image: Brett Malone
Credit: University of Tennessee
Brett Malone joins Cherokee Farm Development Corporation today as its new president and chief executive officer, ready to lead the University of Tennessee Research Park at Cherokee Farm into the future.
Malone, who served as president of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center for over four years, comes to UT with more than 20 years of experience in financing, technology development and strategic market development. During his time at Virginia Tech, Malone spearheaded the development and execution of a master plan for a 200-acre campus, led a growth strategy resulting in a 50% increase in revenue over his first three years, and managed more than $110 million in transactions aimed at developing commercial and academic research facilities.
“What attracted me to this opportunity was CFDC’s ambition and appetite to grow in new ways to support UT’s research priorities,” Malone said. “They have a great vision and an outstanding team, so it’s exciting to be invited to lead the organization.”
CFDC is responsible for the development and support of real estate and innovation assets that are essential to the research, innovation and workforce development goals of UT. The UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm, a 150-acre site located directly across the Tennessee River from the UT campus and originally the university’s dairy farm, was developed in the 2000s to support research facilities and offices where private and public research and demonstration partners would collaborate.
“We are delighted to welcome Brett to Knoxville,” said Deb Crawford, chair of the CFDC board and UT’s vice chancellor for research, innovation and economic development. “He has all the qualities we were looking for in our next CFDC leader — vision, experience generating partnership-powered tech-based economic development, and the credibility of having developed sites like the UT Research Park in other places. We can’t wait to see what he and CFDC will do at the research park and in other places in the greater Knoxville region.”
The park hosts a steadily growing number of partner companies, including Volkswagen’s first innovation hub in North America and the Spark Innovation Center, which focuses on entrepreneurship and the development and support of technology-based startups in the region. UT’s master plan includes several new mixed-use research facilities to be developed on the site in the next decade.
“Research parks play a vital role in helping a university grow by combining place and programming,” Malone said. “It is that unique combination between cutting-edge research and economic development that drives the state’s economy on a global level. I love being an operator at the intersection of those big forces.”
Malone expects the research park to have a meaningful impact on university rankings by driving research expenditures and expanding funded industry engagement.
“It is critical to work with the university, the state and all of our partners to build a collective vision and then to create a collective roadmap that will get us there,” Malone said. “For me it’s all about making connections, building relationships with the stakeholders, looking at the assets we have and ensuring we are getting the highest return on investment to move the university’s priorities forward in meaningful ways.”
A big part of that, Malone said, is ushering university research “from the bench out into the market.” UT’s close collaboration with nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory contributes to that work.
“ORNL is a world-class national lab. There’s so much exciting technology coming out of the lab with potential for global breakthroughs,” Malone said. “The research going on in sectors such as clean energy and advanced computing will help us solve global grand challenges for generations.”
Malone said he is also energized by both the large manufacturers, such as VW and Ford, that are choosing to locate in Tennessee and the small startups the research park is supporting at the Spark Innovation Center.
“We must capitalize on this moment in time when we have so much intellectual energy flowing: the talent across the university, the national lab and our industrial partners,” he said. “I’m impressed with our accelerator program because these entrepreneurs are so passionate, but if they don’t have a chance to get their ideas to scale, they may not make it. The UT Research Park is the nexus of all these pieces coming together. It’s a balance.”
Malone will build on the work of former president and CEO Tom Rogers, who retired in April, and interim president and CEO Tony Hopson, who served CFDC during the transition.
“There’s such a strong foundation of programming and partnerships in place. I’ll be building on those elements that have already been put in motion by the CFDC leadership,” Malone said. “There are strong tailwinds in UT, which tells me I’m going to have a good chance to get the CFDC and the UT Research Park on a high growth trajectory.”