UVU: Business Resource Center Ribbon Cutting
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Utah Valley University’s new Business Resource Center with UVU President Matthew S. Holland and more than 150 area business, government, education and community leaders on Jan. 6.

UVU’s Business Resource Center will serve as a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs and businesses in Utah, Summit and Wasatch counties, offering a variety of services that capitalize on the center’s access to the numerous resources, programs and activities provided by UVU faculty, staff and students. As a business incubator, the center will spur Utah’s economic and business development by helping to create new enterprises, grow existing companies and produce new jobs.

The center will be not only a business development incubator to bolster UVU’s substantial economic impact to the state, but also to serve as a prime resource for individuals and entities throughout the region whose viable ideas, products and technology innovation can stimulate the state’s economy.

“I appreciate that fact that this Business Resource Center, that in order to help the entrepreneur, that 70 percent of the space here is going to be dedicated to start-ups, to incubator-type businesses, to help start them and accelerate them, and give them every opportunity, as we have fledgling new businesses,” said Gov. Herbert. “I kind of picture seeds placed in the soil that make sure that they’ll be able to sprout and grow. And it will receive a crop at the appropriate time.”

Housed within UVU’s center are a wide array of entrepreneurial resources and business startup services. They include an economic development office, a technology commercialization office under the direction of Kent Millington, the state’s largest Small Business Development Center, representatives from the Utah Science Technology Research (USTAR) initiative and the nationally ranked Manufacturing Extension Partnership. UVU’s Woodbury School of Business and Entrepreneurship Institute will also assist the BRC in its efforts to create businesses and jobs.

“I do want to acknowledge that so much of the stage we’re enjoying here has been set by our great governor,” said President Holland. “From the beginning, Gov. Herbert has made clear that two of his highest priorities are education and the economy and job creation. And so as I came into office, I listened to his leadership and have been inspired by that. And I thought that we needed to respond to that. And so governor, part of what we’re doing here today is at your call to make education the best that it can be and for everyone do their part with respect to job creation and economic development. We’ve seen some opportunities to do that.”

Holland said that the BRC is crucial to economic development and will house many of the programs and initiatives connected to the University’s business engagement strategy. The business engagement strategy led to the creation of a technology commercialization office under director Kent Millington under whom at least four new patents for marketable technologies have already been filed with the pipeline filling rapidly. UVU has also hired a new director of its Entrepreneurial Institute, is leading the state in its K-16 collaboration efforts, has continued its dialogue with members of the business strategy group and the business community and has been the convening institute for the Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership in digital media.

Steve Roy, UVU’s associate vice president for economic development, said the BRC’s services, based on proven, cutting-edge methodologies and processes, will be expanded as the center develops to accommodate greater clients’ needs. The center’s providers and partners will begin full services this month.

In addition to its role as a business incubator, the center will also increase student involvement in the region’s economic development through engaged learning opportunities, including research projects and activities that will directly benefit individuals and businesses the BRC serves, Roy said.

The UVU Business Resource Center is located at 815 W. 1250 South, in Orem, near Walmart.