Fall Issue 2025
From The Publisher
SILICON DESERT + REGION’S TECH-DRIVEN CLUSTERS
Six years ago, Calline Sanchez looked around Tucson’s tech landscape and liked what she saw. IBM’s VP of Technology Services Competitive Strategy saw so much progress and potential for more that she called the region a “Silicon Desert.”
“Tucson is actively developing an ecosystem that welcomes and supports technology companies,” she said. “As much as Santa Clara and San Jose are the heart of the Silicon Valley, Tucson is a geo-rival for technology breakthroughs. With companies like IBM, local technology clusters and support organizations, the Silicon Desert is here, it is growing, and it is making a difference.”
Journalists Rodney Campbell and Tara Kirkpatrick set the tone for our focus on the region’s tech-driven sectors, providing good context for the entire state as well. “With deference to Phoenix, an accelerating center for the semiconductor industry and data center development, Southern Arizona is becoming a bigger player. This region, which has long valued innovation, continues to cultivate a tech-supportive legacy,” they write.
Consider the competitive University of Arizona and its commercialization engine and Pima Community College for its commitment to tech talent. Industry kingpins Raytheon, Roche Tissue Diagnostics, IBM, Texas Instruments, Caterpillar and Hexagon Mining have all established and expanded operations here to reinforce a Silicon Desert.
It’s an exciting time for the region, as IBM recently renewed its commitment to Southern Arizona with a 15-year lease at UA Tech Park. Texas Instruments also expanded its presence with an $11.6 million purchase of a landmark office building in Williams Centre.
Tucson also has a rich tech history. In 2000, Texas Instruments acquired homegrown success story Burr-Brown for $7.6 billion, in an all-stock deal. Founder Thomas R. Brown, who launched Burr-Brown on the potential of transistors out of his garage in 1956, is arguably the “father” of our tech sector. Likewise, Dr. Thomas Grogan, a UA pathologist, is that for biotech, founding Ventana Medical Systems in 1985, as a global pioneer in cancer tissue diagnostics. Swiss drug giant Roche acquired VMS in 2008 for $3.8 billion and it became Roche Tissue Diagnostics, still thriving in Oro Valley for the past four decades.
We include updates from the tech-driven clusters of Biotech, Aerospace & Defense, Mining & Surface Technology and Optics & Photonics. Our team reports on UA innovations, PCC workforce development, Tech Launch Arizona, Tech Parks Arizona, our adaptive Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, successful tech ventures and promising startups.
This issue features two Special Reports. One focuses on El Rio Health at 55: Building a Health Home for Life. Journalist Loni Nannini files a compelling package. “Having your health home at El Rio Health is a patient-centered, team-based model of care that supports every stage of life,” said Clinton Kuntz, DBH, CEO of El Rio Health, which has 15 health centers throughout Tucson.
Our other report profiles UA’s Eller College of Management. It’s fitting that one of the lead stories by journalist Dave Perry is titled “The Eller Effect,” an apt phrase that underscores the college’s innovative graduate business education. Eller certainly has the academic reputation; it’s Management Information Systems is once again rated among the top three best public university offerings of its kind by U.S. News & World Report.
Also in this issue, BizTucson highlights the change of command at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base as well as the positive impact Snoop Dogg’s sponsorship on the Arizona Bowl, and much more.
As always, we are grateful for our loyal readers, our advertisers and our team, committed to exceptional journalism, along with innovative design and photography.
Steven E. Rosenberg
Publisher & Owner
BizTucson
