Commonwealth Development for Massachusetts, announced his resignation effective in March.

The Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government recently announced open competition for its 2002 annual awards program.

As a means of highlighting the performance and composition of state economies, Harvard's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness, led by Dr. Michael Porter, has published profiles on all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

University of Buffalo Entrepreneurial Awards 

An in-depth look at the one-year success of a student company to win last year's first Panasci Entrepreneurial Awards at the University of Buffalo recently was highlighted in the Buffalo News. 

Meeting Challenges in the New Economy, recently released by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST), presents a comprehensive look at Oklahoma's position in science and technology. 

"If technology is at the core of the Innovation Economy, then investment in research and development is one of the principal drivers in the creation of that technology."

With the emphasis many state and local tech-based economic development organizations have placed on biotechnology over the past 12-18 months, few are far enough along in implementing their strategies to point to more than a handful of successes or new construction projects. The recent explosion in public investment of resources and policies toward developing local biotech capacity is largely based on the promise of anticipated economic gains in the near or not-so-near future. 

Editor's Note: The fifth installment in our review of the Governors' inaugural addresses, state of the state addresses, and budget messages for 2001. The first four articles in the series were over the past four weeks. Those issues of the SSTI Weekly Digest and all other previous editions are available on our website: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/2001/headlines01.htm

It is widely argued in the tech-based economic development community that New Economy businesses, specifically computers and information technology, account for the tremendous economic growth of the last half of the 1990s. But does the data support this?

Many tech-based economic development programs recognize the importance of having seed and venture capital accessible to their start up tech firms and entrepreneurs. Some practitioners, though, see a challenge in encouraging equity investment in more conservative, risk adverse regions and localities. The dot-com “correction” of last year probably did not help.

Mark Robinson resigned as chief operating officer of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council to join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.