Ken Hays leaving Enterprise Center
Chattanooga developer Ken Hays announced Wednesday he will step down as head of The Enterprise Center next year after heading the nonprofit organization for the past five years.
Hays, a former developer, RiverCity Co. president and chief of staff to former Mayor Jon Kinsey, will leave his position as president and chief executive of The Enterprise Center at the end of the organization’s fiscal year in June 2019.
“I’m proud that our work has helped set an economic agenda for Chattanooga that’s rooted in entrepreneurship, innovation, and equity,” Hays said in a statement. “Our digital equity programs are among the most wellregarded in the country and growing all the time. The potential for what we can do through the Smart Community Collaborative is practically limitless. The time is right for someone new to take over and keep the momentum going.”
Established in 2002 by the city of Chattanooga when Bob Corker was mayor, The Enterprise Center has specialized in high-tech economic development and helping entrepreneurs commercialize technology institutions in the region, including universities, EPB, venture funds and the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory.
Hays succeeded attorney J. Wayne Cropp in 2014 when Hays was tapped to focus The Enterprise Center on growing Chattanooga’s innovation economy. In 2016, Mayor Andy Berke declared a 140-acre portion of Chattanooga’s central city an innovation district with The Enterprise Center at the hub in the Edney Building at 11th and Market streets.
The board of The Enterprise Center, chaired by David Belitz, will form a search committee, led by Executive Committee member Sydney Crisp, to identify a new president with the goal of allowing for a transition period of several months.
“Ken deserves a debt of gratitude from our entire region,” Belitz said, “Some great things happening in the Innovation District and in our innovation economy here come directly from his tireless work at The Enterprise Center over the past five years.”
Reflecting on the creation of a new agenda for The Enterprise Center in 2014, Berke said he recognized the potential of EPB’s Gig internet service — the fastest community-wide web service in the Western hemisphere.
“I realized we had a tremendous opportunity to use the Gig to define a new economic agenda for our region, and no one was better suited to implement that vision than Ken,” Berke said. “We are fortunate to have had his leadership at The Enterprise Center, and I can’t thank him enough.”