State innovation group survives axe, names new CEO

UPDATED Aug. 27 1:35 P.M. - Local lawyer, VU research chief, investors and entrepreneurs are among TTDC's refreshed board of directors

Email | Print By Milt Capps

Eric Cromwell

UPDATED Aug. 27 1:35 P.M. 

As originally reported:

As of today, the pressure's truly on at Tennessee Technology Development Corporation, the nearly dormant economic-advocacy group created a decade ago by the General Assembly.

TTDC today announced its new chief executive and a replenished board of directors who are now responsible for redeeming the group's promise of fostering creation of "new economy" businesses and jobs that require higher skills and pay higher wages than in Tennessee's traditional industries.

The board today voted to approved appointment of Eric Cromwell as president and de facto CEO of the nonprofit. Until June 30, Cromwell served  as director of technology-based economic development programs in Bredesen Administration's department of economic and community development.

In some ways, the biggest surprise is that TTDC is alive to make such announcements.

The Bredesen Administration had planned for several years to supplant TTDC, which was born during the tenure of former Gov. Don Sundquist, with beefed-up government resources and, ultimately, with the launch of a new entity that was to be called "Innovation Tennessee," the leader of which, it was long assumed, would be Cromwell.

While explanations for the change abound, the issue is probably less important than the question of whether or not fresh blood at TTDC will translate into gains for the state's economy. A consultant's 2006 assessment of Tennessee's economic strengths and weaknesses underscored that challenges include politics, regionalism, turf protection and sheer parochialism.

During today's conference call meeting of the TTDC board, actions included reappointment of Dan Marcum as chairman; and, appointment of Jim Phillips as vice chairman and Bruce Doeg as secretary. While three board appointments remain to be made, the board now includes:

• Tom Ballard, interim director for technology transfer and economic development, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge;
• Robert Covington, partner, SSM Partners, Memphis;
• Bruce Doeg, managing shareholder, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC, Nashville;
• William Evans, CEO, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, Memphis;
• Rep. Craig FitzHugh (D-Ripley), chairman, Tenn. House Finance, Ways and Means Comm.; also, CEO, Bank of Ripley, Tenn.
• Jim Frierson, exec. dir., Advanced Transportation Technology Institute, Chattanooga;
• Ken Holroyd, assistant vice chancellor-research, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville;
• Kevin Humphries, senior vice president-technology systems, FedEx Services, Memphis;
• Matt Kisber, ex officio, commissioner, Tenn. Department of Economic and Community Development; 
• Rep. Mark Maddox, (D-Dresden), co-chairman, Tennessee Broadband Task Force; coordinator-technology, Weakley County Schools;
• Margaret Mahery, executive director, Tennessee Municipal League, Nashville;
• Dan Marcum, TTDC chairman, managing partner, Marcum Capital, Tullahoma;
• Ted Nelson, CEO, Mar-Lin Medical Company LLC, Jackson;
• Jim Phillips, vice chairman, Luminetx Corporation, Memphis;
• Paula Short, vice chairman-academic affairs, Tennessee Board of Regents;
• Dan Stewart, special assistant to EVP Jack Britt, University of Tennessee, Knoxville;
• Leslie Wisner-Lynch, director-research, BioMimetic Therapeutics Inc., Franklin;
• Stewart Witzeman, director-research div., Eastman Chemical Co., Kingsport;
• Michael Woodruff, vice provost-research, East Tenn. State University, Johnson City.
  
  NOTE Aug. 27 1:35 P.M. - State ECD Commissioner Matt Kisber is added as an ex officio member of the TTDC board. Calvin Anderson of Chattanooga was originally listed as a member of the board, in error, and his name is removed.