FORT WORTH, Texas –Darlene M. Ryan, executive director of TECH Fort Worth, a nonprofit technology incubator, has been elected as Secretary of the Board of Directors of the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA).

The NBIA is an international organization that advances business incubation and entrepreneurship. It provides incubator professionals with information, education, advocacy and networking resources to bring excellence to the process of assisting early-stage companies.

TECH Fort Worth is a nonprofit business incubator that helps companies commercialize their technologies, with particular emphasis on technologies that have a potentially major impact in the areas of the environment, health and community.

As executive director, Ryan offers guidance and assistance to TECH Fort Worth clients, notably in the areas of raising bank financing and private equity, applying for patents and growing their businesses.

Ryan was founder and CEO of PharmaFab, a pharmaceutical manufacturing and technology company in Grand Prairie, Texas, from 1994 to 2006. PharmaFab was on the Inc 500 list of the fastest-growing, private companies in America three consecutive years and on the Dallas 100 list five consecutive years. She helped grow revenues there to $28 million in 10 years.

Previously, Ryan was a partner with Arthur Andersen, a worldwide accounting firm, working in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles and San Diego during her 18-year tenure.  Ryan was one of the firm’s first female partners and a trailblazer as an entrepreneur within the firm.

Ryan was named the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences for North Texas, a 2004 Leading Woman Entrepreneur of the World, and a 2003 Healthcare Hero by the Fort Worth Business Press.

Ryan graduated from DePauw with a B.A. and a double major in mathematics and German.  She also holds an M.B.A. in accounting and finance and a minor in marketing from the University of Chicago, and is a Certified Public Accountant.  In addition to being a frequent guest lecturer at the University of North Texas, Texas Christian University and the University of Texas at Arlington, Ryan is an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas.

TECH Fort Worth is a nonprofit technology incubator, with offices at the James E. Guinn Complex in Fort Worth South and at the UNT Health Science Center’s Center for BioHealth.  Its mission is to mentor technology-driven companies to help them become valuable members of Fort Worth’s economic base. For more information, go to www.techfortworth.org.