From his 10th floor office in East Hartford’s Founder’s Plaza, Elliott Ginsberg surveys the skyline of Downtown Hartford.
“I’ll enjoy it while I can,” he said. “My view will be gone in eight weeks.”
That’s when Ginsberg and the amalgam he heads – the nonprofit, economic development group known as the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology – moves to a nearby, lower-altitude office at 222 Pitkin St.
But even that move is a holding pattern for the quickly growing nonprofit. Within five years, CCAT plans to consolidate all of its offices into a several-stories high building on the Rentschler Field campus, in a move that will likely establish it as a major economic development force in the Nutmeg State’s tech sector.
Ballooning Budget
In the three years since its founding, CCAT has quietly developed into one of the best-funded economic development groups in the state. When it began — as an entity to administer federal small business funds — the group had an annual operating budget of roughly $1 million.
But as it’s gobbled up state grants and administrative duties for a variety of high-tech focused nonprofits, that number has ballooned to over $9 million, and its number of employees has grown to over 50.
By comparison, the Connecticut Development Authority — the state’s largest economic development agency — has an annual budget of roughly $6.7 million and 37 employees.
It’s also expanded its duties to include technology consulting, chiefly through the National Aerospace Leadership Initiative, an Air Force funded, supply chain management consultant housed on the nearby campus of Pratt & Whitney.
But NALI, a $55 million, multi-year initiative, is not the only piece of CCAT. The group also serves as an umbrella to the Small Business Innovation Research office, the Connecticut Center for Manufacturing Supply Chain Management Integration, and various other programs aimed at establishing grants or helping to grow the technological infrastructure and knowledge base of the state.
An Un-Odd Choice
Ginsberg, barely six months into the job, said the goal of the organization is to “help define the future” of technology-related businesses in the state.
At first glance, the 59-year-old Bloomfield resident seems an unusual choice to head a technically focused organization like CCAT. A lawyer by training, Ginsberg spent most of his career trafficking in political circles. He is a former commissioner of the state’s department of human resources, and family court magistrate who spent the last decade as chief of staff for Congressman John B. Larson (D-Hartford).
Actually, he said, that experience makes him perfect for the job.
The CEO’s job is to oversee the direction of the CCAT and facilitate its growth. His years of experience in the nonprofit and government sector are the ideal training for a person who must act as a go-between for the state and federal governments, nonprofits and private enterprise.
He’s not dispensing the advice, he said. He’s dispensing the advisors. And there are several dozen between the outfits within CCAT.
One of the key initiatives of CCAT is workforce development, and the group is working both to train teachers in math and science and find innovative ways to attract young students to careers in that field.
As part of its education initiative, CCAT, through NALI, oversees the LaunchQuest program, where students design experiments using a sub-orbital rocket which has a flight profile of 65 miles and generates five minutes of near-zero gravity.
Another CCAT initiative aims to create a fuel cell energy cluster in the state, one that will capitalize on the manufacturing expertise of the region and make Connecticut a green energy focal point, Ginsberg said. A written plan is being formulated, he said, and CCAT should have recommendations in place within a year.
But that, as with all of CCAT’s ventures, speaks to the broader goal, Ginsberg said.
“We need to make a road map of how we build on our own capacity and expertise,” he said. “The advantages we have are ours to lose.”
And it’s his job, he said, to see that doesn’t happen.
