News Article
New N.C. Biotechnology Center Building Honors Gov. Jim Hunt
October 22, 2010
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—A new building on the North Carolina Biotechnology Center campus honors Womble Carlyle attorney and former Governor Jim Hunt, whose leadership established the center more than 25 years ago.
Realizing the potential the biotechnology sector had for creating jobs, Gov. Hunt engaged the N.C. Legislature to create the Center in the early 1980s. Today, the biotech industry directly employs more than 53,000 workers in the state, and indirectly benefits many thousands more. On average, these jobs pay far better than the average private sector job.
The $10.4 million James B. Hunt, Jr. Leadership Building will give the Center needed room to expand its mission of bringing biotech jobs to North Carolina.
The new building was dedicated on Oct. 26th. The dedication ceremony was attended by North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, Senator Kay Hagan and Congressman David Price, as well as hundreds of leaders from North Carolina’s biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.
Art Pappas, the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Senator Hagan, Governor Perdue and Bob Ingram, General Partner of Hatteras Venture Partners, LLC, and advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of GlaxoSmithKline plc, all provided congratulatory remarks prior to the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Gov. Hunt thanked all North Carolinians who had made possible the growth of biotechnology in the state, and acknowledged Womble Carlyle’s involvement through the firm’s work with many biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. 
