Corridor In The News

Corridor President’s Achievement Awarded

By Abraham Aboraya

SEMINOLE COUNTY September 23, 2009 –When Randy Berridge came to Seminole County in 1979 to work on the lawsuit that eventually broke AT&T into seven separate companies, he thought he would be in town until the lawsuit was settled.

Two years later the work was done, and Berridge told his wife Sharon, "Well, I guess it's gonna be back to Indiana or New Jersey."

"Well, Mendy and Lynn and I will see you on the weekends," Sharon said, referring to his two daughters. "We're not moving."

It's been 20 years since then, and Berridge is no longer with AT&T -he's been the president of the Florida High Tech Corridor since its inception in 1996.

And it's been his work bringing businesses to Central Florida that made him the recipient of the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Seminole County Regional Chamber of Commerce.

John Ashworth, who works four doors down from Berridge at the Center for Economic Development at Seminole Community College, said Berridge fits all of the criteria for the award. He's known Barridge for about 14 years, before the High Tech Corridor was formed.

"Randy has been involved in the community for years - passionate, passionate individual," Ashworth said. "... When it comes to knowing how to diversify our economy, Randy is wonderful."

"It's pretty special when it comes from the chamber from your home county recognizing the High Tech Corridor," Berridge said.

While he worked for AT&T, Berridge worked with UCF and Seminole County to get enough incentives in place to keep 1,500 high-paying AT&T jobs from heading north. That project formed the nexus for the High Tech Corridor.

"It all stemmed from those partnerships developed in the '80s and '90s," Berridge said.

UCF President John Hitt had the idea of forming the corridor, which serves 23 counties in Florida and partners with UCF, USF and UF for research. The corridor was designed to attract, retain and grow the high tech industry in the state, according to its mission statement.

The 23 counties have 140,000 trained employees working at 7,500 high tech companies. What the High Tech Corridor mostly does is invest in research projects with companies.

Currently, the corridor has invested in more than 1,000 research projects with 300 companies in the corridor to the tune of $52 million. It uses professors and graduate students from the universities to do the research, and its investment has returned $600 million in corporate and federal funding to the state.

"We're a pretty good return to state money," Berridge said.

The Florida High Tech Corridor was also instrumental in forming the UCF Business Incubator, which lets fledgling companies take guidance from experienced business leaders.

The incubator network now has two branches in Seminole County - in Winter Springs and Sanford - and leaders love the project because the businesses that graduate are likely to stay in the area.

"It's been a real rewarding experience to be a part of this thing and be able to work with a great team of volunteers that, in many ways, have got us to be in the top five examples in North America of partnerships between universities and colleges and corporations and workforce organizations," Berridge said.

The corridor's success has been duplicated nationwide. Berridge said they've gotten phone calls from a Colorado attorney, from a mayor in South Dakota and from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard about the program, all looking to emulate its success.

At VisitTheCorridor.com, visitors get a detailed look at the area through the eyes of a digital Wendy Chioji, the WESH news anchor who moved to Colorado.

"Whether it's discovering the medical treatments of tomorrow, building the nation's aerospace and defense capabilities, or even developing top-selling video games, the Florida High Tech Corridor isn't just on the cutting edge of technology, it's leading it," the digital Chioji says.

Despite the larger successes of the corridor, Berridge holds a special fondness in his heart for Seminole County. He's lived in the same house in unincorporated Longwood for 20 years now, ever since his wife and children fell in love with the schools and the area and refused to leave.

"The metropolitan area, and especially Seminole County, as you know, is a great place to live and work," Berridge said.