NC BioImpact was originally a $76 million Golden LEAF grant-funded initiative called the Biomanufacturing and Pharmaceutical Training Consortium, or BPTC.  The consortium comprised industry, the NC University System (UNC), and the NC Community College System BioNetwork.  Other partners included the NC Biotech Center, and the NC Department of Commerce.  Its goal was to develop the infrastructure and programs to provide the specialized workforce for North Carolina's biotech industry.  The principal at Coherent Marketing led BioNetwork's marketing and recruitment, growing student recruitment in life sciences programs from several hundred a year to several thousand.  He also chaired the BPTC's marketing committee which developed a strategy to market the state's life sciences workforce programs as a way to give companies locating in North Carolina a strategic competitive advantage.   

In his role as committee chair, Norman Smit led the group through its rebranding of the awkwardly-named BPTC to NC BioImpact and laid the groundwork for the successful positioning of the industry-led workforce development initiative.  During his tenure as chairman of the marketing committee, the state attracted more than a billion dollars in new investments and expansions in the biomanufacturing and biopharmaceutical industry.  Projects which the committee accomplished included BIO International marketing and advertising, rebranding, logo development, initiation of the new website (seen above), working with media visits to North Carolina, developing partnerships with the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and others.