After seven years as president and CEO of the University City Science Center, Jill Felix has signaled her intent to resign, possibly as soon as September.
Felix was originally hired as a "non-academic president to run [the Science Center] more as a business," she said, adding that she plans to stay affiliated with the center by helping the new CEO transition into the job, and by acting as a real estate adviser.
In making the center financially sound and creating positive cash flow, Felix has accomplished the job she was hired to do, and said that the center is "well-positioned to go to the next step" with a new president.
"I feel really proud of what I and my team have done in creating a financially sound institution, because it was not sound when I came in," Felix said.
It is not yet known who will take over for Felix as president, because the search has just started. However, Felix said that a committee has been formed for this purpose, and it is looking for a person who can expand on the accomplishments she has made by making the center more financially sound and more commercially successful.
Felix "made a great contribution to the formative years of the Science Center," said Acuity Pharmaceuticals CEO Dale Pfost, whose company has been a member of the Science Center for about a year.
The Science Center -- which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this September -- is a community of small science-based companies that is affiliated with approximately 35 universities, including Penn, and has buildings in three different states.
The center was originally created to further "economic development in West Philadelphia," Felix said.
It also serves as a sort of "incubator" for start-up technology and science-based companies in the region, according to Pfost.
The center occupies nearly 2 million square feet of land on Market Street between 34th and 37th streets. It has created around 26,000 jobs in the region and has an annual capitalization of around $4.5 billion, according to Felix.
It is comprised of around 200 companies, and occupies around 17 acres of land, making it the largest center of its kind in the world.
Although Felix and other center officials have spoken with the director of Real Estate Services at Penn, no definite plans have been developed to move the center in the near future. Felix said that first the Science Center will continue to expand at its current location, after which plans to move could be considered.
