Office of University Communications
Allen Kunkel named associate vice president
Date: December 22, 2006
Contact: Dr. Jim Baker
(417) 836-8501
SPRINGFIELD — Allen D. Kunkel has been named the new associate vice president for research and economic development at Missouri State University. He will begin his new duties Jan. 2, 2007.
Kunkel is currently the manager of regional development for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce. In that capacity, he assisted 68 cities, counties and chambers of commerce in planning, coordinating and conducting economic development activities in a 10-county region.
“We are very pleased to add Allen to our team,” said Dr. Jim Baker, vice president for research and economic development. “He is a highly respected professional who will enable the university to accomplish its economic development goals.”
Kunkel will be paid $95,000. In addition to his duties as associate vice president, he will serve as chief operations officer of the newly formed JVIC, Inc., a nonprofit corporation formed to promote technology-based economic development in southwest Missouri. JVIC, Inc. will provide services to emerging entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies by coordinating the resources of the federal, state and local governments with the resources of Missouri State University to promote business and industrial growth by coupling entrepreneurship with research and innovation.
Much of Kunkel’s focus will be helping the Roy Blunt Jordan Valley Innovation Center meet its mission of providing support to small to mid-sized emerging technology companies and high-technology start-up ventures by quickly moving corporate and university-based research and development to commercial products and working to secure funding to sustain and grow product commercialization efforts in Missouri, particularly in southwest Missouri.
Kunkel will also ensure that university-based research is transferred rapidly and efficiently for commercialization by coordinating efforts with the Center for Applied Science and Engineering and the Center for Biomedical and Life Sciences. In addition, he will provide services to entrepreneurial companies, such as opportunity assessment (technology, marketing, and management); R & D planning, funding and execution; developing venture capital plans and investor presentations, as well as assist in securing startup capital.
“Allen Kunkel has a tremendous record of accomplishment and achievement in economic development. As much as I hate to lose him from our chamber staff team, he is the right person at the right time to provide leadership to JVIC as the next level of economic development in our region,” said Jim Anderson, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce president. “We will look back in a few years and realize that JVIC has taken our region’s economic development to a new level.”
Kunkel, who holds a master of public administration degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, has also held positions as a field service coordinator and field representative for the Missouri Department of Economic Development. Prior to that, he served as a regional planner for the Southern Iowa Council of Governments in Creston, Iowa.