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Rachel Finley
574 TNRB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-3598
prspecialist@byu.edu

The Future of Tech Entrepreneurship in Utah

The Kevin and Debra Rollins Center for eBusiness has developed a professional edge through the dedication and service of many people. Helping the center maintain that edge is an advisory board consisting of industry professionals who give rich experience to the center’s mission and purpose. Richard Nelson is one of these board members.

Richard Nelson, a local from Utah Valley, graduated from BYU with a BS degree and from Northwestern University with an MBA in marketing and finance. He is the president and CEO of the Utah Technology Council (UTC) and also chair and CEO of the Technology Council of North America. His awards and recognitions include being named “CEO of the Year” for Utah’s technology industry in 2007 and being named one of “25 People Who Most Influenced Business in Utah” by Connect Magazine.

In his position at the UTC, he works to better Utah’s technology and life science businesses. He served recently as the discussion moderator for the Utah Business Technology Roundtable. This roundtable, established by Utah Business and held annually, invites a number of executives from various companies to discuss current business and technology issues.

“The technology roundtable is the public face of getting executives together,” Nelson says. “It’s a way to accelerate the success of Utah’s technology and life science companies.”

During the recent roundtable, executives discussed several major issues concerning their businesses. The UTC has helped by selecting the three most important concerns.

 “We try to identify the most pressing issues,” Nelson says. “The number one issue is quality workforce.”

Many companies are growing but not gaining valuable employees they need. One area that companies and the UTC are focusing on, Nelson says, is science and technology in schools. Many companies are developing programs for high school and university students to show them various career opportunities.

The second major issue, Nelson says, is helping grow already existing companies. Years ago, the emphasis was on helping start-up companies. That doesn’t seem to be a major issue in Utah anymore, according to Nelson. Capital is the third issue. Utah has more than 5,200 technology and life science companies and the participants in the roundtable discussed how to build and maximize capital in these companies.

Outside of these three major issues, the roundtable discusses other important topics that help them learn from each other.

“One of the most popular topics every year is ‘CEO train wrecks and how I survived,’” Nelson says. “They’ve learned from their mistakes and they share with others. There is no school for a CEO. They need their own forum and their own peer network to accelerate the growth of their high-tech companies.”

Many residents may not know, but Utah ranks high when it comes to business in the technology/entrepreneurship industry. The Milken Institute, a nonprofit economic organization, ranked Utah as the most technologically concentrated and dynamic state in the country. Nelson says he believes Utah has a great outlook.

“It’s a great place to be a life science and high-tech company,” Nelson says. “It continues to be a spectacular industry, even with the national slowdown. We don’t need to take a backseat to any community or any state in the nation.”

With many tech and life science businesses already growing, some wonder if the state will continue the current stable trend of entrepreneurship.

“Absolutely,” Nelson says. ”I think that’s one of our competitive advantages in the state. You look around the country and there aren’t many areas that have the critical mass of successful entrepreneurs.”

Nelson’s outlook extends beyond businesses to the people who will one day be Utah’s future—students. He wants to see the tremendous growth of the last few years continue.

“How are we going to continue that growth, if the students don’t know where the hot jobs are?” Nelson asks. “We’re not informing our students enough about the opportunities in this fundamentally changing economy.”

Nelson is concerned that academic institutions are educating a lot of students, but not necessarily in the areas they need to be educated in.

“It is irresponsible for academic associations to turn out talent where there are no jobs,” Nelson says. “Turning out obsolete students is a real disservice to our community.”