Melville, NY – On Mark Lesko’s first day as Executive Director of Accelerate Long Island, the non-profit organization launched its official website. The website will be used to assist Accelerate Long Island in its efforts to create an entrepreneurial eco-system. The website features the organization’s Board of Directors, which includes the leaders of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Hofstra University, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Stony Brook University, CA Technologies, Canrock Ventures, Ernst & Young, Farrell Fritz, the Long Island Association, and the Rauch Foundation. It also provides information about the organization, its Board and team, its seed fund, its social media channels, features the Accelerate LI Blog, and provides information on how it can help entrepreneurs and researchers.
“When Mary Walshok, a founder of San Diego’s Connect, met with the Accelerate Long Island Board, she said that one of our goals should be to create buzz about a budding innovation economy on Long Island, and www.accelerateli.org is a positive first step,” said Mark Lesko, Executive Director of Accelerate Long Island.
“I welcome Accelerate Long Island to the Long Island Association’s offices, and look forward to working with Mark and the rest of the Board to grow our economy and create high-tech jobs,” said Kevin Law, Chairman of the Accelerate Long Island Board and President of the Long Island Association.
Accelerate Long Island will be located at the Long Island Association’s offices at 300 Broadhollow Road, Suite 110W in Melville.
Accelerate Long Island was created in 2011 to foster the development of an innovation-based economy on Long Island. Long Island’s world class academic and research institutions collectively spend over $1 billion on research annually. It is the goal of Accelerate Long Island to commercialize that research into startup companies in three industry clusters: Information Technology, Biotech/life sciences, and energy. Accelerate Long Island received a $500,000 grant to start a seed fund for early stage companies, which is matched by $750,000 from the Long Island Emerging Technologies Fund, a partnership of venture capitalists. Accelerate Long Island will provide mentoring to start-ups interested in seeking venture funding and will work to attract more regional and national venture capital investment to Long Island.