ST. CROIX — After being hired to take the University of the Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park to the “next level in growth and development,” Peter Chapman will conclude his duties as the RTPark’s third executive director after six years on the job when his contract expires on August 31 because the board of directors voted not to extend it, according to the board chair.
“There is nothing unusual about a board going in a new direction at anytime since the board sets policy,” Edward Thomas Sr., RTPark board chair, said in a text. “As a matter of fact, this decision not to extend a new contract to the current executive director is the third one since I have been board chair.”
David Zumwalt served as the RTPark’s first executive director for nine years from November 2005 to December 2014. Gillian Marcelle, whose term as the RTPark’s executive director started January 5, 2015, moved into the private sector at the conclusion of her three-year contract. Chapman assumed the role of the RTPark’s executive director on September 5, 2018.
The board chair clarified the board is not dismissing Chapman from his job, noting his contract is expiring.
“The appropriate clauses in the contract signed by the executive director note that only the board can determine if it will extend or not extend a new contract,” Thomas said in a text.
The board must notify the executive director at least six months before the expiration of the existing contract of its determination, Thomas said. He said the board did so following an executive board meeting held on February 24, during which he noted a quorum was established, an appropriate and relevant motion was made, and votes were cast.
In addition to Thomas, the other RTPark board members are UVI President David Hall, Henry Smock, Shirley Lake-King, Ian Tomlinson, and William DeLone.
The board initially hired Chapman to grow the RTPark following an intensive international executive search by The PACE Group, an executive search firm specializing in economic development, city managers, manufacturing, and nonprofit organizations.
“Mr. Chapman was a clear choice to take the RTPark to the next level in growth and development,” Thomas said in a statement the RTPark issued August 31, 2018 after naming Chapman as executive director. “His national and international experience, knowledge of economic and community development, and his ability to manage and lead were the reasons we selected him from several great candidates.”
A New York City native with family ties to the Caribbean, Chapman joined the RTPark after serving as executive vice president for Business Development at the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, where he led the execution of a sector-based strategy to encourage larger domestic and foreign companies to locate and expand operations in Detroit. He came to the RTPark with more than 20 years of executive leadership experience in several other U.S. markets, including Boston, Denver, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee.
Chapman said in the RTPark’s August 31, 2018 statement that he was truly honored to have been selected to serve as the RTPark’s executive director.
“The RTP is a unique and vitally important institutional mechanism for attracting investment to the Virgin Islands, and I am excited about working collaboratively with the board, the leadership of UVI, and other key stakeholders to advance the economic growth of the territory,” he stated.
During his time leading the RTPark, Chapman moved ahead a new strategic framework for the park that the board approved in October 2018. As a rapidly growing economic development program concentrating on attracting information technology and knowledge-based businesses to the territory, the RTPark assumed a more targeted sector focus after Chapman became executive director.
Founded by legislative mandate in 2002 as an economic development organization, the RTPark launched an annual startup accelerator in 2019 known as Accelerate VI, a 12-week program designed to further the development and growth of early-stage technology ventures. In 2021, the RTPark successfully launched the Virgin Islands STEM Talent Archive (VISTA+) to expand workforce development, and the Virgin Islands Catalyst Fund to provide capital financing with an initial investment by the Legislature of $5 million. The RTPark also conducted a youth coding program in 2021 called VI STEM Kids. The RTPark rezoned property in 2022 in preparation to break ground on the Tech Village, the park’s first major real estate development project.
“We’ve expanded into new sectors, including agriculture and sustainability innovation, the creative economy, as well as health care and life sciences, and we are especially excited about the potential of Tech Village, our mixed-use hub for agriculture technology and research, to drive growth and development in the region,” Chapman said in a statement issued April 30, 2023 announcing the RTPark’s 2022 annual report.
After leading the RTPark throughout the past five-and-a-half years, Chapman will work with the park during the next five months as the board takes the entity in a new direction.
Thomas said the board will decide shortly whether it will institute a search for a new executive director, noting there is no need to appoint an acting executive director.
“The current employment agreement requires the executive director to continue to fulfill his duties and further to work with the board to ensure a smooth transition of his duties through the end of the contractual period, which ends on August 31,” Thomas said in a text.
