When Karen Gunnison and her much-accomplished predecessor Marsha Davis were at the
Murata Business Center’s transitional board meeting, at which Gunnison was to take over for the business incubator’s founding director, Davis presented her replacement with a men’s size 14 sneaker in which she planted a cactus. The joke was that Gunnison shouldn’t expect to fill Davis’ shoes. Heck, Gunnison wasn’t even an entrepreneur.
Two years later, Gunnison still remembers that shoe, and despite a difficult economic backdrop, the former attorney and one-time Cumberland County commissioner candidate has done an admirable job of replacing someone who had such an impact. Murata is still thriving at 78 percent capacity and it has attracted and kept some young companies that are transforming Carlisle and the surrounding region into a small tech cluster of its own, with successful software- and bio-related entrepreneurs seeding new businesses.
More than anything, Gunnison, who lost in a primary election for county commissioner in May, 2008 but gained valuable knowledge and connections for her next job, has been an advocate for providing resources and spreading the word that they’re available to would-be entrepreneurs. A native of Southern New Jersey farmland, Gunnison came to Central PA to attend
Dickinson School of Law, where she met her husband, and stayed. She is among the community’s most active members and although that election loss stung, it paved the way for Gunnison to have an even bigger say in the future of a region she has fallen in love with.
Keystone Edge (KE): How have you managed in your first two years on the job?Karen Gunnison (KG): I don’t want to mislead you that we have entrepreneurs lining up to knock our door down and get in, but we’re not doing too bad considering the economy. It is a challenge to find the entrepreneurs that are a fit for the incubator. We have a limited marketing budget so it’s tough to reach many of them, lots are working from their homes and might not know we’re here. One of our companies (
CruzStar) heard about us on the radio through some free advertising we had for our business plan competition and the company won six months free rent in the spring of 2008 and they’re still with us. Others find us through word of mouth. We also have clients who have grown and taken on more space or added employees.
KE: What’s one of your more interesting companies?KG: Hanson Technologies is a really interesting company and William Hanson is an interesting guy. The company has been around for several years, he’s a brilliant man who invented this technology that tests wash water from leafy green vegetables for E. coli in a very fast manner. Right now, apparently, companies that package things they send to stores and restaurants have to send their wash water out to a testing lab and that takes a couple days to turn around to figure out if the water is bad. By that time, the product is already in stores and restaurants. His technology can keep the food supply system safer.
KE: How can Murata continue to grow?KG: Marketing is a constant priority, to build that pipeline of the next entrepreneurs that have the potential to grow their business here. We’re always looking for opportunities to talk about Murata. Something that’s been on my plate that I need to resurrect is working with the other organizations that serve entrepreneurs in our region to find better ways to help entrepreneurs to navigate the system and know where to go. Murata convened about 10 groups that serve entrepreneurs last year and we brainstormed ways to avoid duplicating services and become better aware of how we interact. We need to keep working that and make it easier for someone starting up to know where to go.
KE: What’s special about Carlisle?KG: Carlisle is this little gem that people don’t always fully appreciate. It’s been a pleasure getting to know it from an adult perspective. I went to law school here and didn’t know the community as well then but when I got this job I joined the
Carlisle Rotary Club, met people during the campaign, served on the United Way board, and got to know a lot more about the community. It’s a community that really takes care of its own, is very tight-knit and cares about its people. Murata is here, of course, but Dickinson College brings in a lot and has a real international flavor. The
War College attracts interesting people here and you find a lot of retired military stay here in Carlisle. There’s also a ballet school here that is world renowned.
KE: Do you think you’ve become more entrepreneurial since taking the job?KG: I do think I have an entrepreneurial side, I just don’t have that one big idea. I like to find the person with the idea and help them flesh it out and work beside them, especially when it comes to technology. Sometimes I talk to entrepreneurs who do such exciting things and have such brilliant ideas and I think how fortunate I am to interact with these people I might have otherwise not met.
Joe Petrucci is managing editor of Keystone Edge. Send feedback here.To receive Keystone Edge free every week, click
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