A&A In the News:
Archived Press Releases -- 2003
Anderson to Head BEV, Inc.
(Blacksburg, VA) Ken Anderson was elected President and Chair of the Board of Directors of Blacksburg Electronic Village, Incorporated (BEV, Inc.) at the organization’s August board meeting. Mr. Anderson is founder and chief executive officer of Anderson & Associates, a professional design firm headquartered in Blacksburg with offices throughout the region. A charter member of the BEV, Inc. board, Anderson succeeds Robert C. Heterick, who passed away in 2003.
The Blacksburg Electronic Village began in 1993 as a cooperative effort of Bell Atlantic Corporation, the Town of Blacksburg, and Virginia Tech. The landmark project was the first to provide an entire community with access to the then fledgling Internet. Under the leadership of Heterick, then Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the university, the BEV quickly became a functioning prototype and technology field laboratory, exploring and demonstrating how people and organizations might use personal computers connected through large networks. Concurrently, BEV Inc. was chartered as a private nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation to provide long term continuity and guidance for the BEV and as a vehicle to attract and manage grants and other support resources.
“Over the years, BEV has really helped put Blacksburg and Virginia Tech on the information technology map,” said Anderson. “It has provided not only visibility for the town but a real increase in professional credibility for local businesses in the IT and engineering fields.”
Today, BEV continues as a research and outreach mission of Virginia Tech Information Technology under Associate Vice President Judy Lilly. “We still receive support each year from the town,” said Lilly, “and, through BEV Inc., we continue to work together on new initiatives.”
Operationally, BEV’s original web site (http://www.bev.net) still uses only freely available open source software, still serves as a field laboratory for testing new technologies and ideas, and still provides an online presence and services for many of the area’s civic and nonprofit organizations. “Most Blacksburg businesses have their own commercially supported web sites by now,” said Bill Sanders, who was named the BEV Director in July. “The BEV has always been more of an innovator and incubator, trying to help people and communities figure out how to get started, especially where network access or expertise is lacking.”
For example, BEV and the Virginia Cooperative Extension service are just completing a three-year project, funded by the Department of Commerce through BEV, Inc., to replicate the current BEV web environment and help develop a technology master plan for a number of Virginia’s most economically disadvantaged rural counties. “We’re being evaluated now,” said Lilly, “but I’d say, in general, we’re learning how much needs to be done to help our rural communities contribute to the commonwealth’s technology-based economy at the level of their human potential. We’ve plenty to do going forward.”
Lilly and Sanders represent Virginia Tech and the BEV respectively as liaisons to BEV, Inc. The other officers on the board with Anderson are treasurer Marilyn Buhyoff, Secretary & Counsel of National Bankshares, Inc. and secretary Mike Berry of Advanced Logic Industries. The remaining members of the board are Dr. Jody Hershey, Director of the New River Health District; Jeanne Stosser of MCR Property Management; Wendell Hensley, President of Tech Sales, LLC and chair of the Blacksburg Telecommunications Advisory Committee; Patricia Arvin; and Earving Blythe.
In other business, the board took time to remember Robert C. Heterick who, in addition to founding the BEV, had a distinguished career at Virginia Tech and later served as president of Educom, a prestigious professional organization dedicated to technology in education.
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