Chamber executive takes MSU job

Allen D. Kunkel has been named the new associate vice president for research and economic development at MSU. He steps into the post Jan. 2, according to a university news release.

As the chamber’s regional development manager, Kunkel assisted 68 cities, counties and chambers of commerce in planning, coordinating and conducting economic development activities throughout a 10-county region.

“We are very pleased to add Allen to our team,” MSU Vice President for Research and Economic Development James Baker said in the release. “He is a highly respected professional who will enable the university to accomplish its economic development goals.”

Kunkel, whose annual salary will be $95,000, also will serve as chief operations officer of the newly formed JVIC Inc., a nonprofit corporation formed to promote technology-based economic development in southwest Missouri. JVIC Inc. will assist emerging entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies by coordinating federal, state and local government resources to promote business growth.

Much of Kunkel’s focus will be helping the Roy Blunt Jordan Valley Innovation Center meet its mission of supporting small to mid-size emerging technology companies and high-tech startup ventures by quickly transitioning corporate and university-based research and development into commercial products. He will work to grow those commercialization efforts in southwest Missouri, according to the release.

In addition, Kunkel will provide services to entrepreneurial companies, such as opportunity assessment; research and development planning, funding and execution; and developing venture capital plans and investor presentations to help companies secure startup capital.

“As much as I hate to lose him from our chamber staff team, he is the right person at the right time to provide leadership to JVIC,” chamber President Jim Anderson said in the release. “We will look back in a few years and realize that JVIC has taken our region’s economic development to a new level.”

Kunkel, who holds a master of public administration degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, left the Missouri Department of Economic Development in 1999 to join the chamber. Prior to that, he served as a regional planner for the Southern Iowa Council of Governments in Creston, Iowa.