More than half the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation board members who are now scrambling to save 38 Studios backed the $75 million loan guarantee for the company less than two years ago.

Seven of the 13 board members who took their seats during the Carcieri administration supported the former governor and his EDC executive director, Keith Stokes, when they proposed committing 60% of the loan resources in the new Job Creation Guaranty Program to Curt Schilling’s video game company.

The seven EDC directors currently serving who approved the 38 Studios deal are:

• Timothy Babineau, president and CEO of Rhode Island Hospital;
• David Dooley, president of the University of Rhode Island;
• Stephen Lane, chairman and chief venture officer of medical device firm Ximedica;
• George Nee, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO;
• J.L. “Lynn” Singleton, president of the Providence Performing Arts Center;
• Cheryl Watkins Snead, president and CEO of supply-chain manager Banneker Industries;
• and Dan Sullivan Jr., president and CEO of Collette Vacations.

Babineau missed the meeting and could not cast a vote, but he submitted a statement saying: “I believe that the time is now for Rhode Island and the EDC to take bold and decisive action to demonstrate its commitment to our knowledge economy. … 38 Studios presents such an opportunity. Hopefully it will be the first of many to come.”

An eighth EDC board holdover from the Carcieri administration – Karl Wadensten, president of industrial vibrator manufacturer VIBCO – was the only director who voted against approving the 38 Studios deal in 2010. The Senate voted to confirm them and Stokes in February 2010 in the wake of a critical report on the agency.

The directors serve staggered terms, with Dooley, Singleton and Snead appointed through February 2013 and Lane and Wadensten appointed through February 2014. The terms of Babineau, Nee and Sullivan expired last February, but Governor Chafee hasn’t nominated successors so they remain in place.

The Job Creation Guaranty Program authorizes the EDC board to approve up to $125 million in loan guarantees for companies with intangible assets. It now has $44.5 million available after the board approved guarantees for 38 Studios, NuLabel Technologies and The Corporate Marketplace, a spokeswoman said.

• Related: No hard feelings toward Chafee from EDC board (Nov. 3, 2010)

An earlier version of this story said Timothy Babineau voted in favor of the 38 Studios deal; Babineau missed the meeting and did not cast a vote but did submit a statement expressing support for the deal.

(photo: Sean Daly/WPRI)