CCAM Names Executive Director

New leaders have been named for two business centers in the Richmond area that are focused on developing next-generation industries in clean energy and high-tech manufacturing.

David R. Lohr has been named president and executive director of the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, a research center being developed on the site of Rolls-Royce Plc.’s new manufacturing campus in Prince George County.

William H. Daughtrey has been named interim executive director of the Dominion Resources GreenTech Incubator in Ashland. Lohr previously served as executive director of the incubator.

The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing is being developed as a partnership among state universities, Rolls-Royce and other businesses. The 50,000-square-foot center will function as a research and educational site focused on advanced manufacturing technologies.

“It represents a new paradigm for how companies and universities can work together to accelerate moving cutting-edge technologies into business,” Lohr said Friday. Lohr is past director of the Virginia Biosciences Development Center and past chairman of the National Business Incubation Association.

The GreenTech Incubator off Hill Carter Parkway in Ashland opened in 2010 with support from a partnership among Dominion Resources Inc., Hanover County and Ashland, and the Virginia Biosciences Development Center.

The incubator provides space and services such as business planning assistance for alternative energy technology and service companies. Seven companies are now housed at the incubator.

Lohr and Robert T. Skunda, the CEO of the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park in downtown Richmond, have done a good job of getting the incubator started, Daughtrey said.

“I think it is a very attractive center for the development of green technology.” Daughtrey has more than 30 years of experience in business and financial consulting for companies and has served on the boards of both private and public companies.

– Richmond Times Dispatch, by John Reid Blackwell, February 2, 2011