News Release

CENTER NEWS RELEASE/July 17, 2008

TechHelp Announces Advisory Board Changes

Boise, ID – TechHelp Executive Director Mike Wojcicki announced at the

Jim Young

Jim Bean

Pat Shannon

Tony Greer

 organization’s July 9 advisory board meeting that board chairman Jim Bean is stepping down after 11 years of service.

“Jim helped found TechHelp and guided the organization during a decade of tremendous growth and success,” said Wojcicki. “We truly appreciate the years of service Jim has given to TechHelp and to Idaho’s manufacturing community and are thankful that he will now be helping to develop national policy and goals.”

Bean is the president and CEO of Preco Electronics, a Boise-based developer and manufacturer of vehicle safety products. He worked with a group of local businesses and economic development professionals in 1995 to lay the foundations of TechHelp and became the organization’s first board chairman in 1997. Bean has accepted an invitation from the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to serve as a member of Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) National Advisory Board.

“I’ve enjoyed a wonderful tour as Chairman and can hardly believe 11 years have passed,” said Bean. “I look forward to continuing to play a role on the TechHelp Board and am honored to have been asked to provide guidance and advice to MEP at the national level.”

Advisory board member Jim Young was elected as TechHelp’s new advisory board chairman. Young is the owner and president of Precision Craft Log and Timber Homes in Meridian and Mountain Architects, with offices in Meridian and Coeur d’Alene. Precision Craft designs,manufactures and builds custom log and timber homes and has completed over 2000 homes since Young founded the company in 1990. Young joined the TechHelp advisory board in 2006 and recently traveled with Wojcicki to Washington D.C. to brief Idaho’s congressional delegation on the needs of Idaho manufacturers.

“We are very fortunate to have so many strong leaders on our board. Jim Young hit the ground running and will ensure that we continue to meet the evolving needs of Idaho’s manufacturers,” said Wojcicki.

Wojcicki also announced that Tony Greer, plant manager of tea producer, R.C. Bigelow Inc. in Boise, accepted a nomination to the board. Greer has been at Bigelow for two and a half years and brings a wealth of manufacturing and food industry experience to TechHelp. Bigelow’s packaging and distribution center in Boise recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.The plant employs 75 and produces nearly 40 percent of the company’s tea.

Patrick Shannon, new dean of the Boise State University College of Business and Economics will replace interim dean Diane Schooley-Pettis as Boise State’s director on TechHelp’s board. Shannon built a solid background in advanced manufacturing theory and practice during his years as a professor of production and operations management at Boise State. Each of Idaho’s three state universities is represented by a university director on the TechHelp advisory board. Other university directors include Larry Stauffer of the University of Idaho and Jay Kunze of Idaho State University.

TechHelp provides technical and professional assistance to Idaho manufacturers, processors and inventors to strengthen their global competitiveness through continuous product and process innovation. TechHelp is a partnership of Idaho’s three state universities and an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership. TechHelp is Idaho's Economic Development Administration University Center, targeting economically distressed areas of Idaho.

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Contact: Bill Mullane, TechHelp, (208) 426-2266, williammullane@boisestate.edu

Boise State University is emerging as a metropolitan research university of distinction. This transformation is being powered by the university’s first comprehensive campaign to support its people, places and programs. That’s why the campaign to raise $175 million in private support is called Destination Distinction.
 

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Last reviewed on Friday, July 18, 2008