National, state and local public policy experts will join featured speakers from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30, in SUNY Oswego's Sheldon Hall ballroom for the college's Business Incubator Conference, titled "Business Incubators and New York State: New Strategies for Socio-Economic Renewal."

Featured speakers for the daylong event will include Dr. Henry Etzkowitz of Stanford University, originator of the Triple Helix theory for business incubation; Dr. Sarfraz Mian of SUNY Oswego, a leading researcher of incubation and entrepreneurship; and regional economic development leader Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity.

Additionally, expert panelists will address such topics as state policy and higher education support for business incubation, strategies for bridging the ecosystem divide, building modern university entrepreneurial ecosystems, and new experiments with startup ecosystems and incubators.

The conference registration fee of $65 includes continental breakfast, a networking break and lunch. To register, visit oswego.edu/business/conference. 

Note: The School of Business has agreed to cover the registration fee for a limited number of faculty and staff interested in attending the conference.  Call Irene Scruton, Director of MBA Programs at 315.312.2911 or email mba@oswego.edu to request your spot. 

  • Etzkowitz is founder and president of the Triple Helix Association, a unique international network of several hundred scholars and practitioners of university-industry-government relations. He is a senior researcher at Stanford's H-STAR Institute and serves as visiting professor at Birkbeck College of London University's School of Management and Edinburgh University Business School, United Kingdom. A scholar of international reputation in innovation studies as the originator of the "Entrepreneurial University" and "Triple Helix" concepts that link university with industry and government at national and regional levels. Etzkowitz is also the co-founder of the Triple Helix International Conference Series, which has produced a series of books, special journal issues and policy analyses since 1996. 
  • Mian, a professor specializing in entrepreneurship and strategy as well as chair of SUNY Oswego's marketing and management department in the School of Business, has been included among the top 13 scholars in university entrepreneurship and was the Journal of Business Research's 2016 most-cited scholar in technology business incubation. Author of three books and more than 50 articles, he has served as guest editor of special issues on incubation and the entrepreneurial university in Technovation, Journal of Technology Transfer, Small Business Economics, and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 
  • Simpson, the top executive of the private, not-for-profit regional business leadership and economic development organization CenterState CEO, also serves as president of Syracuse business incubator the Tech Garden, a central entrepreneurial ecosystem for over a decade. Simpson, who holds a master's degree in public administration from Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, is co-chair of the Central New York Regional Economic Development Council (CNY REDC), responsible for coordinating economic development in the five-county region. 

Distinguished panelists

The conference at SUNY Oswego will feature expert panelists, among them venture capital executives, business-oriented representatives of higher education and leaders of a biotech accelerator:

  • Dr. David Lewis, associate professor of geography and planning at SUNY's University at Albany;
  • Dr. Elsie Harper-Anderson, assistant professor of urban and regional planning at the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University;
  • David Hochman of BIANYS, a consultant in technology-based economic development serving clients in the government and nonprofit sectors;
  • Dr. Bruce Kingma of Syracuse University, a professor and leading educator and researcher in entrepreneurship, economic development, online education, and nonprofit management;
  • Dr. Wadid Lamine, a professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Toulouse Business School in France;
  • Dr. Marnie LaVigne, secretary, president and CEO of Launch New York Inc., who has more than 25 years' experience in the public and private sectors creating new products and start-up businesses, driving innovation and economic growth in high-tech industries.
  • Nasir Ali, CEO of Upstate Venture Connect and the founder and executive director of the Seed Capital Fund of CNY, whose members are actively engaged in funding and supporting early stage tech companies;
  • Dr. Robert J. Corona, chair of pathology and laboratory medicine at Upstate Medical University and vice president of innovation and business development and director of the CNY Biotechnology Accelerator Center;
  • Joseph R. McCoy, a successful serial entrepreneur with a start-up career spanning over 25 years, whose record includes the commercialization of two defense technology-based spin-offs;
  • Pamela Caraccioli, deputy to the president at SUNY Oswego, who oversees external partnerships and economic development activities on behalf of the college.


Irene Scruton, director of MBA programs at SUNY Oswego's School of Business, serves as conference host. 

Sponsors of the conference include Pathfinder Bank, ProAct, OneGroup, Biogen, the SUNY Oswego School of Business Advisory Board, and several alumni, including the family of Jeff, Linda, Matt and Ryan Gibbs; Christie Sommers; and Curt Schultzberg. 

For more information, visit oswego.edu/business/conference.