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Karl Kelly leader in efforts to woo budding biotech firms

Submitted by: John Warner on Jun 28, 2003 at 5:00 am Tagged with: General Archives Source:

Karl Kelly leader in efforts to woo budding biotech firms

PERSON TO WATCH: KARL KELLY

BY JONATHAN MAZE
Of The Post and Courier Staff
Nobody can accuse Karl Kelly of starting slow.
When he was hired in October to head the South Carolina Biotechnology
Incubation Program in Greenwood, one of his jobs was to become a leader in the
state's efforts to develop and attract biotech companies around the state.
By March, he was leading the state's first biotechnology conference, and he
helped inject life into long-dormant efforts to build a biotech incubator in
Charleston.
Kelly came into the job prepared. For one, he had been on the incubation
program's board for a year before getting the CEO job.
The South Carolina native spent much of his career either in economic
development or by helping biotechnology companies build facilities and find
real estate. He did this as vice president of sales with Suitt Construction in
Greenville, and as a consultant with Fluor Corp. for 10 years.
Kelly also spent time at biotech giant Genentech in San Francisco, where he was
responsible for real estate and corporate planning. And he spent four years as
executive vice president of the Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board.
"Karl is extremely well experienced," said Ernest Andrade, director of the
Charleston Digital Corridor. "Good experience will put you in that (leadership)
role very quickly."
As CEO of the incubation program, Kelly's job is to run the Greenwood
incubator's day-to-day operations. But he envisions a much broader scope, one
that includes helping set up incubators in regions across South Carolina.
Kelly would like to see these business incubators built near Clemson, USC and
MUSC, with the latter the first to be constructed.
Several organizations and governments are involved in the incubator
discussions, including Charleston, Charleston County, the Medical University
and the Charleston Regional Development Alliance.
Various sources of revenue, including local, state and federal dollars, could
fund the incubators. The goal of the incubators is to nurture young biotechs,
such as Mount Pleasant-based Argolyn Bioscience.
The incubators would provide companies with space at discounted rates. Rent
would rise as a company becomes more successful. The center also would provide
support services for tenants.
The incubators, Kelly believes, would provide a quick return on investment, and
they would go a long way toward helping the state in its efforts to develop a
biotechnology industry. A comprehensive biotech program could generate some
20,000 in direct jobs over 15 years, with each job valued at $50,000.
"This is an important economic development job-creation initiative," he said.
Kelly doesn't just want to see the incubators focus solely on real estate or
office staff. Instead, he envisions experts in different fields based in each
facility. They would work with one another to provide young companies with
expertise to develop their products and get them to market faster.
Economic development officials have long considered an incubator key toward the
area's efforts to build a base of biotechnology companies.
MUSC has tried building one in the past, but the discussions took on a new life
about six months ago when Kelly, Andrade, the university's Ken Roozen and
officials from the county and the development alliance began meeting.
As for the April biotech conference, Kelly approached the state Department of
Commerce with the idea about a year before it took place.
Organizers of the event planned for 150. They got a sold-out conference with
more than 200 people.
"It was simply a program that was in the right place at the right time," Kelly
said.