PHILADELPHIA – (March 11, 2019) – Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) announces the promotion of Sally J. Guzik to Director of CIC Philadelphia, the company’s newest campus, located at 3675 Market Street in uCity Square. As Director, Guzik will be responsible for supporting and expanding CIC Philadelphia’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and amplifying the good work taking place within it by recruiting more innovative, civically-minded organizations to CIC and the region.
Guzik previously served as CIC Philadelphia’s first Senior Community Engagement Lead, collaborating with governmental, business, and nonprofit leaders on the role of CIC in the region’s burgeoning biotech sector and in stemming local socioeconomic challenges.
In this role, Guzik was instrumental in attracting Backstage Accelerator, which invests in startup founders who identify as a woman, person of color, and/or LGBTQ, through mentorship, investment capital, and access to resources and networks. She also developed CIC’s first Social Impact Cohort, a strategic partnership that nurtures select, innovative local nonprofits by providing space, resources, and networking opportunities to accelerate their impact and develop Philadelphia’s talent pipeline.
“We see University City as the next innovation hub for Philadelphia, and are particularly excited about that potential with Sally in this role,” says CIC Founder and CEO Tim Rowe. “First in Miami and this past year in Philadelphia, Sally has proven her ability to nurture collaboration and growth among our clients, to activate our space in meaningful ways, and to build meaningful relationships in the local community. Her innovations have expanded our clients’ opportunities and emboldened our community partnerships and event programming.”
Guzik has spent the last 13 years creating synergy between for-profit, governmental and nonprofit organizations to spark innovation and growth. A first-generation college graduate, Guzik focused on the diffusion of innovations theory and conflict resolution while earning her M.S. in Global Strategic Communication. This resulted in a keen understanding of the process of community engagement and development, and the importance of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), both key to CIC’s vision of fixing the world through innovation.
Guzik was CIC’s first person on the ground in Philadelphia, moving to the city last spring, six months before CIC’s launch, to collaborate with governmental, business and nonprofit leaders about the role CIC could play in the region’s burgeoning biotech sector and in stemming local socioeconomic challenges.
CIC helped transform Cambridge, MA’s Kendall Square into the country’s leading cluster of tech and life sciences startups. CIC Philadelphia, together with its partner, BioLabs@CIC Philadelphia, boasts the largest shared workspace and wet lab facility in the region, with 23,000 sq ft of fully-equipped coworking lab space to enable biotech startups to operate seamlessly on limited capital investment and 132,000 sq ft of office and shared-amenity space to provide serious entrepreneurs flexible space to grow and network. Through Venture Café, CIC Philadelphia collaborates with the University City Science Center to offer free educational programming for clients and the community each Thursday from 3-8 p.m.
“We’ve created a model across CIC that nurtures collaboration and growth and attracts investors seeking groundbreaking opportunities,” says Guzik. “As a native Pennsylvanian, I’m excited to continue to tailor this to Philadelphia to help our clients reach their potential, while also inspiring them to broaden their vision from the global to the local and collaborate creatively to solve some of the problems in the community we serve.”
Guzik Reps Philly at SXSW Today
Guzik joins five other Philadelphia innovation leaders helping to shape communities across neighborhoods and sectors at 2:30 p.m. Central time today at SXSW for a lightning talk entitled “Unique Spaces, Unique Communities.” The event takes place at Pour Choices, 401 E. 6th Street in Austin. Register. CIC Philadelphia is a sponsor of AmplifyPhilly at SXSW.
About CIC
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Cambridge, MA, CIC builds and operates innovation campuses. CIC and its family of affiliated organizations, including LabCentral and MassRobotics, provide innovators with high-end science and technology shared infrastructure including offices, biotech laboratories, and robotics development centers.
Venture Cafe, CIC’s global network of nonprofit innovation ecosystem-building organizations, has hosted over a quarter million people in its programs across six cities on three continents.
CIC has supported nearly 5,000 startup companies since inception, with publicly announced transactions worth a combined $10 billion in venture capital investment and M&A exit value. A number of top-flight technology companies, including Apple, Google (Android), Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Shell, Hubspot, and Boeing have located key initiatives within CIC’s campuses.
CIC also houses innovation globalization programs for more than a dozen governments including the Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Canada, and China.
