Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
Gordon Martin, the director of the Kennemer Center for Innovation and Social Impact in the University of Alabama Honors College, stands outside Innovation Depot in downtown Birmingham.
Despite recently retiring as an Alabama Power Company executive, Mountain Brook native Gordon Martin is continuing his longtime pattern of giving back to the community and mentoring young people.
These days, Martin serves as director of the Kennemer Center for Innovation and Social Impact at the University of Alabama.
Jim Kennemer, for whom the center is named, is an entrepreneur from Tuscumbia who created a financial processing machine that was widely used by Citibank and other financial institutions, Martin said. Kennemer also created the BIG Ideas program, sponsored by University of Alabama, that allows students to design products and concepts that combine innovation and social impact.
His recent $2 million donation to the university established the Kennemer Center.
“He’s done well while doing good,” Martin said.
While Martin said he didn’t know Kennemer personally, he was immediately interested in carrying the program forward as its new director.
“I had always been interested in higher education, and I had a great experience at the university. When this opportunity came up, I thought it was a good fit,” he said.
The BIG Ideas contest was piloted during the pandemic and expanded last year, Martin said. This year’s contest started in December and wrapped up this spring, with 19 student teams and 25 judges.
“One of the things we learned early on is that it’s tough to compete with football season, so we don’t do a full academic year — we do it in the spring,” he said. “You have an idea that has to have positive social impact. There are four tracks: Health and Wellness, Education and the Arts, Energy and Transportation and Technology. It’s led by Honors College students.”
The most recent competition included proposed ideas such as Get My Meds, a virtual pillbox to scan, log and track prescriptions; AgriAlert, which uses AI and satellite data to provide farmers with information about crop health, determining if there are any disease or pests affecting their crops; and VARA, which aims to address the gap of pediatric vision care in rural Alabama.
Most importantly, BIG Ideas is a team-based concept that promotes practical application. Students from all majors are not only allowed but encouraged to participate. Mentors, many retired from their own careers, guide the teams throughout the process.
“It’s interdisciplinary because we want to have a collaborative, real-world effect,” Martin said. “They submit a business plan and people review it and give feedback. Then, they are assigned a mentor.”
With the large number of university enrollees coming from all over the nation, the BIG Ideas program also aims to keep young talent in Alabama for the long term.
“A component of the Kennemer Center is ‘Study in Alabama, Stay in Alabama,’” Martin said. “Sixty percent of the kids at Alabama are from out-of-state, which is very different from when I was there.”
Martin credits his previous employer for allowing him the time to participate in civic and educational endeavors throughout his career.
“Our saying has always been, ‘If it’s good for Alabama, it’s good for Alabama Power,’” he said.
