Sep 16, 2026 · 16 min · 8 segments
Welcome to Chatter with BNC, Business North Carolina's weekly podcast, serving up interviews with some of the Tar Heel State's most interesting people. On today's episode, Ben Kinney speaks with…
Ben KinneyHost
Before we talk a little bit about what's going on at NC Innovation, can you tell us a little bit about your professional journey? How did you get to be where you are today?
Well, I think like any entrepreneurial journey, it is very circuitous, but mine has really woven its way in particular through North Carolina's amazing investment in its public university system.
So I've over 25 plus years, been working at the edge of the university and economic development in the state, both from a policy perspective and then most recently the last 15 years really digging into the innovation practice.
So my work has always been focused on how do you take the assets that belong to the people of North Carolina that were invented here and that can solve problems here and really put them to use here in our state.
And so NC Innovation is for me just a dream job and a culmination of a lot of years of working and thinking about how we do that at a higher volume and a higher rate of benefit to the people of our state.
Before we talk a little bit about what's going on at NC Innovation, can you tell us a little bit about your professional journey? How did you get to be where you are today?
Well, I think like any entrepreneurial journey, it is very circuitous, but mine has really woven its way in particular through North Carolina's amazing investment in its public university system.
So I've over 25 plus years, been working at the edge of the university and economic development in the state, both from a policy perspective and then most recently the last 15 years really digging into the innovation practice.
So my work has always been focused on how do you take the assets that belong to the people of North Carolina that were invented here and that can solve problems here and really put them to use here in our state.
And so NC Innovation is for me just a dream job and a culmination of a lot of years of working and thinking about how we do that at a higher volume and a higher rate of benefit to the people of our state.
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