Virginia Tech names executives for Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business will open this summer with two executives at the helm.
Virginia Tech announced the appointment Thursday of Linda Oldham as executive director and Derick Maggard as director.

Oldham, the former executive director of Georgia Tech’s Denning Technology and Management Program, will start work Aug. 1.

Maggard, currently executive director of the Roanoke–Blacksburg Technology Council, will start his job July 17.

The center will support entrepreneurship and innovation programs across the university. Participants, including traditional students, corporate innovators, and others involved in entrepreneurial ventures, will get experience developing business plans and launching new ventures. They also will benefit from networking with the large number of Virginia Tech alumni who are successful entrepreneurs.

The center, established in December 2013, will help guide such programs as the college’s Entrepreneurship — New Venture Growth minor and the university’s Innovate entrepreneurship living-learning community, both of which were also launched last year.

Oldham has extensive experience building relationships with high profile corporations. In her recent position at Georgia Tech, she helped develop a corporate advisory board while providing leadership for the business school’s undergraduate curricular activities and outreach related to the Denning Program. She led the Denning Program for seven years, building a nationally prominent initiative that bridged the business and engineering colleges and that received more than $15 million in funding.

At Pamplin, she will develop a plan to promote the center and raise its visibility in Blacksburg and the Washington, D.C., area.

Maggard, who joined the Roanoke–Blacksburg Technology Council in May 2012, has increased the council’s membership and funding. He has worked with leaders of member organizations and startups to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and sustained growth for the region’s technology-based businesses.