Cherokee Farm Development Corporation welcomed Brett Malone as its new president and chief executive officer on September 30. CFDC is responsible for the development and support of real estate and innovation assets that bolster the research, innovation, and workforce development goals of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
Brett Malone
Malone, who served as president of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center for over four years, will lead the University of Tennessee Research Park at Cherokee Farm, a 150-acre site located directly across the Tennessee River from the UT campus and originally the university’s dairy farm. The park hosts a growing number of partner companies, including Volkswagen’s first innovation hub in North America and the Spark Innovation Center, which focuses on entrepreneurship and the development and support of technology-based startups in the region.
“Research parks play a vital role in helping a university grow by combining place and programming,” Malone said. “It is that unique combination between cutting-edge research and economic development that drives the state’s economy on a global level. I love being an operator at the intersection of those big forces.”
Malone is looking forward to continuing the work of taking university research “from the bench out into the market,” he said.