Staff

Director, E. Brent Lane brings three decades of experience at the state and regional government levels, as well as within the non-profit sector, in the integration of programs and personnel to refine and redirect targeted economic development initiatives. Mr. Lane's professional expertise and research interests encompass the roles of technological innovation and emergent industry financing in economic competitiveness, venture capital, and research commercialization and entrepreneurial development in a variety of private, public and university sector venues. In recent years Mr. Lane created and directed numerous innovative economic ventures, ranging from a seminal seed capital investment fund to the first technology incubator in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park to the design and launch of the largest community development venture capital fund in the United States.

Research Director, G. Jason Jolley has over six years of experience in economic development and planning in North Carolina and Illinois. Mr. Jolley’s professional experience includes working for non-profit and county economic development agencies and for a chamber of commerce. He has staffed an agricultural technology park initiative, worked on strategic plan development, and administered an enterprise zone. In addition to economic development, Mr. Jolley’s research interests include policy innovation and diffusion, corporate environmentalism, and collaborative planning and public involvement. Mr. Jolley is pursuing a Ph.D. in public administration at North Carolina State University. He holds a Master of Arts in political science from the University of Tennessee and a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.