Knit-Rite Inc. and Cascade Orthopedic Supply Inc. each announced via respective company press releases that Knit-Rite's distribution business has been sold to Cascade Orthopedic Supply Inc.

"For decades Knit-Rite has served the O&P profession in two businesses, with both our manufactured textile products, and as a broad line distributor. By focusing on our textile manufacturing business we will continue to respond to evolving clinical needs and advance textile solutions that promote mobility, protection and comfort. We look forward to continuing to support practitioners in helping patients achieve the best quality of life possible," Mark Smith, CP, president and chief executive officer of Knit-Rite, stated in a Knit-Rite press release. "Knit-Rite will continue to provide a complete selection of effective product solutions."

Jeff Collins of Cascade Orthopedic Supply

From the Cascade release, Jeff Collins, president and chief financial officer of Cascade, stated: "We extend a warm welcome to Knit-Rite distribution customers to Cascade. With expanded operations in California, Pennsylvania and a new distribution center facility now open in Texas, we are well positioned geographically with expanded inventory positions to provide excellent service to these customers. By retaining highly trained and knowledgeable customer service and sales staff from Knit-Rite, the transition to Cascade will be made as seamless as possible."

Cascade Orthopedic Supply and Jeff Collins were honored at the 2009 CEPCO Excellence in Business Awards (Jeff seen accepting his award at left) with the Excellence in Job Creation Award.  Cascade Orthopedic Supply is one of Chico's most vibrant and growing companies, making it's name by providing prosthetic limbs to wounded US soldiers.  Cascade Orthopedic is a member of the CEPCO Tech Group.

CEPCO has been an advocate for job creation for over twenty five years. As we start our second quarter century, our focus is collaboration, principally, collaboration between the private sector, government and education. Government can't create wealth. Government can not spend a dollar that it first does not take from the private sector. Government, however, can be a powerful force in expanding prosperity. Our interstate highway system and, more locally, Oroville Dam are examples of government providing infrastructure that enables the private sector to be more productive and successful. No private sector enterprise could accomplish these types of projects. The scale is too great, the benefits too complex to be addressed in a pro forma and the payback too long for impatient stockholders.

Education is the third leg of the economic collaboration stool. Education makes us a more knowledgeable and more adaptable workforce. Our educational institutions are also wonderful laboratories in which students and faculty develop new technologies with commercial applications that lead to new companies providing well paying jobs. We are fortunate to have representatives from a number of companies whose genesis came from within our local educational institutions with us tonight.

Cut any of the three legs off the stool and the stool falls over. CEPCO's mission in these tough economic times is to be an advocate for business and collaboration and we are doing just that. Our Talent Mobilization Task Force, for made up of the diverse group of individuals (slide of task force members up on screen at this point) from all three legs of our economic stool continue to work to identify ways to train, retain and attract the emerging workforce we need for a second industrial revolution.

CEPCO is proud to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of a number of organizations and individuals. I think you will see successful collaborations as a reoccurring theme in our honorees, and in future endeavors CEPCO will strive to support in our community.

It was a great evening to celebrate Excellence in Business at the 26^th Annual CEPCO Excellence in Business Awards event on October 28th. I particularly like the recognition of Education and the role our system plays in training the Emerging Workforce so necessary for business growth.

One of my favorite authors is Richard Florida, who has written a number of books....my favorite is the Rise of the Creative Class. He also does a great job of discussing the role of community and University in developing strategies to accommodate creative talent.

CEPCO president/CEO Bob Linscheid

So why is this possibly important for Chico? In 2007, CEPCO facilitated a meeting with the companies in Chico that were growing and we wanted to discover their greatest challenges..... By far TALENT was identified as the greatest challenge.  From there CEPCO created the Tech Group made up of companies that rely on the emerging workforce that includes, Computer Science, Technology, and other creatives including Engineering. Even last year when the economy was poor, this employment sector grew by almost 20%.

During our first Job Fair at Chico State in 2008 we had 76 graduating seniors in Computer Science sequestered in a room for presentations from our web 2.0 companies. Less than 10 % of those attending had any clue that we had local firms such at SunGard, Landacorp, Auctiva, Travidia and Improvement Direct now Build.com in Chico.Twelve (12) months later 80% of the graduating seniors knew about the companies. And of the students that had summer internships, 50% were hired full-time upon graduation. Our firms have told us they also need more experienced employees from the outside of Chico in order to satisfy their talent needs. Thus the COME HOME TO CHICO campaign was created in partnership with the City of Chico. CEPCO's initial mission was to serve as a lead agency for business attraction which basically relocates firms from outside the area. While I won't say we need to abandon that role, our primary role now needs to focus on Innovation.

Innovation- which is defined as Ideas that lead to a favorable economic outcome. The merging of the ideas people (creatives) with business development (commercialization) is rooted in CEPCO's collaboration with Chico State.  Who knew that a University professor could commercialize a fund accounting software? Bitech became Sungard.  Who knew that a Chico State computer science graduate could develop a program to help expedite the eBay listing process? Auctiva, aquired by alibaba.com.  Who knew that a Chico State student could develop a business model to sell plumbing supplies on the Internet? Improvement Direct became Build.com. The Commercialization of Ideas is essential to economic growth in our region. Help us with our role in bringing resources from outside of Chico. Recently we've had discussions with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory about partnerships and joint appointments with CSU institutions around California.

Innovation is the only strategy that will yield a significant return in the creation of jobs and improve our economy. CEPCO is pleased to play a role with the iHub and Innovation Lab that includes Golden Capital, NoRTEC, City of Chico and of course several colleges at Chico State. If you'd like to play a role, please contact me by calling 895-1202 or emailing Bob Linscheid.

California State University, Chico's Department of Computer Science has had its Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems program accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the first such program to be accredited on the West Coast.

In addition, the department's other program, the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (CSCI), was reaccredited by ABET. The computer science program has held continuous accreditation since 1987.

The Computer Information Systems (CINS) program combines a foundation in the computing sciences with a minor in business administration to prepare students for work in commercial environments.

CSU, Chico's Department of Computer Science is the oldest in the CSU system and one of the first in the CSU to be accredited by ABET. The department currently has 235 students who are majors in its programs.

"The Department of Computer Science has once again demonstrated that it is one of the premier departments in the CSU and in the Western U.S.," said Professor Moaty Fayek, chair of the department. "This is why companies like Hewlett Packard, IBM, Chevron, Workday and Cisco prefer to hire CSCI and CINS graduates from Chico State."

Fayek said CSU, Chico's CINS program is one of a small but growing number of similar programs that are receiving accreditation in the country.

Founded in 1932 as the Engineers' Council for Professional Development, ABET now accredits some 2,900 programs at more than 600 colleges and universities nationwide.