TTDC's Schmisseur

Tennessee Technology Development Corporation has brought aboard its former strategy consultant, Dan Schmisseur, to lead operations and strategy, reporting to TTDC President Eric Cromwell.

Schmisseur told VNC this afternoon he believes his new post is "a really great opportunity here in Tennessee...[a state] with a tremendous research base, a great culture..." He added, "if you're in this business, and you want to go someplace that you could see a big impact in what you're doing, this is it."

Schmisseur was retained as a consultant by TTDC about six months ago, and was tasked with fleshing-out the "Innovation Tennessee" strategy that had been developed by Washington, D.C.-based New Economy Strategies, the board of TTDC and Cromwell. Prior to that, Cromwell was director of technology-driven economic development under state Economic & Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber.

In recent months, Schmisseur has been a consultant. He was previously a vice president of the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation. His duties there included industry liaison, strategy, policy and "knowledge-network" leadership.

In an interview this afternoon, Schmisseur explained that his earlier work producing commissioned corporate histories and other publications led him to work closely with the University of Texas IC2 Institute, which focuses on what the IC2 website describes as "theory and practice of entrepreneurial wealth creation."

Schmisseur, 38, still owns Remoir Inc., the currently inactive company through which he has commissioned histories and similar writing projects for companies and individual executives. Schmisseur remains on the advisory board of the Austin-based Matthew Willson Group, which provides product development, process improvement and startup enterprise assistance to ventures, as well as services for government agencies and universities.

Earlier in his career, Schmisseur was an accountant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers for eight years. Schmisseur, his wife, who is a career university faculty member, and their children have relocated to Nashville.