The City of Cullman took a step toward bolstering an already-robust slate of in-house economic recruitment and pro-business tools Monday, officially putting a leader in charge of a newly-created department designed to do for technology what local efforts have long been doing for industry.

The Cullman City Council unanimously approved the hiring of John Wessel to oversee the city’s new Technology Village Cullman (TVC), a department created in conjunction with the Cullman Economic Development Agency (CEDA). Wessel comes to Cullman from Piedmont Ray Associates in Huntsville, where for the past three years he has served as CEO for the management consulting and executive coaching firm.

Wessel, who begins in his new position today, said the new department will serve future and existing businesses whose products or services engage technology in ways ranging from the simple to the sophisticated.

“It’s designed to be a startup resource center for companies with technology-based platforms in this area,” he explained. “We will encourage them to come to this area to get the funding that they need; to get the patent support that they need — all the things they need to get off the ground, and then, hopefully, stay in the area and provide jobs and make a local economic impact.”

Cullman may be a small town with a local economy that covers a diversity of economic drivers both agricultural and industrial, but as technology increasingly integrates into more facets of doing business — as well as operating as a business in its own right — local leaders have recognized an opportunity to diversify still further.

CEDA Director Dale Greer said the new department, which for now consists solely of Wessel, represents a logical evolution of the kind of recruitment tools for which the city already has received national notoriety.

“We’ve been doing economic development forever, but we’ve recruited new industry and then supported the existing industry,” Greer said. “To me, this is just the third leg. It’s a way to help startup ideas here — and I just think there’s a great potential here for it.

What kind of businesses might be attracted by the kind of assistance that the Technology Village intends to cultivate?

“It could be a software company or a company that uses social media to share best practices,” Wessel explained. “We’ve seen, in some cases, just a simple mechanical solution to an ongoing problem. A lot of the things we can help do are things that may be just simple solutions to everyday problems; meeting unmet needs in the marketplace with a technology base, or taking a sciences approach.”

Mayor Woody Jacobs said he’s optimistic that Wessel — and the technolgy village — will help further position the city, and the area, to build on its recruitment track record as the greater economy continues to change to adapt, rely on, and produce goods and services in the tech sector.

“I believe Cullman is going to set the standard for entrepreneurial incubators in the State of Alabama,” he said in a statement accompanying Wessel’s introduction. “We have been successful in economic development, in recruiting new industry, and in expanding existing industry. TVC is just adding another piece to that puzzle.”

The Technology Village will be housed in a new, purpose-built office addition to the economic development building on First Avenue.