Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. has hired a new executive director to lead the commonwealth's regional innovation hubs.
Lisa Bajorinas has joined the organization full time after serving as its director of business development in a contractor capacity since October. A longtime adviser of Louisville area startups, Bajorinas previously served as the executive director of EnterpriseCorp, Greater Louisville Inc.'s former entrepreneurial support organization.
KSTC recently took over leadership of the six, state-funded innovation hubs from KY Innovation, the entrepreneurial arm of the Kentucky Cabinet of Economic Development. The two organizations are still working collaboratively together, Bajorinas said, but as KSTC offers entrepreneurs direct access to universities, statewide resource programs and venture capital, it was a natural fit for the organization to step in and lead the hubs.
As executive director, it will Bajorinas' responsibility to lead the hubs — which are Amplify in Louisville, Awesome Inc. in Lexington, Blue North in Northern Kentucky, GroWest in Western Kentucky, SOAR in Eastern Kentucky and the Central Region Innovation & Commercialization Center — in a singular, focused direction. The hubs, formerly referred to as Regional Innovation for Startups and Entrepreneurs (RISE) offices, were established in 2018 through public-private partnerships.
In an interview Monday, Bajorinas said the regional hub leaders came together in January to decide on a set of objectives and key results.
"We want to work as a much more integrated, communicative and collaborative hub system statewide going forward," she said. "Each region is unique in who they serve and the compositions of their startup communities, but we came together on various different goals."
The hubs also came up with specific metrics to track those shared objectives, including: the number of startups served; number of startup connections made; number of startups that advanced along the continuum of growth; number of new startups; number of new jobs; number of startups funded; number of events and attendees; and the amount invested in startups.
Bajorinas said the hubs will share their progress towards the aforementioned goals in quarterly virtual meetings, which will be open to the public. The next update will be held in early April.
"At the heart of it, for Kentucky, it creates a very diversified economy, it brings a greater number of good-paying jobs, it attracts other startups, other investors, other service providers, and importantly, talent," Bajorinas said. "That's why moving in this singular direction, being able to provide a better set of services and resources that our hubs are very competent in offering and connecting their founders and entrepreneurs with is ultimately is a very positive thing."
