The Southeast Missouri State University Board of Governors appointed Rob Gilligan and Jeremy Tanz to the Board of Directors of the Missouri Innovation Corporation (MIC).
Both Gilligan, president and chief executive officer of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, and Tanz, executive director of the SEMO Regional Planning Commission will serve a three-year term ending October 2025.
Board members are representative of the University’s service region. Directors may serve on the Board until they have completed two consecutive three-year terms.
The MIC was established in 2013 via the re-naming of the Missouri Research Corporation (MRC). Like the MRC, the primary focus of the MIC is to foster economic development through entrepreneurship and innovation. Unlike its predecessor, however, the MIC does so mainly from a financial, rather than programmatic, perspective. The MIC began participating in USDA Intermediary Relending Program loans and USDA Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program loans. These programs have since become the MIC’s only remaining activity, and no new loans have been made since 2018.