I
nnovation Gainesville (iG) is bigger than any one business or person; it is truly a community-wide initiative. Originated by the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce & Council for Economic Outreach, iG is composed of hundreds of leaders in the business community who change lives by fostering local creativity and entrepreneurship. The iG initiative has raised our standard of living and helped create hundreds of high-wage jobs.
Business leaders like Jane Muir, Patti Breedlove, Linda McGurn and Sue Washer have contributed to iG, all while balancing a high-pressure career and family life.
Jane Muir, director of the Florida Innovation Hub at UF
Jane Muir has given hundreds of business incubator tours to investors, entrepreneurs and researchers. But her most memorable tour was given to an audience of 8 to 9 year olds.
As Jane led the kids up the Florida Innovation Hub’s marbled staircase and through its chrome laboratories, she told her special crew about the importance of getting good grades and taking lots of science and math classes.
One of the little girls said, with disappointment, “Oh, but I suck at math,” Jane recounted.
“I told her, ‘No, you don’t! You’re just taught to believe that,’” she said passionately.
In contrast, one little boy in particular, enthusiastically scribbled notes in his notebook everywhere they went — his earnest, blue eyes soaking in Jane’s every word.
Afterwards, he came up to her and asked solemnly: “So if I continue to get straight A’s for like, until I’m graduated from college, can I come to work here in the building?”
“He just stole my heart, that little boy,” Jane said fondly, as she recounted the experience.
That moment reinforced Jane’s dedication to mentoring youth and encouraging other women to take leadership roles.
We have to get children (especially girls) excited about taking technical classes, so they’ll be empowered to become engineers or entrepreneurs when they grow up, she said.
Jane has encouraged women to pursue leadership roles in STEM professions through her work with Empowering Women in Technology Startups (eWiTS).
The program, which launched at the Hub last fall, provides confidence-boosting entrepreneurial training, networking opportunities and one-on-one mentorship to female professionals. Programs like eWiTS exemplify iG’s mission of supporting Gainesville’s thriving tech community.
Innovation seems to be a way of life for the Muir family. Jane’s husband invented the technology that was the basis for biotech company AxoGen and her two sons have both worked for local startups.
“Gainesville’s just a great place to raise a family, have a career and make a difference,” she said.
Patti Breedlove, associate director of the UF Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator
There’s a common thread in all the things, Patti, mother of three, has done in her professional life.
“I’m never happy if I’m not working at something I think matters and is important,” Patti said.
From her career at Planned Parenthood, to motherhood and her current role at the UF Sid Martin Biotech Incubator, Patti has always brought her passion for meaningful work with her.
“It’s wonderful to actually have a career that you love that you can throw yourself into,” she said.
Patti’s children have since grown up and moved on, but many of the companies she’s nurtured over the years are still growing.
“Bioscience companies have very long childhoods,” she said. “They take many, many years to grow up … and millions of dollars to get a product on the market.”
The UF Sid Martin Biotech Incubator was Alachua’s first business incubator. The program, which helps scientists develop their research and put their products on the market, generates more than $100 million in annual economic impact.
Being around long enough to see some of those companies grow up is truly exciting, Patti said proudly. It’s very gratifying to see them move forward, acquire financing and put products on the market, she said.
“There’s an energy level here that you don’t find in other places in Florida,” she said. “There’s a sense that we together are really changing the community in a positive way. It’s a really good feeling, and I feel like I’m part of that.”
“Gainesville is small enough that a lot of people know each other, but we’re big enough to have a lot of things going on here,” she said. “We’ve got the best of both worlds.”
Innovation Gainesville has helped residents learn how to talk about the community, she said.
iG is really important to this community because it broke down the silos and allowed us to work collaboratively for a common goal, Patti said. “I think iG really helped us understand how we’re different from other communities in Florida, what our bragging rights are and really what’s so wonderful about this place.”
Linda McGurn, co-owner of McGurn Management Company
Linda McGurn’s 41 years of marriage began with a blind date. Her sister liked Ken’s cheeky one-liners and set the two up.
Since then, the power couple has been actively involved in downtown Gainesville’s redevelopment. Their first downtown building and office is now home to Rockeys Dueling Piano Bar.
“My desk was about where the pianos are,” she said with a smile.
Linda encourages others to discover what motivates them. “Find something you really want to do and really like doing and see where it takes you,” she said. “Luckily [Ken and I] found our passion together,” she said.
The couple quickly realized their zeal for downtown Gainesville. Though Ken and Linda never had children, Linda’s motherly instincts are apparent — she’s spent many years safeguarding the urban oasis and nurturing positive growth. Linda jokes that downtown Gainesville is her baby.
Many parents stay up past midnight, worrying about what their kids were doing when they were not home, she said. “Ken and I would worry about what was going to happen downtown,” she said with a laugh. “Please don’t let anything bad happen here.”
That concern and commitment to Gainesville development led Linda to contribute to what has now become the iG initiative. Linda was one of iG’s first co-chairs. As Gainesville continues to grow and evolve, so does iG.
Linda said she’s excited that Innovation Gainesville is moving forward. “It’s getting ready to go into iG 2.0 … it’s truly evolving and taking on new life,” she said.
“The community owns iG as much as the Chamber does,” she said. “It’s become something bigger — it is now Gainesville’s way of life.”
The iG initiative brought the community together, she said. “When iG held its first meetings, they got a room full of people who really had not worked together before,” she said.
“It was amazing, because everyone got really, really excited and got behind it,” she said. “It got rid of sides … it created a different attitude.”
Sue Washer, president of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (AGTC)
Sue Washer knows the delicate balance of juggling work and family life all too well. As the mother of two and the CEO of a large biotechnology company, she’s under constant pressure to manage her time well.
“Making time to do things for yourself, your family and your work is essential,” Sue said. “When you create that balance, you’ll get better at all three of those things. If you don’t take time away from work, you don’t have perspective.”
Gainesville’s relatively small size and brief commute time has made it easier for Sue and other working moms to raise families, she said.
“If my children fell off a swing or had a cold, I could be there in 15 to 20 minutes,” Sue said.
Sue’s friends in big cities like Minneapolis, Chicago and San Francisco have a one- to two-hour commute to work, so if something comes up at school, they logistically cannot be there as quickly.
“On workdays, I can leave the office at 6:30 to 7 p.m. and fix a late dinner,” Sue added. “But if my friends stayed late at work, that would mean that they wouldn’t get home until 8 or 9 o’clock at night.”
“I think that this community does make it easier than other places — something that I’ve been pretty grateful for,” she said.
Maintaining Gainesville’s spirit and quality of life as our economy continues to develop through innovation and technology is one of iG’s main priorities. “The Chamber helped the community move forward, through iG,” Sue said.
“I really put the credit toward the Chamber specifically for saying from the beginning that the strategic plan for the Chamber was really going to be the community’s plan and really going out of their way to pull all these divergent groups of people together,” Sue said. “It created the environment we have today, where we are on the same page about what our community needs to do for economic development, and that wasn’t really true before iG. It really was a game-changing thing for our community.”