NEOTEC becomes NEOTEC, Inc. and moves HQ to Portage County
AKRON, OHIO. . .The final quarter of
2000 has been a time of change for the Northeast Ohio Trade and Economic
Consortium (NEOTEC) - a partnership initiative of Columbiana, Mahoning,
Portage, Stark, Summit and Trumbull Counties. "We are moving ahead at
a quick pace," said Dale Gibbons, NEOTEC's Interim Director. "So
many promising and exciting developments have happened in just a few
months."
First, NEOTEC has become NEOTEC, Inc. In
September the NEOTEC Regional Council took action - to incorporate NEOTEC
as a nonprofit organization in Ohio and to apply to the IRS for tax-exempt
status as a 501(c)(3) organization. As a nonprofit corporation with
tax-exempt status, NEOTEC will potentially have more sources for funding -
perhaps including foundation grants, according to Gibbons.
NEOTEC operates under a contract with the Joint Office
of Economic Development (JOED). The Executive of Summit County and the
Commissioners of the five other NEOTEC counties make up the JOED Council.
The contract calls on NEOTEC to administer Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) #181
and to act as an economic development organization on behalf of the
government members of JOED.
Ted Boyd, Vice-President of the NEOTEC Board of Trustees
and Member from Stark County, summed up the current thinking in NEOTEC.
"Through the FTZ - its services and benefits - we can help local
firms to connect with the international marketplace and to compete
successfully. And through our Logistics Network, we can make Northeast
Ohio an efficient and modern logistics hub - a model to the rest of the
United States and North America."
Second, Gibbons is preparing the organization for an
end-of-year move from its office in the Ohio Building in downtown Akron to
the main campus of Kent State University in Portage County. "NEOTEC
exists to help every one of the six member counties. With our office in
Portage County, we will have a more central location from which to serve
the NEOTEC region. We are grateful to the university for offering us this
valuable location," Gibbons said.
"We are pleased to welcome NEOTEC to Portage County
and to our Kent Campus," said Dr. Carol A. Cartwright, President of
Kent State University. "NEOTEC's valuable work in economic
development is important for this region, and the organization presents a
natural link for Kent State. The university's eight-campus network
parallels NEOTEC's area of influence and is a major resource to the
economy of Northeast Ohio through education, workforce training, research
and outreach."
Third, Gibbons and the NEOTEC Board of Trustees called
on William O. Browning, President of Browning & Associates and
President and CEO of the Heartland Partnership in Peoria, Illinois, to
lead a NEOTEC Visioning Retreat at Kent State University on November 28.
"The Board should be pleased with the progress they
made at the Visioning Retreat," Browning said. "In addition to a
more focused vision, the Board offered an aggressive set of goals and
objectives that will move NEOTEC into its next phase. With the
Foreign-Trade Zone (FTZ) and the new Logistics Initiative, you will start
to see good things happen for the area."
"Much of the discussion at the Visioning Retreat
was about the NEOTEC Logistics Network and the FTZ," Gibbons
explained. The Logistics Network held its first meeting in early November
at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport. NEOTEC has been the Grantee for FTZ
#181 since 1997.
"We are enthusiastic about our mission to support
economic development, administer the FTZ and encourage logistics and
infrastructure development," Gibbons said.
Only a few days ago Gibbons returned from the European
Union-United States Conference on Regional Learning Networks in Bologna,
Italy. She received an invitation as Director of NEOTEC to participate in
the conference. "In fact, the Bologna Conference grew directly out of
the Akron Forum that NEOTEC and the EU sponsored in 1998," Gibbons
said. "NEOTEC is recognized as a leader in regional development
initiatives. In NEOTEC we have discovered that the workforce and the
logistics system are the most important strengths in our region. They make
Northeast Ohio both profitable and competitive."
Back to NEOTEC News Page
The Northeast Ohio
Trade and Economic Consortium (NEOTEC) is a regional economic development
partnership including Ashtabula, Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Summit and
Trumbull counties, built to improve market access through the development of
the Northeast Ohio Logistics Network and to promote international commerce
through the administration of Foreign Trade Zone 181.
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