durham inc.
BIZBRIEFS Michelle Nelson joined the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce in April as the director of marketing and communications. Michelle has more than 20 years of leadership experience across many industries, including at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation and Bristol-Myers Squibb. In April, New York-based Signature Bank launched a Venture Banking Group that will be based in Durham and in Denver, Colorado. Several former employees of Square 1 Bank, including Dhruv Patel, Mara Huntington and Arthur Wasson, are among the group’s Durham hires. In March, North Carolina had the highest number of IT openings over the last calendar year, a 40% increase over the same month in 2018. The DurhamChapel Hill area had the largest increase in the state – 64.2%. In April, Pashara Black left her position as the office liaison of the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce to pursue a career in event planning at StrongKey, a data encryption startup based in Silicon Valley and Durham.
On June 1, Ken Gall was appointed at Duke Pratt School of Engineering’s first associate dean for entrepreneurship. In the role, Ken will collaborate with the Duke Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative to help accelerate the school’s entrepreneurship programs.
NEW ON THE SCENE
Durham Technical Community College will begin a culinary arts program in the fall. The program, housed at the American Tobacco Campus in the former kitchen space of the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham, will offer a short-term certificate in restaurant management. In addition to standard cooking classes, it will offer targeted courses like menu design, catering cuisine and cost control. In April, Provident1898, a coworking space in the Tower at Mutual Plaza, launched its first phase (15,000 square feet) of what will be more than 40,000 square feet of shared workspace, which includes shared desks, conference rooms, small business incubator retail space and a lounge. The remaining 25,000 square feet will be delivered by the end of 2019.
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Olga Khomenko, who moved to Durham three years ago, launched her print T-shirt company, Spot Me Studio, on Shopify in April. Prior to living in Durham, Olga worked as a fashion model in New York City for 12 years before moving to Durham to start her business. She started selling the T-shirts at the Patchwork Market in Fullsteam Brewery in September before taking on her business full-time this year.
TALENT POOL
The Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority introduced four electric-powered Proterra buses in May. The buses can carry 40 passengers and are about 40 feet long. The buses will shuttle passengers to and from economy parking lots. Travelers at Raleigh-Durham International Airport can now reserve parking online at parkrdu.com. The program began May 1 along with the new ParkRDU Express, a parking option on International Drive that offers users shuttle pickup and luggage assistance right at their vehicles. Devada, the community and resource hub for developers, will begin providing tech trend
reports through its DZone media product. The DZone Trend Reports will start publishing in July with a focus on the current trends in the industry and how developers are reacting to them.
INVESTMENTS
In May, ArchiveSocial, a social media archive company, raised $53 million in investment capital from the private equity firm Level Equity, which has offices in San Francisco and New York. In April, Asklepios BioPharmaceutical Inc. (AskBio), an Adeno-Associated Virus gene therapy-based company in RTP, received a $225 million investment from TPG Capital and Vida Ventures in exchange for minority stakes in the company. In addition, AskBio’s founders and board members will invest $10 million. The combined funds will be put toward clinical trial expenses, enhanced manufacturing capabilities and efforts to promote long-term growth. Biospatial Inc., a health and safety data company that provides real-time analysis and warning indicators during large-scale emergencies, raised $500,000 in equity, according to an SEC filing. Durham-based Lindy Biosciences, a developmentstage company addressing formulation challenges in the growing biotherapeutics market,