Mark Weinberg
Mark
Weinberg has been a familiar face to the NBIA board and
staff since its earliest days. From 1987 through 1997 he served
two full terms as an elected, voting member of the board and several
years in a nonvoting capacity as official Ohio University liaison
to NBIA. Throughout this time, he has consistently used his expertise,
contacts and resources to benefit NBIA, the university and business
incubation.
It was Weinberg who helped form the partnership that brought NBIA
to Ohio University, a relationship that continues to thrive. After
conducting early research on rural business incubation, he found
himself on the NBIA board of directors. He joined David
Allen in convincing Ohio University to bring NBIA to the
campus. He also successfully persuaded then-incubator-manager
Dinah Adkins to take on the task of
incubating the Association. The board knew Adkins, a frequent
speaker at SBA conferences and a charter member of NBIA representing
the Ohio University Innovation Center.
Weinberg played an instrumental role in the reorganization of
the NBIA board in the late 1980s. He wrote several grants to help
support the organization during its first years in Ohio and worked
continuously to gain resources and political clout for NBIA. He
used his own staff resources to assist in early industry surveys,
chaired numerous committees including the Association's Nominating
and Research committees, and he served as NBIA vice president.
On the day-to-day level, Weinberg offered advice and counsel to
Executive Director Adkins while the organization stabilized and
grew, and he jokes that he was also her political operative and
psychologist.
Adept at organizational development, Weinberg assisted with the
formation of teams to conduct research and book projects such
as The Art and Craft of Technology Business
Incubation. He assisted in developing new and promising
relationships between NBIA and the university's College of Business
Administration. As the primary institutional supporters of the
Association, Weinberg and Ohio University also cosponsored the
publication Business Incubation: Building
Companies, Jobs, and Wealth.
A political science professor at Ohio University, Mark founded
and directs both the Ohio University Institute for Local Government
Administration and Rural Development (ILGARD) and the university's
Center for Public and Environmental Affairs. Together these centers
are involved in applied research and give technical assistance
to state and local governments and development organizations.
Nearly 50 faculty, contract staff and support personnel, and some
50 students are affiliated with these programs.
Weinberg has a quiet, professorial countenance behind which is
an extraordinarily entrepreneurial, politically adept and capable
individual as well as a loyal industry friend. The only founder
to be literally "down the hall," Weinberg offers so
much support to the Association, he jokes that he really works
for Adkins. His generosity comes in many forms, be it sending
in computer experts to uncrash a critical lost file or providing
a talented stable of student interns for NBIA.
"Mark makes things happen," Adkins says. "Once
he knows what you're trying to achieve he commits himself to making
it reality."
