Local Tech Partnership Leader Earns Regional Acclaim

FHTCC President Randy Berridge Named One of TechJournal South’s ‘25 Most Influential People in Southeast Tech’

HEATHROW, Fla. (Nov. 20, 2007) – Orlando’s Randy Berridge, president of the Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC), is one of the most influential people in the technology and entrepreneurial industry in the Southeastern United States, according to TechJournal South’s “25 of the Most Influential People in Southeast Tech” released Monday.

“This pays credit to Randy Berridge’s decade-long effort to market this region in partnership with our economic development partners,” said Chris Steinocher, chief operating officer and senior vice president of marketing for the Tampa Bay Partnership and chairman of the Corridor Council’s marketing committee.

Berridge was nominated by venture capitalists, tech organizations and entrepreneurs to become part of the Southeast’s top 25. 

Based in Heathrow, Fla., Berridge and the FHTCC are on a mission to attract, retain and grow high tech industry and the workforce that supports it in the heart of Florida.  Since Berridge took the lead of the organization at its formation in 1996, he has helped develop an extremely successful Matching Grants Research Program that connects companies with funding for research and the help of university faculty and students.  The program has resulted in more than $150 million in applied research at the Corridor’s three sponsor universities.

TechJournal South is profiling three of the top 25 tech leaders daily on its Web site, and Berridge was in the first group appearing in the November 19 edition of the publication.  Other influential people on the list include Georgia Tech President Wayne Clough, Former Chair and CEO of America Online Steve Case and Updata Partner’s John Updike.  The TechJournal profile of Randy Berridge can be viewed by visiting the publication’s Web site at http://www.techjournalsouth.com/news/article.html?item_id=4295.

About FHTCC

The Florida High Tech Corridor Council (FHTCC) is an economic development initiative of the University of Central Florida (UCF), the University of South Florida (USF) and the University of Florida (UF) whose mission is to attract, retain and grow high tech industry and to help develop the workforce to support those industries in the 23-county Corridor.

A partnership involving more than 20 local and regional economic development organizations (EDOs) and 14 community colleges, the Council is co-chaired by the presidents of UCF, USF and UF.  The Council includes the presidents of two of the community colleges, the president of Florida Institute of Technology and representatives of high tech industry. 

The unique partnership has resulted in a strategic approach to high tech economic development that involves matching funds research, workforce development and a marketing program leveraging governmental, EDO and corporate budgets on a regional rather than local basis.