Press Release

October 5, 2008 East Lansing, Michigan

NamesforLife, LLC becomes the first tenant of the East Lansing Technology Innovation Center

NamesforLife, LLC has opened a commercial office at the new Technology Innovation Center (TIC) in downtown East Lansing, Michigan. They are an Inaugural Tenant and the first company to move into the newly renovated space. The recently-launched tech startup is a spin-off from Michigan State University, founded to commercialize patent-pending research on terminology management and classification.

Said George Garrity, co-founder and managing member of the company, “We’ve been looking at office space in downtown East Lansing for several months, and the timing of the launch of this center was perfect. Michigan State University is our research partner in this endeavor, so the location is ideal - they are, quite literally, right across the street. Additionally, the University’s tech-transfer office, MSU Technologies, is in the planning stages of moving into this space as well, which will be very convenient since we are already working with them on technology licensing. There is no question, this is where we need to be.”

The company has recently made its first permanent hires, Charles Parker and Sarah Wigley, both graduates from Michigan State University. Charles, a software architect who left a position at Hewlett-Packard to join the company, said, “I’m really impressed with what the city was able to do with this space - just a few months ago, there was nothing here, but now, even though there’s still some construction going on, we’re up and running as a business. Right now, companies like Hewlett-Packard are scaling back operations in mid-Michigan, but East Lansing has really stepped up to create a great environment for the surplus of local tech talent. The creation of the TIC was a great move by the city and the timing couldn’t be better for us.”

[permalink] Posted October 5, 2008.