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Thursday, July 19, 2001

Kim Wilson, 31, is the first executive director of the Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners, a New Economy investment group that wants to help poor, troubled children.

She started her position Monday.

Originally from Beaumont, Texas, Wilson arrived in Pittsburgh in 1993 to get her master's degree from the University of Pittsburgh. She later worked for the Pittsburgh Technology Council, Innovation Works and the Pittsburgh Biomedical Development Corp., where she will remain acting director until Aug. 17. At the technology council, she helped create the BioMedical Network, a networking group for people in the local biotechnology industry.

"I like having an impact on the community that I'm in," Wilson said. The new job, she added, "is an absolutely perfect fit."

Part of a trend launched three years ago in Seattle by ex-Microsoft Corp. executives, the Pittsburgh Social Venture Partners is one of 18 such organizations across the country. So far, the Pittsburgh group has 57 partners, all of whom contributed at least $5,000. Many are members of Pittsburgh's New Economy. They include Sonjay Chopra, John Denny, Bill Hulley, Steve Robinson, Gordon Nelson and Carolyn Green.

The Pittsburgh group, which got its start last November, plans to issue its first grants in December. The goal is to fund Allegheny County-based nonprofits that work with at-risk children. The grants will go as high as $50,000, and as many as three nonprofits will get money during the first round.
-- Dan Fitzpatrick

Kurtzrock sticks with BioVenture

Pittsburgh Regional Alliance executive Mark Kurtzrock plans to start a new job Aug. 6 at advertising agency Dymun+Co., but that does not mean he will stop overseeing work on BioVenture, a collaborative biotechnology initiative involving the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, local foundations, the state and local economic development groups. Kurtzrock has agreed to chair BioVenture's working group through November, and help the region request state money this fall for a "life sciences greenhouse" in Western Pennsylvania.
-- Dan Fitzpatrick

Biotech upstart moves to South Side

Precision Therapeutics Inc., a 4-year-old biotechnology firm led by Sean McDonald, is moving to the South Side.

The cancer therapy firm recently signed a lease for 25,000 square feet in a building on Jane Street, between the Birmingham and Hot Metal bridges. Next month, Precision Therapeutics will begin moving employees from a cramped, 6,000-square-foot Oakland office to a building that once housed a South Side scaffolding factory. The building, now empty, is being renovated by Ross Bianco Architects.

The move should be completed in October, McDonald said.

Precision Therapeutics' product allows doctors to grow cancer tissue specimens in a laboratory and use tests to determine what cancer therapy might be best suited to a particular patient. The company recently closed on $17.5 million in venture capital from firms such as Birchmere Ventures, Draper Triangle Ventures, Boston-based TVM Ventures and Little Rock, Ark.-based Stephens Inc.

The money, and the new South Side space, will allow Precision Therapeutics to add 50 to 70 people in the next year, McDonald said. It currently employs 30.
-- Dan Fitzpatrick

California firm opens local center

California e-commerce software company Glovia International, a subsidiary of Fujitsu Limited, said yesterday it opened a new product development center in the North Shore's D.L. Clark Building. Glovia, which creates business-to-business transaction applications, has hired 19 local workers.
-- Stephanie Franken