PROVIDENCE – The R.I. Economic Development Corporation is losing another member of its leadership team: Melissa Withers, who today announced her resignation as the agency’s director of communications and market development.
“Effective Dec. 23, I will be executive director of the Business Innovation Factory,” Withers told Providence Business News in an e-mail today.
BIF was also the destination of Saul Kaplan, the EDC’s executive director for the past five and a half years, when he stepped down Tuesday to return to the private sector. (READ MORE) “Saul is the chief catalyst and chairman of the board,” Withers said.
Both Withers and Kaplan have been active at the nonprofit business development organization since its launch in 2005. The organization’s goal is to “create a platform where public and private sector partners can collaborate across boundaries to focus on big win projects and deliver transformative innovations,” BIF says on its Web site. This fall, BIF held its fourth annual Collaborative Innovation Summit, an “innovation learning experience” where leaders from a wide variety of fields share stories about their success.
During her tenure with the EDC, Withers has served as BIF’s director of communications, a job that dovetailed with her role at the quasi-public agency. As the EDC’s communications and market development director, she has played “active role in coordinating the state’s innovation programming, serving as program manager for the R.I. Science and Technology Advisory Council (STAC),” the agency said on its Web site.
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Before returning to Rhode Island in 2004, Withers had served as assistant director of communications and public affairs for Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her EDC biography notes.
She previously had focused on communications and outreach strategies for scientists seeking to expand or commercialize their research, working on grant applications, publications and outreach for clients including Harvard University, Washington University School of Medicine and several biotechnology companies. She also had coordinated programming for the Association of Independent Research Institutions, and presented her work at the 7th and 8th International Conferences on Public Communication of Science and Technology.
During her career, she has been honored with awards including the 2004 National Gold Medal in News Writing from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the 2002 Helen Loeb Award (Society for Technical Communication) and the 2001 Excellence Award from the Society of Documentation Professionals. And this fall, the EDC was honored by the Northeastern Economic Developers Association with three marketing awards. (READ MORE)
“I am excited for this next phase of my career,” Withers told PBN this morning.
The EDC is being led on an interim basis by J. Michael Saul, its longtime deputy director in charge of lending services. Effective immediately, Withers said, EDC clients and contacts with queries that ordinarily would be directed to her should instead contact Meghan O’Connor, the agency’s communications coordinator, at moconnor@riedc.com; or spokesman Andy Cutler, of Cutler & Co., at acutler@riedc.com.
The agency currently has one open position listed online at RIEDC Jobs: A planning specialist, to assist “with the coordination and implementation of activities pertaining to business attraction, expansion projects and real estate development related to Quonset Business Park.”
The R.I. Economic Development Corporation is a quasi-public agency established to promote business development, preservation and expansion and undertake port projects in the state. To learn more, go to www.riedc.com.
The Business Innovation Factory (BIF) is a nonprofit entity exploring business-model innovation, seeking to move ideas from concept to execution as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Additional information about BIF and its annual Collaborative Innovation Summit is available at www.BusinessInnovationFactory.com.
