Daily Staff Writer

Three finalists have been announced for the position of director of the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship at Iowa State.

The finalists are Mary Brown, director of business development, Launch Technologies, Atlanta, Ga.; Steven Carter, interim director, ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship, and director of ISU Small Business Development Center; and Lisa Leemans, director of product engineering Manco Inc., Avon, Ohio.

The candidates will make campus visits during the next several weeks.

Brown will interview Thursday, Leemans will interview on Monday, April 6, and Carter will interview Tuesday, April 7.

Brown has been with Launch Technologies, a company that launches early stage companies, since 1996.

Prior to this, she was associate director of the Georgia Research Alliance from 1994 to 1996, president of the MGB Group from 1992 to 1994 and a principal with an engineering firm, Gooz-Allen & Hamilton from 1991 to 1992.

She received a bachelor’s degree in English from Florida State University, Tallahassee, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics/computer science from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton.

Carter has been interim director of the Pappajohn center since 1996 and director of the ISU SBDC since 1990.

He also has operated Carter Consulting, Ames since 1994. Carter was previously city manager and hospital administrator in Story City from 1983 to 1990 and city manager of Story City from 1980 to 1983.

He received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in public administration from ISU.

Leemans has been with Manco Inc. since 1993 and was appointed director of product engineering in 1995. Leemans was a consultant with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Nebraska Center for Entrepreneurship from 1992 to 1993; areas manager of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company from 1989 to 1993 and industrial engineer with Goodyear from 1987 to 1989.

She received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at ISU and a M.B.A. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship was created in 1996 with a $1 million gift from John and Mary Pappajohn.

The center provides educational courses and outreach services to develop the entrepreneurial interests of ISU students and faculty as well as other Iowans.

In particular the center works with entrepreneurs trying to commercialize technologies in engineering, agriculture and veterinary medicine.

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Pappajohn Center finalists:

• Mary Brown director of business development at Launch Technologies in Atlanta, Ga. Interviews Thursday.

• Steven Carter interim director of ISU Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship and director of ISU Small Business Development Center. Interviews Tuesday, April 7.

• Lisa Leemans, director of product engineering at Manco Inc. in Avon, Ohio. Interviews Monday, Apri 6.