Little Rock Tech Park board adds new member Nancy Gray to seven-person board

The Little Rock Technology Park announced the appointment of Nancy Gray of UAMS Bioventures to the authority’s board of directors, effective immediately. Appointed by Dr. Dan Rahn of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Gray will replace the spot recently vacated by Tom Butler, the retired UAMS Vice Chancellor for Administration & Government Affairs.

“I want to express my thanks to Tom Butler for his leadership and service as a UAMS representative on the board of the Little Rock Technology Park Authority. I also thank Nancy Gray for her willingness to serve as his successor and Kevin Zaffaroni for continuing to serve. The work of the Authority is critically important to the future of our city and state.” said Chancellor Dan Rahn.

Gray will join the Little Rock Tech Park board at a critical juncture in the authority’s controversy-prone history. At their last meeting in early December, the seven-person board chaired by Chairman Mary Good unveiled the architectural plans for the first phase of the much-discussed multimillion dollar downtown development that has been in the works now for nearly nine years.

Formed in 2007 under enabling legislation passed by the Arkansas General Assembly, the taxpayer-financed authority is sponsored by UAMS, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and the city of Little Rock.

The preliminary designs for the initial phase of the development would connect three Main Street office buildings together to create a 42,000 square foot, six-floor complex that will include have 76 private offices and 75 open spaces. Some of the other features include a coffee bar, office suites, meeting and event space, indoor bike racks, a corporate-level conference room, 24/7 access and onsite parking.

The authority has also approved moving forward with a letter of commitment from a local bank consortium to finance the first phase of the project through a $17.5 million loan over a 72-month term.

Under the terms of the proposed deal, the financial consortium would provide necessary funding in two parts to begin Phase 1 of the downtown project at fixed interest rates 4.19% and 2.95% over a period of six years. The $17.5 million loan will consist of two promissory notes, one taxable in the amount of $7.9 million and the other tax-exempt at $9.6 million.

In addition, the tech park has until mid-January of next year to close its deal with Five Main LLC and DMT Ventures LLC, the two Warren Stephens-led limited liability partnerships that will make up the lion’s share of the downtown development.

Gray comes to UAMS from the Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, Ala., where she was vice president for corporate development. There, she led corporate development opportunities, including mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, minority investments, technology licenses and divestitures for the life sciences, engineering, and environment and energy business. Gray completed one joint venture agreement, 30 license agreements and 37 collaboration agreements.

Prior to her time at the Southern Research Institute, Gray worked in various executive roles at Beijing Med-Pharm Corp., Vaxinnate Corp. and Elan Corp., according to her biographical sketch. She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bucknell University and her doctorate in medicinal chemistry from the University of Illinois.

In conjunction with Gray’s appointment, current board member Kevin Zaffaroni was also reappointed by Dr. Rahn to serve a five-year term. Zaffaroni, who serves as vice chair of the authority, retired from Acxiom in 2015.

“Nancy’s appointment will bring unique insight to the Board regarding the commercialization of university-based research that will be invaluable as we move forward with current and future phases,” said Brent Birch, Executive Director of the Little Rock Technology Park. “Kevin’s reappointment is also a boon for the project as his past leadership has helped us reach this point and will carry forward as we navigate the opening Phase 1 later this year.”

The authority will hold its first meeting of the year on Wednesday, where more detailed information is expected to be unveiled concerning the financing and construction phase of the downtown development.