A native son with an impressive business background has been tapped to head up Tooele County’s new small business resource center, which opened it’s doors last week.

Glen Lowry, 62, grew up in Tooele and graduated from Tooele High School in 1965. He has a bachelors degree in computer science and a masters in business administration, accounting and finance, but his professional credentials far outstrip his academic accomplishments. He was a co-founder of Boise, Idaho-based computer chip maker Micron Technology, where he served as general manager from 1980 to 1981. He also founded several other businesses including Alta Technology, a computer consulting company with government, aerospace, communications customers, and Linux Networx, a company that designs and builds super computers — both Sandy-based companies. Lowry also has 17 years experience working for Hewlett-Packard Company as a software engineer, project manager, IT manager, and sales manager.

“I retired and moved back to Tooele about three years ago,” Lowry said. “Then I heard about this job and it looked like a wonderful way to give back to Tooele.”

According to Tooele County economic development director Nicole Cline, the new center is an idea whose time has come.

“We want to help people create new small businesses as well as help existing Tooele County businesses to grow,” Cline said. “Almost 90 percent of new businesses fail in the first five years — not because the business was a bad idea, but often because the business owner needed to know more about running a business.”A funding package of $76,000 in grants from the USDA Rural Enterprises program, the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, American Express, and Wells Fargo, along with facilities provided by the county, have made the long-awaited center a reality, Cline said.

“Lowry will be the manager of the center and provide counseling to clients as well as teaching some classes for businesses,” Cline said.

The resource center is part of the Tooele County Economic Development Office and is operated in collaboration with Salt Lake Community College. The center is also working with the Miller Campus of Salt Lake Community College, which operates a small business development center on its Sandy campus.

Lowry hopes to eventually be working with 80 to 100 local small businesses. Currently the resource center offers confidential business counseling and is working on putting together a series of seminars that will cover topics of interest to the small business owner.

Aside from his personal experience, Lowry offers access to a variety of resources from the Tooele County and State Economic Development agencies, the federal Small Business Administration, the USDA Rural Development office, as well as Salt lake Community College and the Tooele Applied Technology Center.

“Somebody with an idea for a new business can come down and I can help them learn what they need to do to start up their business,” Lowry said.

Existing businesses can take advantage of the resource center to learn how to expand their business or organize things to make it operate smoothly, Lowry said.

“We wanted the center to help both new and existing businesses to grow,” said Colleen Johnson, Tooele County Commission chair. “Glen’s background with startup businesses will be helpful.”

The business resource center is located in the basement of the Tooele County building and is open Monday through Thursday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. by appointment.

Lowry said he welcomes drop-ins or he can be reached at 843-3129.

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com