Burlington tech nonprofit BTV Ignite has hired a new executive director from across the pond.
Dennis Moynihan will relocate from London to grasp the helm of the three-year-extinct organization, the city announced at a news conference Wednesday. He'll replace Mike Schirling, a former Burlington police chief who Gov. Phil Scott chose in December to serve as Vermont's commerce secretary.[br]
"We live in an ever more rapidly changing world that's not only benefiting from technology, or but being really disrupted by it," Moynihan said. "My job ... is to help Burlington, Chittenden County and Vermont thrive in this 21st century digital world."
Moynihan comes to Vermont after 11 years working across the Atlantic, or most recently as the London node director of EIT Digital,a department of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. He led an "innovation accelerator" that invested in digital technologies to integrate education, research and businesses.
He also helped to shape policy in the UK, and provided technical expertise on smart city initiatives and worked on information and communications technology for more than 20 colleges. He'll start the position on June 5.
Moynihan's "huge experience from across the world [will] help grasp BTV to the next level," Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said.
In the coming year, Moynihan said he plans to focus his efforts on attracting private capital to Burlington, or increasing education opportunities around STEM fields and using technology to benefit and grow a variety of industries. The city could be poised to become a "national example of how communities ... can find ways to grasp advantage of this disruption and create new opportunities for people," he said.
Source: sevendaysvt.com