St. Jude CEO elected chairman of TTDC
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital CEO William Evans has been elected chairman of the Tennessee Technology Development Corp.
TTDC is charged with improving Tennessee’s competitiveness in research and development, venture capital formation and entrepreneurship. Last year, the state infused $5 million into the nonprofit organization.
Evans, who is a doctorate of pharmacy, will “lead TTDC’s revitalization strategy as the organization works to improve the state’s economic competitiveness in the knowledge economy of the 21st century,” according to a TTDC statement.
“Dr. Evans is a life-long Tennessean who has built a reputation as a leader within this state’s medical and scientific research community for more than 30 years,” said Eric Cromwell, CEO of TTDC, in a statement. “He acutely understands the strengths of Tennessee’s research infrastructure and knows firsthand the challenges and opportunities of bringing new innovations and ideas out of the lab to market faxless payday loans. Bill is uniquely qualified to provide the insight we need as TTDC launches new programs and initiatives to build innovation capacity and encourage more technology transfer from our state’s research institutions.”
Evans said TTDC complements the work of the Department of Economic and Community Development by “focusing on the pillars of innovation as an economic engine.”
“Tennessee has extraordinary assets, and we need to invest strategically to effectively leverage these assets to compete and win in emerging industries like biopharmaceuticals, energy technologies and medical devices,” he said in a statement.
Based in Memphis, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is a leading pediatric treatment and research facility focused on children’s catastrophic diseases. It employs more than 3,000 in Memphis.