NBIA Appoints Kirstie Chadwick as New President & CEO

ORLANDO, Fla. - April 2, 2015 - PRLog -- The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA), a global leader in business incubation, acceleration and entrepreneurial economic development , today announced that Kirstie Chadwick has been appointed as its new president and CEO. Prior to joining the NBIA, Kirstie Chadwick had been a founding CEO or executive in five startups, was the founding director of the University of Central Florida’s Venture Lab, and led the financing and management of Florida’s Igniting Innovation Accelerator program, which directly resulted in $43 million in follow-on capital by participating companies.

With over 25 years’ experience, she will lead the NBIA's continued growth as a global leader supporting entrepreneurship and economic development. Under her leadership, the NBIA will expand its mission to support a global membership of key stakeholders within innovation-based economic ecosystems by enabling them to better serve the entrepreneurs in their respective communities.

“As an entrepreneur myself, I know the challenges that keep them up at night – revenue growth, talent, customer acquisition and capital”, says Chadwick. “The NBIA plays a vital role in enabling regional ecosystems across the globe to serve their local entrepreneurship communities. We plan on expanding the scope of our education and training portfolio to provide our members with critical tools to help them serve entrepreneurs in a range of ecosystems – rural, urban, suburban and global.  We will also strive to become the gold-standard resource for entrepreneurial best-practices, connect a global network of entrepreneurship centers, and provide thought leadership and advocacy for our members and the entrepreneurs that they serve.”

Karl LaPan, the NBIA’s Interim CEO and Immediate Past Board Chair adds, “The entire NBIA board is thrilled to have Kirstie as our chief executive. We were very impressed with her background and the strategic plan she proposed during the selection process. We are confident that under her leadership, the NBIA will grow and flourish to meet the evolving needs of our valued members.”

To learn more about Kirstie Chadwick, read her entire bio here. NBIA members and partners will have the opportunity to meet the newly appointed president and CEO at NBIA’s 29th International Conference for Business Incubation taking place April 25-29 in Denver, CO.

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About NBIA:

The National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) is an international non-profit organization and global advocate for incubators, accelerators, educational institutions and regional economic development stakeholders.With more than 2,200 members in over 60 nations, the NBIA provides its members with essential information, education, advocacy and networking resources to bring excellence to the process of assisting early-stage companies succeed. Visit www.nbia.org to learn more.