Good News! Launchpad Programs Director Greg Sheek was part of the panel discussing this: Entrepreneurship getting added economic development emphasis in Alabama By Michael Tomberlin | mtomberlin@al on August 01, 2013 at 4:22 PM, updated August 01, 2013 at 4:24 POINT CLEAR, Alabama – Whether it’s a high-tech company that springs from research at an Alabama university or an industrialist coming up with a new idea for a business, Alabama’s economic development efforts would be incomplete without supporting entrepreneurship. The Economic Development Association of Alabama devoted a session of its summer conference to exploring how to better boost entrepreneurship in the state. Under the Alabama Department of Commerce’s “Accelerate Alabama” strategic plan, entrepreneurship is the third leg in a three-legged stool. Recruitment and retention are the long-held necessities of economic development. Renewal was added through accelerate Alabama to emphasize the need for growing from within. Dr. Mark Weaver, director of the Melton Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of South Alabama, said there are big “E” entrepreneurs and little “e” entrepreneurs when it comes to the number of jobs they end up creating. All contribute. “Entrepreneurship is key to job creation,” he said, noting 20 percent of firms create 90 percent of the jobs. The research at universities often leads to commercialization by upstart companies, Weaver said. Some of those jobs can have a significant impact, he said. Weaver said research shows high-tech jobs have a multiplier of 4.3 jobs for every high-tech job created – far greater than the 1.3 multiplier in manufacturing. University of South Alabama, Weaver said, is by no means a major research center but it has averaged 15-20 invention disclosures each year for the last five years and is currently prosecuting 30 patents and has annual license income of around $2 million. USA has 12 active licenses at various stages of development and the university is preparing to open an innovation hub and a business incubator and hatchery to help companies get off the ground. Kathy Nugent, president of BioAlabama, said life sciences like biotechnology has a firm foundation in the state and is poised to grow beyond the nearly 300 companies already here. “We now have all of the components in place to really move a biotech company forward in Alabama,” she said. Those jobs carry salaries twice the average wage in the state – around $65,000 – and the national biotech wage of $77,000 demonstrates there is room for them to go higher, Nugent said. Biotech, more than any other industry, is steeped in improving quality of life – treating, preventing and curing diseases, Nugent said. She said the industry is uniquely positioned to not only address economic concerns, but to also address quality-of-life needs. Nugent said BioAlabama is moving beyond just promoting the industry but is able to more actively encourage innovation and startup companies. She said the state’s talent pool has grown and can be leveraged to grow manufacturing opportunities here. The industry remains small enough, however, to make that a selling point, Nugent said. One pitch to biotech firms to locate in Alabama is the fact they will be a big fish in a small pond versus getting lost in larger biotech centers like San Francisco or the Northeast. Nugent said BioAlabama is three years into a five-year strategic plan and its members are getting together soon to revise the plan and take it to the next level. “I really think we’re poised now for a tremendous growth,” Nugent said. Greg Sheek knows a thing or two about Alabama upstarts poised for growth. As director of the Alabama Launchpad program at the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, Sheek has seen some truly innovative companies compete for funding as they try to get into the marketplace. Past winners of Launchpad have developed innovative ways to search for patents, get nutritional guidance on the go. Current competitors are using carbon nanotubes to make materials stronger and groundbreaking science related to transplant success rates. Sheek said the Gov. Robert Bentley recently announced the state will put up $750,000 for the program if the private sector will match.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Aug 2013 20:36:04 +0000
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