Karen Fite

Karen Fite

 

Karen Fite

Interim Vice President and Executive Director, Enterprise Innovation Institute

karen.fite@innovate.gatech.edu / 404-385-1492

As interim vice president, Fite leads a 12-program organization and 160-member staff who operate a statewide network of assistance to Georgia. EI² is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive university-based program of business and industry assistance, technology commercialization, and economic development.

With more than 26 years of economic development experience at Tech, she brings an enormous wealth of expertise and critical understanding to economic development and how to connect businesses, manufacturers, and communities to Georgia Tech’s vast innovation and technology resources to elevate their competitive position and economic impact.

A globally recognized and award-winning model for university-based economic development, EI2serves Georgia manufacturers through the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP), EI2’s largest economic development offering. It also supports commercialization of Georgia Tech faculty research via its VentureLab offering. EI2’s Economic Development Lab program is tapped across the state, nationally, and internationally to help communities and organizations innovate in business incubation and commercialization, strategic planning, and economic sustainability.

Other programs include assisting in the growth and development of technology startups in Georgia through the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC), serving minority-owned businesses, and advising companies across the Southeast that have been affected by foreign trade.

Fite, who was previously EI²’s associate vice president and former GaMEP director, also is director of its Business & Industry Services group of programs.

Her earlier experience includes the application of industrial and management engineering, employee involvement, and business principles.

She has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Miami and a bachelor’s in health systems from Georgia Tech. In 2018, she achieved the faculty rank of principal extension professional, the Georgia Tech’s highest professional extension faculty rank.