Update: This version of the story contains comments from individuals in the business community.

Jim Roberts, executive director of UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, has left the university, officials said Thursday morning.

No details were forthcoming from University of North Carolina Wilmington except for a statement released through spokeswoman Janine Iamunno: "UNCW thanks Jim Roberts for his leadership of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which concluded today (March 26, 2015), and wishes him the best of luck in his future endeavors."

Iamunno also said, in an email Thursday, that there is no news regarding a possible interim director for the center.

Calls to Roberts and to Ron Vetter, associate provost of research and dean of UNCW’s graduate school who oversees the CIE, were not immediately returned.

Roberts was hired as CIE's head in May of 2013. He oversaw the center’s move off campus to its current quarters at 803 S. College Road, which took place in early September of that year. The center is a resource for startups and entrepreneurs, offering coaching, programs and office space for early stage businesses.

"We look forward to continuing to work with the CIE, which is very important to this community," said Connie Majure-Rhett, president and CEO of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, Thursday morning. "We appreciate the opportunities that the CIE provides entrepreneurs in our community and will continue to support it."

Majure-Rhett said that the center has helped develop an important segment of the business community. "It's good to have this focus on entrepreneurship," she added.

Jeff Guard, founder of WhittleData, a CIE tenant company, said Roberts' departure is "not good news."

"I'm pretty disappointed to hear it," Guard said. "If Jim were to go somewhere else in Wilmington, I would follow him."

Roberts, who had held similar positions in other North Carolina metro areas before coming to Wilmington, is well known in the entrepreneurship community statewide.

"I can speak from personal experience: Wilmington's technology and entrepreneurial communities as well as the University had no more committed spokes person or advocate than Jim," WRAL TechWire (WTW) editor and co-founder Rick Smith said in an email Thursday. "I always received story ideas from him. He volunteered to write blogs for WTW, including two from South by Southwest. And he would work to arrange coverage of UNCW events so we could have stories about what was happening in 'Silicon Beach.'

"Jim was tireless in putting together events and bringing speakers to Wilmington to help inspire entrepreneurs. I can only wish him the best. The same holds true for the University and CIE."

The investor community in Wilmington was also a fan of Roberts, according to Dallas Romanowski, managing partner of Cornerstone Business Advisors and fund manager of Inception Micro Angel Fund Cape Fear.

"He's done a ton for entrepreneurs and has been a resource for us," Romanowski said Thursday. "He knows what investors are looking for and has screened startups to prevent those that weren't ready from pitching to investors.

"From my perspective, it's a loss. He was the best PR person we've had for the entrepreneurship community. He was a true advocate for entrepreneurship in this area." 

Jazmin Capezza of Wired Wizards -- a tenant of the CIE since its opening -- said CIE occupants will miss Roberts, but she feels optimistic about the center's future.

"Jim did a lot to get [the center] off the ground," Capezza said Thursday. "But Dr. Vetter really cares about the tenants and the purposes of the CIE. I am positive he will make sure that there is as seamless a transition as possible in this situation."

In September, the CIE was named one of 50 incubators and accelerators nationally to win the U.S. Small Business Adminsitration’s first Growth Accelerator Fund competition. The award carried a cash prize of $50,000 from the SBA. The purpose of the competition, SBA officials said at the time, was to “draw attention and funding to parts of the country where there are gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

UNCW officials also stated Thursday morning that a CIE event planned for 4 p.m. Thursday will go ahead as scheduled. The program, Building a successful product and innovation based company in North Carolina, features Aly Khalifa, Founder of Gamila Products/Design Box.