| From social work to biotechnology
Kennebec Journal
January 18, 2003
FAIRFIELD, Maine — Former
state Rep. Paul L. Tessier said this week he will resign his position
at the Maine Children's Home for Little Wanderers
in Waterville to head the International Northeast Biotechnology Corridor.
Tessier, 64, was clinical director at the home for 10 years.
He now will lead an organization of 11 Northeastern states and Canadian
provinces seeking to lure biotechnology companies and researchers to the
region and promote existing companies worldwide.
Billing itself as the "Silicon Valley of biotechnology," the
organization is headquartered in Fairfield at the Thomas M. Teague Biotechnology
Center, which opened in July.
"It's very exciting," Tessier said from his office at the Teague
Center. "Actually I'm leaving social work completely and I've been
a social worker since 1970 — 30 years plus."
Biotechnology companies perform a wide range of work, including medical
research, developing vaccines and helping to prevent disease in animals.
Tessier said he has given notice of his intent to shift careers to officials
at the Waterville children's home. His last day on the job there is set
for March 28.
He began working for the nonprofit on a part-time basis in October. Tessier's
annual salary as head of the organization will be $50,000, plus travel
expenses, he said.
The corridor was established as a nonprofit corporation in 1999. Members
include the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut
and the Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador,
Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.
Membership is pending in Rhode Island and Vermont, according to Tessier.
The entire corridor is home to more than 750 biotechnology companies,
he said.
Funding so far for the project includes a $50,000 grant for economic development
from the U.S. federal government and a $65,000 technology grant. Tessier
said he hopes the corporation will be self-sufficient by 2004.
The goals, according to Tessier, are to market biotechnology companies
in member states and provinces that want to have a presence in other countries
and to help companies worldwide establish a presence in states and provinces
within the corridor.
So far, corridor representatives have met with biotechnology groups from
Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Italy and Canada.
"The goal is to market the Northeast as a biotech corridor," Tessier
said. "So that when people think of biotechnology they will automatically
think of this region."
In addition to marketing corridor members internationally, Tessier's job
will be to find research partners for links between hospitals, universities,
economic development professionals and biotechnology companies.
Tessier said he also will attend trade shows and will continue to travel
to Canada and Europe to drum up additional partners and businesses, not
just for the Teague Center in Fairfield, but for all corridor members.
The $3.5 million Teague
Center was built as a training center and business "incubator," or
startup facility, providing biotechnology businesses with laboratory space,
office space, management support and a wide range of financial, legal and
technical resources.
The center's first two tenants were The Jackson Laboratories and Tessier's
Biotechnology Corridor group. Clyde E. Dyer, director of the Teague Center
and Fairfield's economic and community development director, is in the
process of moving his office to the building.
Jackson Lab, the world's largest mammal and genetics research institution,
is leasing 3,000 square feet of space at the center, next to Kennebec Valley
Technical College. Students from KVTC already have taken courses involving
experiments on mice at the center through the Bar Harbor-based company.
Tessier is president of the Fairfield Economic Development Corp., which
oversees the Teague Center. He also was named last summer to serve a three-year
term on the board of directors of the East/West Highway Association, a
position he continues to hold.
Tessier grew up in Rockwood, in northern Somerset County, where his father
owned Tessier's Store on Moose River for more than 30 years. He holds a
bachelor's degree in business administration from Colby College and a master's
degree in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In 1993, he retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and was hired
as the clinical director for the Children's Home in Waterville. He served
for three years on the Fairfield Town Council and for six years in the
Maine House.
He and his wife Sandra have four grown children, one of whom is Lisa Marrache,
a medical doctor and former Waterville city councilor who now serves in
the House.
Tessier and Marrache were the first father and daughter in Maine to serve
together in the Legislature.
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