Contact:
Linda Knopp
Communications Manager
National Business Incubation Association
(740) 593-4331
lknopp@nbia.org

Five Business Incubation Leaders Elected to NBIA Board

August 8, 2005

ATHENS, Ohio—Members of the National Business Incubation Association have elected five industry leaders to three-year terms on the association’s board of directors.

Newly elected members are: Angela Glover, director of the Chattanooga/Hamilton County Business Development Center in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Evan Jones, director of @Wales Digital Media Initiative in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom; Keelin O'Leary, manager of the Genesis Centre at Memorial University in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada; Jim Sanders, director of a corporate incubator at Honeywell International in Columbia, Md.; and Joel Wiggins, president and CEO of the Enterprise Center of Johnson County in Lenexa, Kan. Wiggins is a second-term member of the board who currently serves as its vice chairman.

"We are excited to have such a diverse group of new board members who will bring wide-ranging experiences to the deliberations of NBIA's board of directors," said Dinah Adkins, NBIA president and CEO.

Business incubation programs catalyze the process of starting and growing companies by providing entrepreneurs with the expertise, networks and tools they need to make their ventures successful. In 2001 alone, North American incubators assisted more than 35,000 start-up companies that provided full-time employment for nearly 82,000 workers and generated earnings of more than $7 billion.

Glover, winner of the 2004 Tennessee Small Business Administration Women in Business Advocate of the Year Award, recently oversaw the launch of a "virtual office" at the Business Development Center to offer temporary space to traveling business people, home- based entrepreneurs, and companies waiting to enter the incubator.

Jones led the development of a national incubation strategy for Wales through the Welsh Development Agency. He speaks regularly about business incubation, particularly in Europe, and is active in UK Business Incubation (the United Kingdom’s incubation association).

O'Leary has worked with entrepreneurs for 18 years and helped start the Genesis Centre eight years ago. Since then, the incubator has graduated 14 companies and created 180 jobs. Its clients have raised more than $4 million in private equity.

Sanders, the founding director of the Maryland Technology Development Corp.’s incubation program, has led three software start-ups and spent two years in incubator development for the World Bank. He also researches and teaches on incubation as adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland.

In June, Wiggins joined the Enterprise Center of Johnson County after more than eight years at the Austin Technology Incubator in Texas, where he helped start one of the United States’ first clean energy incubators. He has conducted incubation training in Asia, Latin America and Europe, and has helped develop two incubators in Poland.

Based in Athens, Ohio, the National Business Incubation Association is the world’s leading organization advancing business incubation and entrepreneurship. Since 1985, the association has provided industry professionals with information, education, advocacy and networking resources to bring excellence to the process of assisting early-stage companies.

NBIA’s 15-member board of directors, made up of representatives from leading business incubation programs, governs the organization. The group meets three times a year to discuss association business, including educational programming, finances, member recruitment/services and publications.

The new board members join the following individuals whose terms continue:

• Tony Antoniades, general manager, Advanced Technology Development Center, Atlanta
• David Cattey, executive director, Business Technology Center, Columbus, Ohio
• Philip Helgerson, Longreach Technologies, Bath, Maine
• Jean-Jacques Ledoux, manager, Industry Partnership Facility, National Research Council, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• David Lohr, executive director, Virginia Biosciences Development Center, Richmond, Va.
• Thalia Mendez, program officer, Greater Milwaukee Committee, Milwaukee
• Susan Prado, west coast regional director, Women's Business Enterprise National Council, Sierra Madre, Calif.
• Jim Robbins, executive director, Software Business Cluster, San Jose, Calif.
• Tony Tadasa, director, Tyler Area Business Incubator, Tyler, Texas
• Devron Veasley, director, Bessemer Business Incubation System, Bessemer, Ala.

The following individuals’ terms end in October:

• Jim Finkle, manager, Long Island High Technology Incubator, Stony Brook, N.Y.
• Bonnie Herron, executive director, Intelligent Systems Incubator, Norcross, Ga.
• Lisa Ison, president, The New Century Venture Center, Roanoke, Va.
• Joanne Randolph, president, Women's Business Center of North Alabama, Huntsville, Ala.