Incubator Center of Southern Taiwan Science Park will inaugurate the first "ENtrepreneur Task Force for Asia Pacific" (ETAP)

"I am extremely pleased to be involved with ETAP.  As someone who speaks Chinese, I have come to a firm belief that Taiwan in particular, Asia Pacific in general will play a vital role in this the "Asian Century", and as such can and will take a leadership role in exploring new models of entrepreneurship in this era of globalization is an important and critical step".

Michael Devlin, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Pharos Funds Corporation and ETAP leader

Tainan County, Taiwan. (May 12, 2008) - The Incubator Center of Southern Taiwan Science Park (南科育成中心) is announcing a "kick off" meeting for the Entrepreneur Task Force of Asia Pacific (ETAP) on May 31, 2008.

Among the ten major programs in Taiwan's Executive Yuan's (行政院) "2008 challenges - Program for major national development plan" (挑戰2008--國家發展重點計畫,) one deals with developing new centers for research and development.  This program aims to spur global linkages for Taiwan's R&D resources and to assist small and startup companies to build and grow their robust enterprises.

With this as mission, National Cheng Kung University (國立成功大學,) one of the two research intensive and comprehensive universities in Taiwan is contracted by the Ministry of Economic to operate the Incubator Center of Southern Taiwan Science Park, which is located in the western end of Tainan city, about one half hour by car from the main campus of NCKU.

"The scope of Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP) includes Tainan Science Park and Kaohsiung Science Park. Tainan Science Park is situated between Sinshih, Shanhua and Anding Townships of Tainan County with a total area of 2,565 acres. Kaohsiung Science Park is situated between Lujhu, Gangshan and Yong-an Townships of Kaohsiung County with a total area of 1,409 acres.

Kaohsiung Biotechnology Park is established on the 21-acre land in Nanzih District of Kaohsiung City," as stated by the Science Park Website (http://www.stsipa.gov.tw/web/eng.jsp).

One of the steps to achieve the mission of the Incubator Center is to accelerate its globalization process.  To this end, a "Entrepreneur Task Force for Asia Pacific ETAP" will be inaugurated on May 31, 2008.

ETAP will be led by the co-founder and Managing Director of Pharos Capital Group, LLC, Michael Devlin.  Pharos Capital Group, LLC is a half a billion dollars (US) venture fund in Nashville Tennessee and Dallas Texas in the United States.

Michael Devlin has been directly involved in private equity investments for eighteen years.  He was a vice president and founding member of the Business Development Group of Goldman Sachs. He was also actively involved with the Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area, where he sourced and developed several investments in the U.S. and Asia.  Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Devlin practiced corporate law for three years at Davis Polk & Wardwell in the securities and merger and acquisition areas.  Mr. Devlin is a founder of Pharos Capital Group.  He is a graduate of Yale University where he was a Yale-China Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar recipient and received his Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D.) from Duke School of Law in Durham, North Carolina. 

According to Mr. Devlin, "I am extremely pleased to be involved with ETAP.  As someone who speaks Chinese, I have come to a firm belief that Taiwan in particular, Asia Pacific in general will play a vital role in this the "Asian Century", and as such can and will take a leadership role in exploring new models of entrepreneurship in this era of globalization is an important and critical step".

Another member of ETAP is Ms. Olivia Cheng, CEO and President of Aurora Imaging Technology Inc. of North Andover, Massachusetts, USA. Ms. Cheng who grew up in Tainan, and a former highly successful investment banker in California, is the Chief Executive of one of the fastest growing global corporations with core competence in medical device: an MRI system which is specifically designed to mitigate breast cancer! Ms. Cheng received her undergraduate education from National Chengchi University and a Master in economics from UCLA.

"As a director of the incubator center, I am confident that ETAP will accelerate the entrepreneurial spirit and practice of Southern Taiwan," according to Professor Y. L. Lo, Director of the NCKU Incubator Center and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "For our incubator center to become the attractor of early and mid-stage entrepreneurs, having knowledge in venture capital funding, lessons learned in developing companies from early stage to IPO, and last but not least investment banking information are critical.  Michael and Oliver will be able to bring these important knowledge to us, and more!"

"I am very pleased that NCKU is playing a role in the development of ETAP," according to Academician Michael M. C. Lai, President of NCKU.

"Ever since I assumed the presidency of this university, spurring strong and sustainable interactions between corporations and the university is one of my highest priorities. Having an ETAP is an important step for this vision to become reality!"

About The Incubator Center of Southern Taiwan Science Park

Taiwan Ministry of Economics Affairs founded the Incubator Center of Southern Taiwan Science Park in November, 2003, and contracted with NCKU to operate the center. Besides providing favorable and high-quality facilities for daily working  of tenant companies, the major task of the incubator center is to be a platform of comprehensive resources for these tenant companies, including tech-transferring, financing, marketing, law consulting and HR resources. The major incubation target will accommodate to the industrial clusters of Southern Taiwan Science Park, including Electronic Information Integration and Telecommunication Related Areas, Medical and Biotechnology Related Areas, Precision Machinery Related Areas, and etc. The incubator center has incubated 35 tenant companies since 2003, and 8 of them have graduated from the incubation center then move their companies to the science park or industrial parks in Taiwan. In the 5 years since the incubator center been founded, we have assisted our tenant companies to obtain government's R&D subsidies for NT$91 million, favorable R&D loans for NT$200 million, created 350 new jobs, and assisted 12 of the tenant companies to obtain the qualification to Science Park members.

About National Cheng Kung University.

With three quarters of a century of distinguished history, with well over 130,000 powerful alumni now dotting the globe, many have achieved supreme successes in arts, business, education, science, technology and healthcare and are ready and willing to assist, with 20,000 academic selective students and 1500 academic significant faculty members currently, both have healthy dosage of international flavor, with enormous regional support, and with a permeating culture of proactive intellectual growth on the world's stage, NCKU in Tainan, Taiwan, has evolved from its engineering genesis to become a powerful comprehensive, research and international university in Asia Pacific.

南科育成中心將舉行第一屆「亞太創業家聚落論壇」

「我非常高興能參與此次的亞太創業家聚落論壇。每當我聽到有人說中文時，我總是特別會認為他應該是來自台灣。在這個『亞洲新世紀』中，亞太國家勢必扮演極為重要的角色，而在全球化時代中作為一個新創業模式的領導者是非常重要及關鍵的一步。」Pharos Capital Group, LLC的共同創始人及總經理Michael Devlin說。

南科育成中心宣佈即將於民國九十七年五月三十一日於該中心舉辦第一屆「亞太創業家聚落論壇」。

在行政院「挑戰2008--國家發展重點計畫」中，其中一項為開發新研發中心，該計劃強調台灣研發資源與國際接軌，並協助中小新創企業加速成長。在此前提下，國立成功大學已於民國九十二年與經濟部中小企業處簽約營運南科育成中心(南科育成中心位於南部科學園區台南園區，距離成功大學約半小時車程)。
    南部科學園區包括台南園區及高雄園區。台南園區位於台南縣新市、善化與安定之間，佔地2565公頃。高雄園區位於高雄縣路竹、崗山與永安之間，佔地1409公頃。據科學園區網站中指出，高雄生技園區將成立於高雄市楠梓區，佔地21公頃。

加速育成中心全球化的腳步是成功大學經營育成中心的任務之一。因此，南科育成中心宣佈即將於民國九十七年五月三十一日於該中心舉辦第一屆「亞太創業家聚落論壇」。

ETAP「亞太創業家聚落」將由Pharos Capital Group, LLC的共同創始人及總經理 Michael Devlin主導。Pharos Capital Group, LLC是一家位於Nashville Tennessee and Dallas Texas的創投公司，擁有5億美元的資金。Michael Devlin擁有18年私募基金投資的經驗，曾是Goldman Sachs投資發展集團的共同創始人與副總，並投入美國與亞洲投資搜尋與開發的工作。在加入Goldman Sachs之前，Michael Devling 曾於Davis Polk & Wardwell證券與併購部門從事公司法律相關工作3年。Michael Devling畢業於美國耶魯大學，並於期間獲得Yale-China Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar。之後於Duke School of Law in Durham, North Carolina獲得法律博士學位。

「我非常高興能參與此次的亞太創業家聚落論壇。每當我聽到有人說中文時，我總是特別會認為他應該是來自台灣。在這個『亞洲新世紀』中，亞太國家勢必扮演極為重要的角色，而在全球化時代中作為一個新創業模式的領導者是非常重要及關鍵的一步。」Michael Devlin 指出。

ETAP「亞太創業家聚落」的另一位重要成員為Aurora Imaging Technology Inc(總部位於North Andover, Massachusetts)的總經理Ms. Olivia Cheng. Ms. Cheng出生於台南，曾是一位成功的加州投資銀行家。目前是一家快速成長的全球化醫療器材公司的總經理，該公司的主要產品為特別針對乳癌3D掃瞄設計的MRI 系統。Ms. Olivia Cheng畢業於國立政治大學與加州大學洛杉磯分校的經濟學碩士.

「作 為成功大學育成中心的主任，我有信心亞太創業家聚落可以加速南台灣的創業家精神與落實。」成功大學育成中心羅裕龍主任指出「擁有創投資金招募的知識及投資 銀行最新的資訊並學習如何幫一家公司從創始到股票上市公司是成功大學育成中心作為早期及中期創業家吸引者必要的任務。我相信Michael 與 Olivia將為育成中心帶來這些寶貴的經驗與知識。」

成功大學賴明紹校長指出「我很樂見成功大學正扮演促成亞太創業家聚落成形的角色。自從我接任成功大學校長一職後，鼓勵企業界與成功大學持續的互動一直是我首要的目標之一。亞太創業家聚落的成立將是實現此目標重要的一步」

關於經濟部中小企業處南科育成中心

經 濟部中小企業處於民國九十二年十一月創立南科育成中心，並與成功大學簽定合約委託其經營該中心。除了提供優質的進駐空間與設施給進駐廠商外，南科育成中心 的主要任務是成為中小企業專業及全面性的資源平台，包括技術移轉、財務、法律、行銷業務及人力等資源。南科育成中心的培育目標企業基本上與南部科學園區的 產業聚落相符，包括電子、光電、綠能、通訊、醫療及生物科技、精密機械等產業。自民國九十二年營運至今，南科育成中心共計培育了35家中小企業，其中8家已於南科育成中心畢業並於科學園區及工業區設廠。這五年來，南科育成中心已協助其進駐企業取得9仟1佰萬元的政府研發補助，2億元的優惠研發貸款，創造350個就業機會，並協助12家進駐企業取得進駐科學園區的資格。

關於成功大學

成 功大學具有四分之三世紀的輝煌歷史，十多萬強有力的校友遍佈全球，其中很多人已經在科學、教育、藝術、商業、技術和衛生等領域取得了卓越的成就，並願意回 饋母校。她擁有兩萬名優秀的學生和一千五百名具有高學術水準的教職員，其中不乏海外人士。她還得到強大的地區支持，富有在世界學術舞台中積極進取的文化精 神。成功大學已從一開始的工學院擴展成為亞太地區的一所綜合性、國際性的研發型大學。