SSTI Digest

According to the latest stats on venture capital investments, half of all U.S. VC investment during the last quarter of 2006 supported companies in two small areas of the country: Silicon Valley and New England (primarily the Boston metro area). With the exception of only a handful of other large metro areas and, since the origin of the modern venture capital industry some 25 years ago, most other cities have struggled to attract the attention of venture capitalists. This struggle can be especially difficult for the nation’s secondary cities – cities that do not rank among the 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas. According to the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), these cities receive only 13 percent of all venture capital deals and only 20 percent of total investment dollars. Though these cities account for approximately half of the U.S. population and U.S. business establishments, they have not experienced a proportional benefit from the venture capital revolution.

It is the opening day of AUTM’s 2007 annual conference in San Francisco, the largest gathering ever of individuals from around the world interested in university technology transfer. Academe’s role in helping to commercialize technology has been under attack during the past few years by multinationals complaining institutions are too difficult to work with, by those who think Bayh-Dole needs to be tweaked and by others within academia who believe the university’s fundamental mission and culture is compromised by increased partnerships with industry.

It is then quite timely that a small roundtable of some of America’s most successful universities at turning their faculty and student research into revenue streams for the institutions released a brief white paper outlining nine guiding principles or ideals for all university technology transfer offices to consider while pursing their common goal of helping the private sector to commercialize academic research results.

A gala held last weekend at Google headquarters in California officially kicked off a $50 million fundraising campaign for the X Prize Foundation, which provides funds for the development of new prizes. The prizes are designed to support breakthroughs for specific challenges in medicine, energy production and consumption, education, and transportation.

Big-money, high-profile awards have been used to encourage innovation for centuries, but a new array of these prizes is rapidly advancing entrepreneurship opportunities and philanthropic causes.

Some of the awards announced in the past six months include:

Membership in SSTI allows access to the most extensive network of current and past practitioners, academics and policymakers who are attempting to speed commercialization and encourage innovation.

Joining SSTI places your organization with today’s TBED leaders. SSTI connects you to active members in 46 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, enabling you to share experiences and best practices with your peers from across the continent.

Thomas Drury has been named CEO of the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University.

Chris Engle, former vice president of Angelou Economics, has joined New Economy Strategies as chief project officer and principal.

BioStrategy Partners (BioSP) selected Dr. Karen Hanson as its new executive director, replacing Carolyn D'Arville, who stepped down to devote more time to young BioSP companies.

Dean Lewis was named interim president and CEO of the Science Center. Lewis replaces Pradip Banerjee, who left in January.

Thomas Drury has been named CEO of the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University.

Chris Engle, former vice president of Angelou Economics, has joined New Economy Strategies as chief project officer and principal.

BioStrategy Partners (BioSP) selected Dr. Karen Hanson as its new executive director, replacing Carolyn D'Arville, who stepped down to devote more time to young BioSP companies.

Dean Lewis was named interim president and CEO of the Science Center. Lewis replaces Pradip Banerjee, who left in January.

Aris Melissaratos is the new special adviser to the president for enterprise development at the Johns Hopkins University. The position was created for Melissaratos following his departure as secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

The Maryland Technology Development Corp. has appointed Renée Winsky as its new executive director.

It is the nation’s first Entrepreneurship Week, with many events, workshops and contests taking place across the country to encourage more people to consider becoming entrepreneurs. A complete list of activities is available at www.entrepreneurshipweekusa.com. With this issue, SSTI honors America’s tech entrepreneurs – and the state and local TBED efforts designed to ensure more of these firms succeed!