INCUBATION INNOVATION Dream Team Retools Local Economic Engine By Diane Sears
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hen Carol Ann Dykes Logue, Jerry Ross and Rob Panepinto get in the same room, the conversation flows naturally from one topic to another to another. These are people whose connections run wide and deep in business, government, academic and nonprofit organizations all over Central Florida and beyond. They have front-row seats to some of the most innovative work taking place in the region. And they are up to something. They help lead an entrepreneurial support system that has been quietly undergoing a metamorphosis. It’s all part of a plan to strengthen the resources available for small businesses and at the same time create an ecosystem that propels high-growth innovation companies toward rapid expansion. The key was in recognizing that those are two different groups of entrepreneurs with two distinct sets of needs, says Thad Seymour Jr., who became the long-term interim president of the University of Central Florida in March. Seymour had been serving since July 2018 as the university’s vice president of partnerships and chief innovation officer, a position that had him diving deeper into the region’s business community to discover what makes it tick. He had already learned quite a bit about that in his 30 years as a business leader in Central Florida, including a stint as senior vice president at Tavistock Development Company, where he was one of the masterminds behind Lake Nona Medical City. What he’s discovered has spurred him to appoint Logue, Ross and Panepinto to create a program designed to grow not just companies and jobs, but also ideas, talent and capital. Seymour explains it this way: “A huge number of jobs get created through small businesses. Many of those will grow from one or two employees to 10 to 20 if they’re really successful. There’s a set of resources and work and focus to support those businesses.
26 | JULY 2019 | i4Biz.com
IF YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT TRANSFORMING AN ECONOMY AND DIVERSIFYING IT, YOU NEED TO THINK IN TERMS OF HIGHGROWTH-POTENTIAL COMPANIES. — Thad Seymour Jr. “But if you’re talking about transforming an economy and diversifying it, you need to think in terms of high-growth-potential companies. The vast majority are either tech companies or tech-enabled in some way, and they have different needs. They have different talent needs, they’re funded differently, they need different kinds of mentors, different types of partnerships. We needed to align our programs to support those two different sectors.” The strategy calls for expanding UCF’s eight-site business incubator program and dividing it by specialty. Logue and Panepinto are leading three “innovation districts” while Ross is linking several incubator sites and high-profile programs in a “regional entrepreneur network.” The project has had the three of them spending a lot of time together, which they say has infused new energy into their work. “There’s so much symbiosis between us,” Logue said. “There’s a core of things we all know, but we are so complementary in what we know and who we know, and our backgrounds and experience, that the composite makes up an amazing team.”
Research Park Innovation District Logue, who has served as a UCF incubator site manager for 17 years, will continue to oversee the Central Florida Research Park incubator as well as the photonics incubator. She is now the director of the Research Park Innovation District, which includes the industry clusters of aviation and aerospace; modeling, simulation and training; defense; optics and
