Patti Breedlove directs the Sid Martin Incubator in Progress Corporate Park. She was made director this year while the incubator continues to gain international recognition.

ALACHUA - When Patti Breedlove started working at the Sid Martin Biotech Incubator in 1998 as a program coordinator, her first task was to throw a party for the first two companies who were "graduating" out of the incubator from startup companies to self-sufficient businesses. A lot has changed since then.

Breedlove, 65, is now the director of the Sid Martin Biotech Incubator in Progress Corporate Park in the city of Alachua. She is responsible for executing the overall vision of the incubator, which is to help small, fledgling companies in the biotechnology field grow. It provides these companies with space, equipment, mentoring and whatever else they might need, Breedlove said.

"She's not just a landlord, that's for sure," said Jackson Streeter, CEO of Banyan Biomarkers, a resident biotech firm at the incubator.

"She's extremely proactive," he said. Breedlove helps the companies recruit people to fill positions, arranges facility tours and spends time to get an understanding of what issues the businesses face and how she can help.

"She has a big network that she can reach out to," Streeter said, noting how she has helped Banyan search for investors.

Her schedule for a typical week might include making phone calls to try and improve the scientific equipment in the incubator, having lunch with real estate agents to help the biotech companies find land for facilities, meeting with representatives from marketing firms and giving tours to the Gainesville Chamber of Commerce.

Part of her job is forming a strategic vision for the incubator, but another part is being its external face and being an advocate, Breedlove said.

"Patti is such an outgoing, positive advocate of life sciences in the region," said Sue Washer, CEO of graduate company AGTC, which researches cures for rare lung and eye diseases.

As the face of the Sid Martin Biotech Incubator, Breedlove, who was only made the director this year, has recently seen some recognition for the success of her facility. It was ranked as the world's best biotech incubator by the Sweden-based research group, UBI.

"For a long time, we had no recognition," Breedlove said. "We're thrilled. It's really put a spotlight on our program."

UBI found Breedlove's incubator creates 2.8 times more jobs than the global average, and that despite the fact that European incubators provide nine times as much funding, they create 1.9 times fewer jobs.

Even though she has done well with less funding than incubators in Europe, getting seed funding is still sometimes an issue for Breedlove, as well as finding more space for the facility.

Setting a good culture, hiring the right people and giving them the freedom to do their jobs has been key to do more with the funding they have, Breedlove said. She runs the incubator like a business, rather than have it function like a massive university.

Things are a lot different in Alachua than when Breedlove started.

"I've seen a lot of changes since I started here in 1998," she said. "This area has really grown up in terms of technology. There's a real high energy in Alachua County in trying to grow new biotech companies."

Breedlove said she hopes to continue to see the area develop like it has over the past 15 years.

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John Spence reads over 100 business books each year to help him teach people how to be effective managers and employees in their companies.

ALACHUA – Even though he's done it countless times, he still gets nervous when he has to speak in front of a crowd.

John Spence, 49, from Newberry, has been called a motivational speaker, but he prefers the term informational speaker. From his office in the city of Alachua, he runs a business that takes him to speak in front of employees of multinational companies and local businesses alike, lecturing them on teamwork, leadership, embracing change and creating a "culture of winning." He speaks to groups of many sizes, from large crowds, to small teams and mentors individual business owners.

"I'm sort of an introvert," Spence said. "I don't really like crowds, but I do like helping people."

He still gets emails from clients he spoke to over six years ago, thanking him and his company, Flycaster & Company, for saving their business.

When he was in his early 30s, John Spence worked for a consulting company called Sales Force Systems International. He was set to be the CEO, but things didn't work out that way.

Sales Force Systems International gives sales training and consulting to businesses all over the world. In order to prepare himself as a CEO, Spence began traveling with the instructors to places like China, Germany and Japan, watching them give classes to a corporate audience. He mainly sat in the back, but eventually, the instructors asked him to help teach. He was so good at it, the current CEO decided to make him an instructor instead of a successor. Spence was unhappy with the decision at first.

"I fought it for a while," he said. "I had no desire to be a speaker."

Two things changed his mind, Spence said. The first instance was when a client in New Zealand sent him to lecture employees of giant corporations. "That is when I learned I have enough information that I could truly help these big businesses with multibillion dollar deals." The second was when he started helping the Florida Recreation and Park Association train people to direct parks and recreation departments across the state. "That's when I realized I was truly helping people."

Soon, he found a passion for the work, spending nearly three years at that company, before going independent in 1994. Fortune 500 companies and Alachua-based businesses such as Dragonfly Sushi in Gainesville and the biomedical company InterMed have called Spence in for advice on how to manage their businesses.

"What makes me good at doing this is that I'm good at seeing patterns," he said. He looks for the things that have worked for companies in the past, and finds ways to apply them, he said.

Spence is an avid reader, consuming anywhere from 100 to 120 business books per year. "I'm a voracious collector of information," he said. He credits his ability to take in massive amounts of information and learn lessons from what he reads as a driving factor in his success, which includes being named one of the 100 "Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior 2013" by Trust Across America, which started in 2008 to "help enhance trustworthy behavior in organizations," according to its website.

The most rewarding thing for Spence is speaking to a crowd, knowing that their company will apply his ideas to improve their business, though from time to time upper management can sometimes be stubborn and refuse to acknowledge a problem, he said. It's all worth it for him when he gets emails from grateful clients, he added.

"It's nice to get paid, but there's no amount of money in the world that's worth somebody saying 'you saved my business'."

John Spence chose to base himself in Alachua County because he wanted the best of both rural and urban living, being able to drive home from Alachua to Newberry and see cows and fields, while also being able to visit museums in Gainesville. Even though he spends a good amount of time in his Alachua office answering calls from Shanghai and India and writing books, he also gets to go to faraway places like New Zealand, where he took a week off between lectures to go fly-fishing with his wife.    

"It's a way for us to enjoy seeing the world and get paid to do it."

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In May 2012, area residents surveyed the High Springs boat ramp at Santa Fe River, only to find much of the river was gone. The river rebounded weeks later, but the Suwannee River Water Management District remains concerned about its outlook.

ALACHUA – Ann Shortelle, executive director of the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), presented to the Alachua City Commission new scientific findings on Monday.

The presentation was based on the minimum flows and levels of the lower Santa Fe River and its priority spring as well as the Ichetucknee River and its priority springs.

Minimum flows and levels are the amount of water withdrawn without causing significant harm to the water sources, Shortelle said.

The SRWMD looks at environmental values to measure the flow, levels and any significant harm for each of the water bodies. For the Ichetucknee River and springs, it looks at recreation. For the lower Santa Fe River and springs, it looks at fish and wildlife habitats and passage of fish, said Steve Minnis, director of governmental affairs and communications for SRWMD.

Red flags rose in the lower Santa Fe River and springs when there was too much ground water withdrawn.

Ground water crosses through boundaries, so withdrawals in one district can and may affect the water body in another district, Minnis said.

This begins the recovery process.

Due to significant harm that was caused, the SRWMD has asked the North Florida Regional Water Supply Partnership Stakeholders Advisory Committee for input and has peer review meetings.

The Ichetucknee River and springs are under a prevention period. If nothing is resolved, then those water bodies will be in recovery as well.

The next committee meeting is Aug. 19 at 1 p.m. in the Wilson S. Rivers Library and Media Center, Building 200, Room 102 at Florida Gateway College in Lake City.

The committee meets once a month.

It is the primary place where they work on recovery and prevention, Shortelle said.

The upcoming peer review meeting dates are in the process of being set. People who wish to participate can sign up with “Notify Me” on the website for updates.

“Recovery strategies for lower Santa Fe River and priority springs will also benefit the prevention strategies for the Ichetucknee River and priority springs,” Minnis said.

The water management district will set the minimum flow and levels on the springs. They already have done so for the rivers.

SRWMD has asked the University of Florida Water Institute to review its science.

Shortelle described three main tools used in the plan.

The first is water conservation. It is the least cost alternative to recover or prevent significant harm to the river and springs.

Use less water.

“Every drop counts,” Shortelle said.

The second is regulatory tools. Strategies have not yet been developed. That will be part of the process from the public input meetings.

The same goes for the third—projects. The water management district and committees will be evaluating different projects. They are looking at traditional ways of getting more water into the system.

“It’s all of our jobs,” Shortelle said.

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ALACHUA – For the third time this year, the University of Florida Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator, located in Alachua, received top marks as an incubator. Sweden-based research group University Business Index (UBI) ranked the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator as the “World’s Best University Biotechnology Incubator” based on numerous criteria.

Conducted by UBI for the first time, the report was based on an extensive international study and analysis of 150 incubators across 22 countries.

“Being recognized as world’s top biotech incubator is especially gratifying because UBI’s rankings are data-driven,” said incubator director Patti Breedlove.

The assessment reviewed three general areas for each incubator including value for the “ecosystem” in which it operates, value for the client startups and attractiveness.

Within that framework, UBI assessed more than 50 performance indicators including economy enhancement, talent retention, access to funding, post-incubation relationships and internal environment.

“They asked for more information than I’ve ever been asked in a statistical ranking survey,” said Breedlove, noting how extensive the review was.

According to a University of Florida review of the full UBI assessment, the report found that European incubators perform substantially lower than U.S. programs, despite spending more on operations and client seed funding.

The report also reveals that European incubators provide their clients nine times as much seed funding but create 1.9 times fewer jobs and 2.8 times lower revenue per client per year.

Top incubators, like UF Sid Martin Biotech, create 2.8 times more jobs than the global average, according to the study.

“We couldn’t be more proud of the talented team at the Sid Martin Biotech Incubator. With their help, UF is producing an outstanding crop of bioscience companies,” said David L. Day, director of UF’s Office of Technology Licensing.

Breedlove also credits her team saying, “The group we have here is the best we’ve ever had,” said Breedlove. “They take a lot of pride in watching the companies grow and succeed.”

The Texas-based Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship was named top global incubator overall. Other top incubators by sector were Ireland’s NDR Launchpad (information technology), and New York’s UB Technology (life sciences).

The Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator was ranked by National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) as the 2013 Incubator of the Year. NBIA also ranked Sid Martin Biotech as the top technology incubator earlier this year.

In 2007, Sid Martin Biotech was first runner-up for NBIA’s Incubator of the Year award.

Built in 1995, UF Sid Martin Biotech is one of the U.S.’s first bio-business incubators. The 40,000-square-foot bioscience complex is located at Progress Corporate Park in Alachua. The incubator’s companies and graduates have attracted more than $1 billion in equity investment, contracts, grants, and merger and acquisition activity.

University of Florida News Desk Writer Nathalie McCrate contributed to this story.

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