Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin announced that Jonna Kirschner, executive director of the Oklahoma Commerce Department, will serve on a transition team to establish a new workers’ compensation system. Vaughn Clark , the Commerce Department’s director of community development, was named as interim executive director.

President Obama launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Steering Committee “2.0.” Former SSTI board member Luis Proenza, president of The University of Akron is part of the steering committee chaired by Andrew Liveris, president, chairman, and CEO of the Dow Chemical Company, and Rafael Reif, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tom Walker is departing i2E to join TechColumbus as CEO. Walker, a founding member of i2E, has served the private nonprofit for 14 years. Walker replaces Tim Haynes, who has been serving as interim CEO.

Mark Herzog will step down as executive director of the Virginia Biotechnology Association on June 1. Herzog will serve as senior vice president for corporate and government affairs at Health Diagnostic Laboratory, a Richmond-based company that conducts clinical tests.

A program envisioned nine years ago as a $1 billion endowment that would transform Oklahoma into the research capital of the Great Plains was eliminated last week by the legislature. The Economic Development Generating Excellence Fund, or EDGE Fund, which provided grants to high-tech companies, was unable to secure a long-term financial commitment from the state following an initial appropriation of $150 million in 2006. The balance of the fund, about $161 million, will be transferred to Oklahoma universities for the endowed chairs program to fund academic positions and research.

House lawmakers fell short of overriding Gov. Paul LePage's veto of a $20 million bond for R&D projects that would have gone to voters in November following passage in the legislature earlier this month. The money would have been used by the Maine Technology Institute to provide competitive grants to businesses, nonprofit organizations, university research labs and others for R&D and commercialization projects through the Maine Technology Asset Fund (MTAF).

Betsy Biemann, who has served as president of the Maine Technology Institute since 2005 has resigned. Joe Migliaccio, manager of MTI's Business Innovation Program, is serving as interim president.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has been named the next president of Purdue University. Daniels will become the 12th president in Purdue's 143-year history in January at the end of his second term as governor.

Maine businesses may now raise up to $1 million in capital by selling small amounts of equity to individual investors as a result of legislation that recently became law without the signature of Gov. Paul LePage. Using a model similar to crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter, participating businesses will be able to register with the Maine Office of Securities, setting both a fundraising goal and deadline.  Individual investors will be able to purchase up to $5,000 in equity from a single business.

SSTI continues this year's "Tech Talkin' Govs" series. The first installment of this 2006 review of governors' legislative priorities concerning tech-based economic development is available through the Digest online: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/digest.htm

Maine

Betsy Biemann will be the new director of the Maine Technology Institute, pending legislative confirmation in January. Biemann currently serves as an associate director at The Rockefeller Foundation.

Janet Yancey-Wrona, director of the Maine Technology Institute (MTI), has been named the Governor's Science and Technology Advisor and the first Director of Innovation for the Maine Department of Economic and Community Development. In her new position, Dr. Yancey-Wrona will oversee the state's research and TBED activities, including MTI, the business incubator program and Maine EPSCoR initiative.

The Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology has named Sheri Stickley interim executive director, following the resignation of William Sibley.

Concerns for wheat and organic markets remain, however

While state governments across the country are overwhelmingly in favor of health-related biotechnology, agricultural biotechnology has received a somewhat less enthusiastic reception. That may be changing - however slowly - according to new information released last week by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.

When first proposed in 2000, the concept was radical, controversial and expensive. Simply give a wireless laptop to all seventh and eighth grade students and teachers in the entire state of Maine.

Oklahoma's Higher Education Day, when students and faculty are given the chance to discuss their concerns with the state legislature, recently provided a golden opportunity of sorts for Gov. Brad Henry. Held March 9 at the State House, the event enabled the governor to advocate support for a bond issue that would fund endowed chairs at Oklahoma's colleges and universities.

A new fund developed by the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) is expected to lead to greater commercialization of technologies in the northeast state. Created through a reserved proportion of MTI’s annual grantable funds, the Accelerated Commercialization Fund (ACF) will allow previously funded MTI companies the chance to achieve significant growth. To qualify for funding, companies must at a minimum demonstrate significant potential for financial and economic development returns.

Kay Wade is the new president of the Oklahoma Professional Economic Development Council. Ms. Wade retains her position as director of the Center for Business Development at the Meridian Technology Center.

Over the last 10 years, the State of Maine has invested more than $296 million into R&D – an impressive figure for a state with an average population over the decade of just over 1.3 million people. In approving a mid-decade injection of funds, the state’s legislature skeptically or wisely asked the executive branch to periodically conduct independent assessments of whether or not the investment is worthwhile.

Laurie Lachance recently was named the next president of the Maine Development Foundation, Maine's economic development policy organization. Lachance is a former economist for the Maine State Planning Office.

Peter Abramo has been named executive director of Cameron University’s Center of Emerging Technologies and Entrepreneurial Studies, effective Aug. 30.

Advanced research grants and equity financing are just two items slated for funding in Maine Gov. John Baldacci's $120 million revenue bond package, unveiled last week. The tech-based economic development (TBED) items would receive a combined $7 million in funding. The largest portion of the governor's package, $65 million, is dedicated to land conservation and parks. Other elements address housing, health and environmental issues.