For our 10th anniversary, we interviewed Carol Stewart, vice president of Tech Parks Arizona. Carol played the lead role in the development of The UA Tech Park at The Bridges, which is home to The Refinery – TLA's home since April 2022. The goal of The Refinery is to be a hub for commercialization activity where UA innovators and industry come together to create opportunities for impact, and TLA was the first tenant and anchor presence in the building.
"It is such a joy to be part of this ecosystem and I really see us becoming much more seamless. The continuum, the innovation ecosystem, we need to make it so it's seamless for every innovation and innovator coming out of the University of Arizona... It was very symbolic that Tech Launch Arizona is the anchor for this building. It's really going to set the precedent and the excitement for the UA Tech Park at The Bridges for the next 5 to 10 years." –Carol Stewart
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Transcript
You know first of all, it is such a joy to be part of this ecosystem and I really see us becoming much more seamless. The continuum, the innovation ecosystem, we need to make it so it's seamless for every innovation and innovator coming out of the University of Arizona.
I think our continuum has to be built like software. There has to be hooks and eyes so that we all fit together and that we're all complimenting and collaborating. For our end users, which are the innovators the researchers and the startups spinning out of the university and our science and tech community, I think what we have to do is we have to have some proven successes, because for every person that jumps into that startup realm there's ten people waiting in the wings and they're watching.
So you know we have to prove our success by example and by doing, and there are many, many eyes that are watching us. I think at this phase we have to inspire. I think that’s really what it comes down to. We have to inspire students. We have to inspire researchers. We have to inspire, you know, our faculty every day so that they feel comfortable to jump in and take those innovations, commercialize them, and then change the world.
When I was being interviewed for this position all the way from Canada, it was really important; I was really inspired by President Robbins’ vision for the UA Tech Park at The Bridges. It had stood empty for this community for almost a dozen years and so it was a priority for me to come in and reverse engineer the park so that we had that first building. And I met President Robbins’ expectations for a commercialization hub, and the anchor was obviously going to be Tech Launch Arizona. That's where it starts. It was very symbolic that Tech Launch Arizona is the anchor for this building. It's really going to set the precedent and the excitement for the UA Tech Park at The Bridges for the next 5 to 10 years.