SiMT’s Mark Roth Tapped to Lead SC Business Incubator Association

 Mark Roth is named Board Chair of the SC Business Incubator Association (SCBIA). SCBIA is an initiative of the South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) to serve South Carolina’s innovation economy, by bringing together leadership from business incubators and accelerators from across the state. Roth says, “One of the keys to the success of this association is sharing the knowledge that all of these amazing incubators have. It’s important to determine best practices and if we all share them, we could have the best incubator system in the nation.”

Jill Sorensen, Executive Director SC Launch and SCRA, says, “When they’re at their best, at the top of their game, we all benefit. SCBIA exists to serve the rising tide of South Carolina’s innovation economy. We’re looking to supporters of entrepreneurs across the state to best serve their local communities for the purpose of readying start-ups to come into our pipeline. SCRA has funds to invest in start-ups, but they have to be ready to receive them.”

Roth says the success rate for businesses is 80% greater if they spend their formative years in an incubator or accelerator. Roth is the Vice President of Manufacturing and Technology for the Southeastern Institute for Manufacturing Technology (SiMT) and is in charge of Corporate and Workforce Development for Florence-Darlington Technical College. He also oversees the Gould Business Incubator, which pumped more than $20M into the Florence and Darlington economies during the last fiscal year. It is one of the most successful incubators in South Carolina.

Peter Gasca will serve as Vice Chair of SCBIA. He serves as an Executive in Residence and Business Lecturer at Coastal Carolina University and is the Director of the CoBE Institute, a student-led business organization at CCU that provides unique real-life business consulting experience to high-performing and ambitious students.

SCBIA held its first meeting at the 2019 SC Launch Summit. The original intention was to meet quarterly, rotating around the state to visit each of the incubators and accelerators. However, due to COVID-19, the meetings were moved online and have been held monthly since April.