Title: Nurturing New Ventures: Jon Benson and the Wyoming Technology Business Center
Abstract: Executive Summary Dr. Jonathon L. Benson is the chief executive officer of the Wyoming Technology Business Center (WTBC) - a statewide business development program of the University of Wyoming. The WTBC opened its 30,000 square-foot technology business incubator in August 2006 on the university's campus in Laramie. The center's mission is to manage a general purpose non-profit incubator to provide business development assistance to entrepreneurs in Wyoming. It seeks to move Wyoming - whose economy has traditionally been based on mineral extraction, government and agribusiness - across the technology divide. Financed by state, federal and private funds, the WTBC offers educational programs, mentoring programs, business services, and the space and infrastructure to create an environment that enhances new business success and turns new ideas into marketable products and services. The WTBC includes a state-of-the-art data center with high-speed Internet connections and high-capacity fiber-optic broadband services. Within a year of Benson's arrival in July 2005, nine new ventures rented the existing space in the new building, but the center has the potential to expand its facilities another 20,000 square feet depending upon need and financial support. Before joining the University of Wyoming, Benson was the president and CEO of a medical device company, founded in 1998 to develop and commercialize a new type of medical mammography imaging device using near-infrared light from lasers. Benson led the company through two rounds of financing, raising $3.3 million, and the development and testing of an experimental prototype of an optical mammography device. In addition, he helped the company obtain $950,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In the 1980s, Benson founded and became president/CEO of The Ben Craig Center, Inc. in Charlotte, N.C. He was also a managing director and chairman of the board of The Ben Craig Center, GmbH, the center's German-based subsidiary. The Ben Craig Center is a non-profit corporation that initiated a technology-related business incubator in 1986 as a joint effort of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and major private sector interests. The mission of the Center is to support the growth and development of entrepreneurial companies. Benson led Ben Craig through its start-up phase and the development of a $3.5 million, 50,000 square foot facility in 1990. In addition, he raised more than $1 million to establish a European subsidiary in 1993. The purpose of the European office was to help later stage entrepreneurial companies pursue markets in different countries. With The Ben Craig Center Inc., Benson worked with more than 100 developmental technology and information-based companies over a 12-year period. In addition, through the establishment of a wholly-owned subsidiary in Germany, he helped more than 40 American and European companies pursue international markets. In recognition of his efforts in developing the Ben Craig Center, Benson received the 1991 Entrepreneurial Supporter of the Year Award for North Carolina presented by Inc. Magazine and Ernst & Young. Before founding the Ben Craig Center, Benson was with the Urban Institute at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and was a program manager with the National Science Foundation from 1979 to 1982. Benson received his BA (magna cum laude) from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and his M.A and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University. Author: Jon, the first question I'd like to ask is: What are the major goals and philosophy of the Wyoming Technology Business Center? Benson: The major goals of the program are to generate high-paying jobs to help diversify the economy. The people who created the program and supported its funding used the argument that many students who graduate from the University of Wyoming have to leave the state in order to get a job. …
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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