Northern Arizona Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology’s Board of Directors announces the departure of current President and CEO Russ Yelton. Yelton has been at NACET since June of 2009. Yelton and the NACET team established a leading incubation program with 26 participating companies currently enrolled in Northern Arizona and engagement with multiple locations across the state. Northern Arizona University and NACET have worked together to support student entrepreneurs through events such as “Startup Weekend” and the LaunchBox student incubation program. In addition, NACET has developed incubation programs, created a revolving loan fund, AZ Core Labs, created the Native American Incubator Network, and youth entrepreneurship summer camps. Marc Chopin, Chairman of the Board issued the following statement: “I would like to thank Russ for his commitment to our clients and community over the past five years. Russ has been instrumental in building both the incubation program offered through NACET and the team that is well positioned to carry on that work.” Annette Zinky will be serving as interim President and CEO of NACET. Yelton said: “I have very much enjoyed my time with NACET and in Flagstaff. Across the incubation industry the average tenure of an incubator manager is three years, and after five years in that role at NACET I am looking forward to new challenges knowing that the NACET team will continue to serve our clients and the community.”
Yelton will be assuming the role of Chief Executive Officer for Pinnacle Transplant Technologies (PTT) a biologics company in Phoenix, Arizona. Yelton will continue with NACET until May 23rd.