Virginia Biotech Park names Carrie Roth executive director

Carrie Roth has officially been tapped to lead the Richmond-based Virginia Biotechnology Research Park. She had been serving as the park’s interim leader since December 2013.

Roth is now executive director of the park’s authority and president and CEO of its corporation. Before joining the park last December, she was former Gov. Bob McDonnell’s Deputy Secretary of Commerce and Trade.

“She has demonstrated a passion for moving the park forward and making it the center of an innovations community in Richmond,” Michael Rao, president of Virginia Commonwealth University and chairman of the park's authority and corporation boards, said in a statement.

Roth has more than 20 years of experience in government, non-profits and the private sector. She helped lead an effort before the Virginia General Assembly to provide more than $113 million in new economic development funding – including over $57 million to support Virginia’s innovation economy, according to a statement from the technology park.

She is a member of the Virginia Workforce Development Board, VCU Commercialization Advisory Panel, Virginia Beach Bio-medical and Healthcare Task Force, the Board of Directors of RichTech and Richmond 2015 UCI World Championship.

Virginia Biotechnology Park is home to 57 private and non-profit companies, state and federal laboratories, research institutes and administrative functions of VCU and the VCU Health System.  It employs about 2,400 people. Major members include Health Diagnostic Laboratories, the Altria Center for Research and Technology and United Network for Organ Sharing.