Key founders of the Pittsburgh Technology Council recall a time more than 20 years ago when to be an entrepreneur in this city was a four letter word: namely a, “What?” Fast forward 20 years. Today, technology-related companies, nonprofits and those that support them account for a quarter of the region’s payroll, according to the Technology Council’s annual state-of-the-industry report. The Technology Council’s success, growing from the spark of an idea to a 1,500-member trade association and the public face of the region’s efforts to grow its information and biotechnology-based economy, can be traced to a philosophy adopted early on to let the organization be controlled by entrepreneurs themselves. “The council helped re-teach Pittsburgh that risk is part of doing business,” said William Newlin, chief executive of the local law firm Buchanan Ingersoll, an original member of the Technology Council board. The Pittsburgh Technology Council celebrates 20 years of being Thursday night with a dinner at the Westin Convention Center Hotel, featuring state Department of Community and Economic Development Secretary Dennis Yablonsky — himself formerly an integral part of the effort to build the region’s technology economy. The backdrop for creation of the council was the economic recession of 1981 and the staggering decline of Pittsburgh’s economic backbone — the steel industry. “If we didn’t grab another star, we were going to sink,” said Jay Aldridge, who at Penns Southwest, a nonprofit regional marketing association, first embraced the need to establish some sort of initiative to move the region away from a dependence on old-line manufacturing companies. The organization assembled what it called the Electronics Initiative in 1980 and sent a representative to the West Coast to try to drum up interest in investors and companies seeking to expand in the East. “What in the world do we have to offer?” Aldridge remembers her asking. At a meeting at the Duquesne Club attended by a dozen people, it was discovered that there were some small firms doing interesting things with computer-related technologies. Aldridge said he knew Penns Southwest wasn’t the right forum to grow an organization that would bring these companies under one tent to have their own voice. In 1983, Aldridge and others prevailed on James Colker, then chairman of the local technology firm Contraves Goerz Corp., now Contraves Inc., to lead the new organization — the Pittsburgh High Technology Council. A year later, the group hired Tim Parks as its first executive director. Membership grew exponentially under Parks, who said the group would only succeed if entrepreneurs, themselves, were at the helm. Newlin said the council has been effective in representing the industry’s needs to city, state and federal officials. He pointed out the first major victory coming in 1985, when the council lobbied the Legislature to change the state pension system’s rules to allow the state to invest in early stage Pennsylvania technology companies. “At the time, there was no such thing as venture capital in this community,” Newlin said. The council has also served as a platform for service companies — accountants, lawyers, banks, public relations and the like — to learn about how to serve the needs of young, growing technology companies. Early successes for the region included the initial public offering of computer software company Duquesne Systems in 1984; the awarding of a $250 million contract by the federal government to establish the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and the formation of the CEO Venture Fund, both in 1985. The fund was made up of a group of executives from primarily old-line industrial companies who, like the Mellons and the Phipps of the region’s past, were willing to fund the next generation of Pittsburgh industry. Parks said the region has gotten to the point where natively grown technology companies are spawning new companies of their own, which is a hallmark of achieving a critical mass of companies in an industry segment. “This organization has been like a bulldog that won’t let go of the idea that technology would play an important part of this region’s landscape for years to come,” he said. Additional Information:

Technologically speaking

Pittsburgh Technology Council Points in Time Pittsburgh High Technology Council incorporated Timothy Parks hired as executive director; first membership directory features 145 members Council hosts first regional technology conference Council launches bi-monthly magazine, now called Pittsburgh T.e.Q. Don Peterson, Chairman of Ford Motor Corp., addresses annual dinner Steve Jobs of Apple Computer addresses council event Membership directory has 834 members 1,150 member companies Parks moves to Pittsburgh Regional Alliance and is replaced by Ray Christman; Pittsburgh Technology 50 debuts, honoring fastest growing technology companies in the region Renamed Pittsburgh Technology Council, dropping the word ‘high’; 1,533 member companies Christman resigns Membership high of 1,800 members; Steven G. Zylstra named CEO

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