NDSU President Dean L. Bresciani announced today that Tony Grindberg, executive director at the NDSU Research and Technology Park, is resigning effective Sept. 30, and has accepted a position as the Business Unit Manager for the Aerospace Business Unit of Appareo Systems, LLC. Appareo Systems is headquartered in the NDSU Research Park on the NDSU campus. Grindberg has been with the NDSU Research Park for the past 10 years.
“Tony’s leadership in bringing the Research and Technology Park forward has been exceptional. It is a loss for us, but we are pleased he will be joining one of our park’s success story companies,” Bresciani said.
“It has been an honor and privilege serving as the first executive director of the research park," Grindberg said. "The opportunity to contribute to the overall economic growth of the State of North Dakota has been most rewarding.”
In 2009, Grindberg was elected to a prestigious position on the board of directors of the Association of University Research Parks, a professional association that promotes development and operations of research parks that foster innovation, commercialization and economic competitiveness in a global economy. The 16-member board includes research park directors from national leading universities such as University of Wisconsin, University of Maryland, Ohio State University, Purdue and Virginia Tech.
During his tenure the NDSU Research and Technology Park has grown to include seven facilities totaling 370,000 square feet with capital investment of nearly $70 million. In 2010, a study issued by EMSI reported nearly 900 people employed by research park tenants.
In 2007, the NDSU Technology Incubator opened as part of the park to provide value-added services to start-up companies. Bobcat is the anchor tenant in the facility and seven other companies in various stages of development reside in the incubator. Appareo Systems exited the incubator to move into a new multi-tenant facility located southeast of the Technology Incubator.
Appareo Systems, which began as a start-up in the NDSU Technology Incubator as a custom engineering company specializing in the design and manufacture of high-tech products for the aviation and defense industries, is now a leading supplier of light aircraft data storage systems and general aviation radio products worldwide. In 2010, Appareo Systems was named to Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing private companies in the nation. Making the list at No. 159 overall, Appareo was also the No.1 fastest growing engineering firms in the country.
Bresciani has named Brenda Wyland as interim director, while a search is conducted. Wyland has been with the park since 2008.