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I feel this will be an important development for Macon. I believe this program will spur great companies to locate in Macon and pay dividends for decades to come...
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"The Mercer Innovation Center will provide physical space, programming, technology resources and tools, and access to talent that will help people with good ideas turn them into commercially successful businesses that create 21st century jobs for Middle Georgia," Mercer University President Bill Underwood said in a statement.
The center will be based in a modern, repurposed, 10,000-square-foot space adjacent to Mercer's School of Engineering, School of Medicine and the Willet Science Center. The building was formerly the Religious Life Center, but offices housed there have been relocated.
A 14-member advisory board made up of business leaders, entrepreneurs and academicians and chaired by Macon entrepreneur Stewart Vernon, founder and CEO of America's Swimming Pool Co. and ASP Franchising Inc., will work with the center to provide mentoring and guidance for programming. The advisory board will manage a $2 million venture fund to invest in startups that come out of the Mercer Innovation Center.
One of the center's key initiatives will be the Mercer Innovation Fellowship, a competitive program open to entrepreneurs worldwide. Each year, up to five fellowships will be awarded through a competition. Recipients will get one year of housing, office space, interns, access to all Mercer facilities and $20,000 cash. Applications are due by Feb. 1, and winners will be announced by April 30.
The Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority is providing up to $75,000 annually for three years to help underwrite the salary for the center's director, according to a Mercer news release. Also, the authority will furnish five spaces in a building it recently bought in downtown Macon.
"This is one of the most impactful endeavors that the Industrial Authority could be embarking on at this time in our history," said Cliffard Whitby, chairman of the authority's board of directors.
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