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Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium (2013)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Appendix B

Biographies of Speakers
(as of April 2011)

W. A. “Bud” Baeslack III

William A. “Bud” Baeslack III was appointed Provost and Executive Vice President at Case Western Reserve University on October, 1, 2008, and is responsible for all facets of the academic programs and research of the University. He also holds an appointment as Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

Prior to joining CWRU, Baeslack served as the Dean of the College of Engineering and Executive Dean of the Professional Colleges at The Ohio State University. Baeslack began his academic career as an Assistant Professor at OSU in 1982. As an academic administrator at OSU from 1991 to 1999, he served as a Department Chair, Associate Dean for Research and College Development, Interim University Vice President for Research, and President of the OSU Research Foundation. From 1999 to 2004, Baeslack served as Dean of the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, during a period in which the Institute created and implemented its highly successful Rensselaer Plan. He returned to OSU in 2004.

Baeslack is internationally recognized for his research on the materials science and engineering aspects of joining advanced aerospace materials, including titanium, aluminum and nickel-base alloys, intermetallics and metalmatrix composites. He has received research funding from the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the Ohio Edison Program, national laboratories and industry. Baeslack and his students have authored over one hundred and fifty journal and proceedings articles. He has been elected a Fellow of ASM International, The Welding Institute and the American Welding Society. In 1989/90, Baeslack spent a sabbatical leave at The Welding Institute in Cambridge, England.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Baeslack received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Welding Engineering from The Ohio State University and his Ph.D. degree in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Following graduation from RPI, he served four years at the U.S. Air Force Materials Laboratory as a materials engineer and technical area manager.

Rebecca O. Bagley

Rebecca O. Bagley is president and chief executive officer of NorTech, a regional nonprofit technology-based economic development organization that serves 21 counties in Northeast Ohio. As a catalyst for growing Northeast Ohio’s technology industries, NorTech is leading an effort to develop regional innovation clusters that will spur job creation, capital attraction, and long-term positive economic impact.

Ms. Bagley joined NorTech in July 2009, bringing a wealth of experience and leadership as a nationally recognized expert in technology-based economic development. Ms. Bagley leads the organization’s effort to develop regional technology clusters and make the region’s economy more economically diverse by supporting and nurturing Northeast Ohio’s most promising technology projects and initiatives. Ms. Bagley connects with regional, state and federal government leaders to raise the visibility of Northeast Ohio’s technology assets and drive funding to the region. Recently, Ms. Bagley and her team worked in partnership with the White House to organize the first “Winning the Future Forum on Small Business” with President Obama and five cabinet level officials.

Previously Ms. Bagley served as Deputy Secretary for the Technology Investment Office of the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). In that capacity, she was responsible for the administration of several major state initiatives with a total of $79 million in yearly appropriations, and more than $1.7 billion in investments. She also managed the passage of $650 million for Pennsylvania’s Energy Independence Fund. She previously served as Director of Venture Investment for DCED and managed venture and real estate investment programs.

Before joining DCED, Ms. Bagley worked for several investment banks, most notably JPMorgan Chase, where she advised energy and technology companies on merger and acquisitions and raising capital in the high yield-bond group and oil and gas group.

Ms. Bagley is a frequent guest speaker at regional, state and national conferences and meetings on the topics of regional innovation cluster development and measurement for technology-based economic development initiatives and programs. Ms. Bagley serves on several boards and advisory councils including the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF); State Science Technology Institute (SSTI) - Finance Committee Chair; BioEnterprise; JumpStart; Sustainable Cleveland 2019 Advisory Council; The Oberlin Project—A Clinton Climate Initiative; OneCommunity; TechBelt

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

Executive Committee; Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center Advisory Board; Ohio Wright Center for Sensor Systems Engineering; Cleveland State University Fenn College of Engineering Visiting Committee; and Senator Sherrod Brown’s Ohio Export Advisory Group. She is also a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2011. Ms. Bagley holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Anna Barker

Dr. Barker served as the Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and as the Deputy Director for Strategic Scientific Initiatives for the past eight years—retiring at the end of August, 2010. In this role she developed and implemented multi/trans-disciplinary programs in strategic areas of cancer research and advanced technologies including: the Nanotechnology Alliance for Cancer; The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA)—in collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute; and the Clinical Proteomics Technologies Initiative for Cancer. Recently she led the development of a new initiative to develop a network of trans-disciplinary centers focused on the elucidation of the “physics” of cancer at all scales through the establishment of Physical Sciences-Oncology Centers (PS-OCs). All of these programs emphasize innovation, trans-disciplinary teams and convergence of scientific disciplines to enable progress against cancer. They also stress the synergy of large scale and individual initiated research, precompetitive research and public databases and translation of discoveries into new targeted interventions to detect prevent and treat cancer more effectively

Dr. Barker has also led and collaborated on NCI’s effort to develop contemporary resources for cancer research in the areas of biospecimens and bioinformatics (the Cancer Human Biobank (caHUB) and the Cancer Bioinformatics Grid (caBIG, respectively) to support molecularly based personalized medicine. She served as the founding co-chair of the NCI-FDA Interagency Task Force; founding co-chair of the Cancer Steering Committee of the FNIH Biomarker Consortium; and oversaw the NCI’s international cancer research programs, including pilot programs in Latin America and China. Dr. Barker has a long history in research and the leadership and management of research and development in the academic, non-profit and private sectors. She served as a senior scientist and subsequently as a senior executive at Battelle Memorial Institute for 18 years; and co-founded and served as the CEO of a public biotechnology drug development company. She has received a number of awards for her work in support of cancer research, cancer patients, professional and advocacy organizations and the ongoing national effort to prevent and cure cancer. Most recently she received the 2009 AACR Margaret Foti Award for Leadership and Extraordinary Achievements in Cancer Research, AACR 100th Anniversary Meeting; and In 2009 Dr. Barker was named to the list of “The 100 People Changing America” by Rolling Stone Magazine.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Her research interests include experimental therapeutics, tumor immunology, and free-radical biochemistry in cancer etiology and treatment. Dr. Barker completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, where she trained in immunology and microbiology.

Richard Bendis

Richard Bendis is a distinguished and successful entrepreneur, corporate executive, venture capitalist, investment banker, innovation and technology based economic development leader, international speaker and consultant in Innovation and Economy Building.

Mr. Bendis currently serves as the founding President and CEO of Innovation America (IA), a Global Innovation Intermediary focused on accelerating the growth of the entrepreneurial innovation economy in America. IA has a fivefold mission: Global advocate for accelerating awareness of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Early Stage Capital in stimulating Innovation Based Economic Development (IBED); International speaker on Building Innovation and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (Voted a Top 5 Innovation Speaker by Speakers Platform); International Consulting on IBED; Publishing innovationDAILY and WEEKLY, a daily e-newsletter reporting on Global trends on innovation with a circulation of approximately 500,000 unique visitors in over 185 Countries (Voted The 4th Best Innovation Blogger in The World by Blogging Innovation); Early Stage Capital Fund of Funds Consulting and Formation

Mr. Bendis has been appointed to several national innovation related organizations and committees include the White House U.S. Innovation Partnership (USIP) Advisory Task Force and Co-Chair of the Small Business Innovation Research Committee), the National Governor’s Association (NGA) Science and Technology Council of the State’s Executive Committee, the State Federal Technology Task Force, the National Academies (NAS) committee on “Competing in the 21st Century: Best Practices in State and Regional Innovation Initiatives”; National Academies National Research Review of “an Assessment of the SBIR Program; National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) National Advisory Board; U.S. Small Business Administration’s Angel Capital Electronic Network (ACENET) Board of Directors; American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Nominating Committee and the American Association Research Competitiveness Program Advisory Committee; Council on Competitiveness—Clusters of Innovation Committee.

Mr. Bendis is currently or has previously served as a board member and representative to the following organizations: National Association of State Venture Funds (NASVF) Founding Board member and Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee; State Science and Technology Institute (SSTI) Founding Board member: Eisenhower Fellowships Nominating Committee, the Ernst and Young Entrepreneurial Institute Member and as a past EOY winner as well as

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

a national/regional Judge, Advisory Board member of the Technopolicy Network.

Mr. Bendis has provided global consulting services to over 18 countries and 24 states, several cities and regions, along with international organizations including the United Nations, NATO, UK Trade and Industry, European Commission, French Embassy, the German Marshall Fund, The Canadian Consulate, COTEC, TechnoPolicy, Science Works, METI, AKEA, the International Science Parks and Innovation Expert Group and other global entities. Mr. Bendis is an International speaker, focusing on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Developing and implementing Innovation Based Economic Development Strategies.

Mr. Bendis founded the Bendis Investment Group LLC, (BIG), a financial intermediary and consulting firm, along with managing his own angel investment portfolio. Mr. Bendis also founded and served as the founding President and CEO of Innovation Philadelphia (IP), a three state regional public/private partnership dedicated to growing the wealth and workforce of the Greater Philadelphia Region. IP managed a portfolio of programs in four distinct areas: Direct Equity Investment/Financing Assistance; Technology Commercialization; Global/Regional Economic and Workforce Development; and Market Research and Branding. Mr. Bendis currently serves as the Chairman of the innovation Philadelphia, Board of Directors.

Previously, Mr. Bendis successfully leveraged a career in the private sector (with Quaker Oats, Polaroid, Texas Instruments, Marion Laboratories and Kimberly Services) and the venture capital industry (RAB Ventures) to lead the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC). As its president and CEO, he developed KTEC into a globally recognized model for technology-based economic development. Mr. Bendis also successfully built an Inc. 500 healthcare software company, Continental Healthcare Systems, Inc., which he took public on NASDAQ and later sold to an international conglomerate. He was a nominee for the 2005 Ernst and Young National Entrepreneur Supporter of the Year Award (EOY) and was the 1996 recipient of the Regional Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Dan Berglund

Dan Berglund is the President and CEO of SSTI, a non-profit organization that leads, supports, and strengthens efforts to improve state and regional economies through science, technology, and innovation.

SSTI is the most comprehensive resource available for those involved in technology-based economic development. Leading SSTI since its inception in 1996, Mr. Berglund has helped SSTI develop a nationwide network of practitioners and policymakers dedicated to improving the economy through science and technology. SSTI works with this network to assist states and communities as they build tech-based economies, conduct research on best

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

practices and trends in tech-based economic development, and encourage cooperation among and between state and federal programs.

Prior to joining SSTI, Mr. Berglund worked as a consultant and for the Ohio Department of Development in a variety of positions, including Acting Deputy Director of the Division of Technological Innovation. Mr. Berglund holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science and a B.A. in History from Ohio University.

Lavea Brachman

Lavea Brachman, as Executive Director of Greater Ohio and a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, has been the chief architect of and manages the Restoring Prosperity to Ohio Initiative as well as other related statewide initiatives, including ReBuild Ohio, a statewide vacant property redevelopment coalition. Since coming to the organization, Lavea has been instrumental in shaping the Greater Ohio’s organizational and strategic direction, as well as developing policy and programmatic areas of focus and strategic partnerships with other non-profit organizations and private sector leaders. She has also written a number of publications including co-authoring Greater Ohio’s recently released report, “Restoring Prosperity: Transforming Ohio’s Communities for the Next Economy,” and the Brookings publication, “Ohio’s Cities at a Turning Point: Finding the Way Forward” on the plight and strengths of Ohio’s older industrial “shrinking cities.”

After practicing environmental law at a Washington, DC, law firm, Lavea was a partner with a Cambridge, Massachusetts consulting firm advising Fortune 500 companies on brownfield redevelopment strategies. Since then, Lavea has dedicated her work to the non-profit and public sectors. While at the Department of Energy (DoE) during the Clinton Administration, she worked on redevelopment and community involvement strategies for decommissioned DoE sites. As director of Ohio work at the Chicago-based non-profit Delta Institute, Lavea worked with community leaders throughout the Midwest to promote local watershed and brownfield redevelopment projects.

Before returning to Ohio, Lavea was a Visiting Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and taught in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she developed and taught workshops and wrote about the role of community development organizations in brownfields development and neighborhood revitalization efforts. Lavea graduated from Harvard College and The University of Chicago Law School, and received a master’s in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Eric Burkland

Mr. Burkland, a native of Wheeling, West Virginia, is a 1974 honors graduate of Miami University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

political science. During 1972 and 1973 he studied at the European Study Center in Luxembourg. Following graduation, Mr. Burkland was a staff writer for the Wheeling News-Register. He then returned to Miami University, to pursue post-graduate work in political science while holding a position as a teaching assistant in the department of political science at the university.

Prior to assuming the presidency of The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association in March, 1989, Mr. Burkland served as Vice President, Legislative Relations, Community Mutual Insurance Company, between 1984 and 1989. From 1979 to 1984, Mr. Burkland was on the staff of the Ohio State Medical Association, as the Director of the Department of State Legislation. Mr. Burkland has served also as a Research Assistant for the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.

Miko Cakmak

Distinguished Professor Miko Cakmak joined UA in 1983 as a chief engineer in the Department of Polymer Engineering and was appointed assistant professor in 1985. He earned tenure in 1990, and was awarded the title of professor of polymer engineering in 1995. Before coming to Akron, Cakmak received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul, and earned both his master’s and doctoral degrees in polymer engineering from The University of Tennessee.

As an assistant professor, Cakmak received the prestigious Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation for showing strong promise in academic research. Cakmak received three Best Paper awards from the Society of Plastics Engineers and its 1990 Outstanding Achievement Award.

He has led research efforts with external funding of about $19.5 million. In particular, he was co-leader for the effort to bring to campus a Wright Center of Innovation, the “Center for Multifunctional Polymer Nanomaterials and Devices,” led by The Ohio State University. Subsequently he was principal investigator for an $8 million Third Frontier Research Project for Commercialization of Functional Polyimide Films and Nanocomposites. This project integrates efforts at UA, the University of Dayton and Kent State University, and 14 high-tech companies to develop very high value-added optical, high strength and conductive polymer films.

Using the technologies developed in these two efforts, Cakmak has made it possible to develop a strong membrane for a novel “artificial pancreas” using polymers originally synthesized by UA’s Dr. Joseph Kennedy. For their work on the artificial pancreas technology, the pair recently received the 2009 NorTech Innovation Award in the Biosciences category from the Northeast Ohio Technology Association.

His area of expertise is on Identification, modeling and simulation of complex structural mechanisms particularly stress induced crystallization that take place during the course of polymer processing operations of wide range of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

polymers subjected to solution, melt as well as rubbery state deformation. The range of materials includes the high temperature thermoplastics and their blends as well as nano particle filled systems. Of particular interest is the relationship between thermo-mechanical history applied by fiber spinning, film blowing, biaxial stretching and injection molding and evolved structure and properties. Current activities are focused on real time measurements of true mechanooptical and mechano-electrical properties of polymers undergoing uni and biaxial deformation for photonics applications. With the recent CMPND center, he is actively developing novel processes to address the needs of emerging markets. Towards this goal, his group recently developed a hybrid Electrospinning/solution casting multipurpose processing platform to produce functional polymer films including conductive transparent films. He has just received an $8M Third Frontier commercialization grant that integrates University researchers and industrial companies around the concept of “Functional Polyimide films and high performance nanocomposites.” This project focuses on commercialization of products including Optical films for LCDs, high strength films for High Altitude Airship, high performance composites to replace jet engine parts and thermal management films for dissipating heat from electronic devices including plasma and liquid crystal television sets.

Roy Church

Dr. Church is currently the President of Lorain County Community College. He has served as a leader in comprehensive community colleges and has led the transformation of Lorain County Community College since 1987.

Hallmark initiatives and accomplishments include: Creating comprehensive community higher education centers for local communities to access education from the K-12 level through graduate studies; building collaborative initiatives with business, organized labor and government to enhance workforce education and economic development; improving the articulation of programs and the transfer of students between secondary schools, community colleges and universities.

Dr. Church is professionally involved in activities to improve access to education, build collaborative initiatives, and improve articulation and transfer at the state, regional and local level. He serves co-Chairs of the Ohio Board of Regents’ Articulation and Transfer Council and as a member of the Governor’s Workforce Policy Advisory Board, and the State Advisory Committee on Adult Career-Technical Programs. Regionally, he is Vice Chair of the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education. He serves on the Fund for Our Economic Future Funders’ Steering Committee; the WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN Ideastream Board; the Innovation Alliance, Co-Chair; the NorTech Board and chairs the Talent Sub-Committee of its Information Technology Initiative. Dr. Church also serves on the boards of The Midwest Consortium for Community College

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Development, Business Volunteers Unlimited, the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET), TeamNEO and JumpStart.

Locally, he has chaired the United Way Campaign and served as President of the Board of the United Way of Greater Lorain County. For three years he chaired the Board of Lorain County 2020, a county visioning organization. He also is Secretary-Treasurer of the Great Lakes Organized Labor/Management Council. He is a board member of The Great Lakes Innovation and Development Enterprise, The Center for Leadership in Education, the Lorain County Workforce Institute, Team Lorain County, South Shore Community Development Corporation, Lorain County Port Authority, El Centro de Servicios Sociales, the Lorain County Urban League and the Lorain County Chamber of Commerce.

Byron Clayton

Dr. Byron C. Clayton serves as the Vice President of NorTech, a nonprofit technology-based economic development organization that serves 21 counties in Northeast Ohio. He is responsible for leading NorTech’s Flexible Electronics cluster initiative to accelerate commercial activity and jobs in the sector. In this role, he works with cluster companies, research institutions, entrepreneurs, investors, and government officials to catalyze cluster efforts to create economic impact in Northeast Ohio. Dr. Clayton serves on the National Academies Committee on Best Practice in National Innovation Programs for Flexible Electronics.

Dr. Clayton has over 25 years of experience developing new businesses and commercializing high tech systems serving numerous industries including automotive, aerospace, construction, defense (DoD), nuclear (DoE), and space (NASA). For 15 of those years, he served as a senior or executive manager specializing in strategic management, product commercialization, and business development. He has guided or facilitated the commercialization of over 45 high-tech products and systems, been published in both academic and trade journals, and holds patents for manufacturing optimization software used by numerous plants across North America.

Delos “Toby” Cosgrove

Delos M. Cosgrove M.D., is president and chief executive officer of Cleveland Clinic. Under his leadership, Cleveland Clinic has experienced improved clinical outcomes and increased patient satisfaction, and expanded locally, nationally and internationally. Dr. Cosgrove has enacted policies focused on quality improvement, improved patient experience, and greater transparency and accountability at all levels of the organization. He has reaffirmed Cleveland Clinic’s dedication to clinical medicine at all levels, and is leading its reorganization into institutes based around specific diseases and organ systems. Dr. Cosgrove has committed Cleveland Clinic to major support

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

for local schools, hunger centers, and high school apprenticeship programs in nursing and the biological sciences.

As CEO, Dr. Cosgrove presides over a 4.6 billion dollar healthcare system comprised of the Cleveland Clinic, nine community hospitals, 14 family health and ambulatory surgery centers, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Cleveland Clinic Toronto, and the developing Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.

The years since Dr. Cosgrove’s appointment as president and CEO in 2004, have been the most successful in Cleveland Clinic history and include Cleveland Clinic being ranked among the top three hospitals in America (U.S. News & World Report); contracts and MOUs to establish Cleveland Clinic medicine in Abu Dhabi, Toronto, Vienna, Singapore and Seattle; and a successful 1.25 billion dollar capital campaign to support over 4 million square feet in new construction and improvement.

Dr. Cosgrove received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville and completed his clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Brook General Hospital in London. His undergraduate work was at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

He was a surgeon in the U.S. Air Force and served in Da Nang, Republic of Vietnam as the Chief of U.S. Air Force Casualty Staging Flight. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Republic of Vietnam Commendation Medal.

Joining Cleveland Clinic in 1975, Dr. Cosgrove was named chairman of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular surgery in 1989. Under his leadership, Cleveland Clinic’s heart program was ranked number one in America for ten years in a row (U.S. News & World Report).

He has published nearly 450 journal articles, book chapters, one book and 17 training and continuing medical education films.

Before retiring from surgery in 2006, Dr. Cosgrove achieved one of the most distinguished and accomplished careers in the field of cardiac and thoracic surgery. He performed more than 22,000 operations and earned an international reputation for expertise in all areas of cardiac surgery, especially valve repair. A pioneer and refiner of advanced surgical techniques, Dr. Cosgrove was a pacesetter in the development of minimally invasive valve surgery, and performed the first minimally invasive mitral valve surgery over a worldwide video network in 1996. As an innovator, Dr. Cosgrove has 30 patents filed for developing medical and clinical products used in surgical environments.

He is a member of 16 scientific societies including the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, the American Heart Association and the American Association of Thoracic Surgery, for which he served as president in 2000. He is an honorary member of six international organizations.

The recipient of Cleveland Clinic’s Master Clinician Award, Innovator of the Year Award and Lerner Humanitarian Award, Dr. Cosgrove is also a member of Cleveland Medical Hall of Fame and Cleveland Business Hall of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

Fame. In 2007 he was named Cleveland Business Executive of the Year by the Sales and Marketing Executives of Cleveland, and Castle Connolly’s National Physician of the Year. He also received the Woodrow Wilson Center Award for Public Service as well as Harvard Business School’s Award from HBS Alumni, Cleveland.

Lisa Delp

Lisa Delp is a seasoned entrepreneur and experienced manager of government-led economic development initiatives that provide technical assistance, business support, and risk-capital funding to entrepreneurs and intermediary organizations. Lisa has managed the Ohio Third Frontier (OTF) Risk Capital and Entrepreneurial Assistance programs since joining the Ohio Department of Development in 2008; her portfolio includes the Entrepreneurial Signature Program, Pre-Seed Funds Initiative, Ohio Venture Capital Authority, and the Technology Investment Tax Credit Program. As the newly named Entrepreneurial Services and Incubation Manager, Lisa will focus her business skills and knowledge of state programs to improve entrepreneurial support and growth activities in Ohio. In her new role Lisa will continue to manage the successful Entrepreneurial Signature Program and be given responsibility for Ohio’s fourteen Thomas Edison Incubators. Lisa is a primary state contact for information regarding technology investment programs and provides direct consultation, assistance, and referrals to Ohio’s economic and business development network.

Lisa is a founder of two consulting companies focused on providing technical assistance to entrepreneurs and is the co-founder of the Delp Mixer Company, a laboratory equipment business she funded through bootstrapping and Angel capital investments. Lisa attended Columbus State Community College and supports entrepreneurial development in Central Ohio through board participation and volunteer activities. She sits on the Economics, and Applied Management Advisory Boards at Franklin University; is an annual judge for the Business Plan Competition at The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business; and is an instructor for Increase Community Development Corporation, an organization assisting Minority Business Owners.

Ross DeVol

Ross DeVol is Executive Director of Economic Research as well as Executive Director of the Centers for Health Economics, Regional Economics and California at the Milken Institute. He oversees the Institute’s research on the dynamics of comparative regional growth performance, technology and its impact on regional and national economies and health-related topics such as chronic disease. He is an expert on the intangible economy and how regions can prepare themselves to compete in it. He was the principal author of “An Unhealthy America: The Economic Burden of Chronic Disease” which brought

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

to light for the first time what is often overlooked in the discussion of the impact of chronic disease—the economic loss associated with preventable illness and the cost to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and American businesses in lost growth. The study is the first of its kind to estimate the avoidable costs if a serious effort were made to improve Americans’ health. He authored the ground-breaking study, America’s High-Tech Economy: Growth, Development, and Risks for Metropolitan Areas, an examination of how clusters of high-technology industries across the country affect economic growth in those regions. He also created the Best Performing Cities Index, an annual ranking of U.S. metropolitan areas that shows where jobs are being created and economies are growing. Other recent work involves the study of biotechnology and other life-sciences clusters, and the impact these industries have on regional economies. He was the lead author of Mind-to-Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercialization released in September, 2006. This study looked at the transfer and commercialization of university-developed intellectual property on a global basis with particular focus on the field of biotechnology. Prior to joining the Institute, DeVol was senior vice president of Global Insight, Inc. (formerly Wharton Econometric Forecasting), where he supervised their Regional Economic Services group. He was the firm’s chief spokesman on international trade. He also served as the head of Global Insight’s U.S. Long-Term Macro Service and authored numerous special reports on behalf of the U.S. Macro Group. He is ranked among the “Super Stars” of Think Tank Scholars by International Economy magazine.

Frank Douglas

Frank Douglas is the president and CEO of Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron, Ohio, a best-in-class model for the future of health care delivery and innovation. Douglas, a former founder and executive director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center of Biomedical Innovation, is an award-winning industry veteran, with more than twenty-four years of experience in health care, pharmaceutical research, and biotechnology.

Douglas joined the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron after serving as senior partner, Puretech Ventures and, chief scientific advisor, Bayer Healthcare, AG.

Douglas has received more than fifteen industry awards, including the Global Pharmaceutical Chief Scientific Officer of the Year Award, the Wolfgang von Goethe Medal of Honor, the Associated Black Charities’ Black History Makers Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, and the Heart of the Year Award from the Chicago Heart Association and the Louis B. Russell Memorial Award from the American Heart Association, both for his development of high blood pressure screening and control programs for African-American churches in Chicago.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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After graduating cum laude from Lehigh University, Douglas attended Cornell University where he earned his PhD in physical chemistry and his MD. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and a fellowship in neuroendocrinology at the National Institutes of Health.

John Fernandez

John Fernandez was appointed by President Obama to serve as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development and sworn into office on September 14, 2009.

As the Administrator of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), Mr. Fernandez is charged with leading the federal economic development agenda by promoting innovation and competitiveness, preparing American regions for growth and success in the global economy.

With over thirteen years of executive experience, Mr. Fernandez has earned a reputation as a strategic thinker, creative problem solver and effective manager. Prior to his appointment, Fernandez led the new development and acquisition team at First Capital Group, an Indiana-based real estate investment firm. Mr. Fernandez played a critical role in expanding the firm’s regional and national investment footprint.

Mr. Fernandez also served as Of Counsel for Krieg Devault, an Indianapolis-based law firm, where he advised private and governmental organizations on economic development, public finance and policy issues.

Mr. Fernandez served as Bloomington, Indiana’s mayor from 1996 to 2003. With his leadership, Bloomington’s economy thrived despite facing significant changes arising from the new global economy. Fernandez worked with business and Indiana University leaders to launch Bloomington’s Life Sciences Partnership, securing more than $243 million in private investments and creating more than 3,700 jobs. He also developed an aggressive downtown revitalization plan resulting in more than $100 million in new investments.

A first generation American, Mr. Fernandez received a Doctor of Law (J.D.) from Indiana University. He also earned a Master of Public Affairs (M.P.A.) and Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Mary Good

Dr. Mary L. Good, founding Dean and Donaghey Professor, is well known for her distinguished career. She has held many high-level positions in academia, industry, and government. The 143,000-member American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) elected Dr. Good to serve as the president, following Dr. Stephen Jay Gould. In 2004, Dr. Good was recipient of the National Science Foundation’s highest honor, the Vannevar

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Bush Award. She was also the first female winner of the AAAS’s prestigious Philip Hogue Abelson prize for outstanding achievements in education, research and development management, and public service, spanning the academic, industrial, and government sectors. Two of her more than 27 awards include the National Science Foundation Distinguished Service medal and the esteemed American Chemical Society Priestly Medal. She is also the 6th Annual Heinz Award Winner. During the terms of Presidents Carter and Reagan, Dr. Good served on the National Science Board and chaired it from 1988-1991. She was the Undersecretary for Technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce and Technology during President Clinton’s first term. This agency assists American industry to advance productivity, technology, and innovation in order to make U.S. companies more competitive in the global market. Dr. Good has received 21 honorary degrees. Her undergraduate degree in chemistry is from the University of Central Arkansas. She earned her doctoral degree in inorganic chemistry from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, at age 24. Dr. Good spent 25 years teaching and researching at Louisiana State University and the University of New Orleans before becoming a guiding force in research and development for Allied Signal. Dr. Good was voted one of Arkansas’ Top 100 Women by Arkansas Business.

Albert Green

Dr. Albert Green is the CEO of Kent Displays, Inc. and serves on the Board of Directors. He has held this position since joining the company in June 2007.

Prior to joining KDI, Dr. Green was Vice President and Division Manager at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where he worked closely with KDI in jointly developing Reflex™ technology for flexible display applications.

Dr. Green spent 13 years at SAIC and worked in a variety of capacities including Senior Scientist, Program Manager, and Business Unit Chief Scientist. He also holds over 25 patents in the areas of photonic systems, displays, and advanced materials. Dr. Green holds a BS in Physics from The University of Chicago and a PhD in Physics from Stanford University. He has also attended the Executive Training Summer School at MIT’s Sloan School of Business Administration.

Dr. Green has had a long history of innovation in applications that involve advanced materials and applications in display and related technologies. He has the unique combinations of skills that allow him to both innovate, market, and manage those technologies and the related products that stem from those innovations. Kent Displays offers the unique opportunity to take a revolutionary technology from the laboratory and pilot manufacturing to large scale production.

Dr. Green is an advisor to President Barrack Obama’s Export Council. He is also chair of the FlexMatters steering committee. The FlexMatters

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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initiative was formed to recognize the flexible electronics cluster in Northeast Ohio and to accelerate its growth.

James Griffith

James W. Griffith is president and chief executive officer of The Timken Company and a member of the company’s board of directors.

Since being named president in 1999, Griffith has led a transformation of The Timken Company focused on creating ever-increasing levels of value for customers and shareholders. By harnessing its legendary quality and industry-leading innovation, Timken has pushed beyond its historic leadership in the tapered roller bearing market into a vast global market for technologies to manage the friction generated by moving parts and improve the transmission of power in a wide array of machines.

Griffith joined The Timken Company in 1984 and has held positions as plant manager, vice president of manufacturing in North America and managing director of the company’s business in Australia. From 1996 to 1999, he led Timken’s automotive business in North America and the company’s bearing business activities in Asia and Latin America. He was elected president, chief operating officer and director in 1999 and was named chief executive officer in 2002.

Griffith is president of the World Bearing Association and chairman of the board of directors of the Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network (MAGNET). He is vice president of the Management Executives’ Society and serves on the boards of directors of the U.S.-China Business Council and Goodrich Corporation (NYSE: GR). He also serves on the board of Mount Union College.

Griffith holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.

William Harris

Dr. Harris is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz). Prior to joining SFAz, Dr. William C. Harris was in Ireland serving as director general of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), a new Irish agency that helped facilitate tremendous growth in Ireland’s R&D sector during Harris’ tenure. Immediately prior to going to Ireland, Dr. Harris was vice president of research and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of South Carolina (USC). There, he oversaw research activities throughout the USC system, several interdisciplinary centers and institutes, the USC Research Foundation and sponsored research programs.

Dr. Harris served at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1978 to 1996, including as the director for mathematical and physical sciences (1991-1996). He was responsible for federal grants appropriation of $750 million. He also established 25 Science and Technology Centers to support

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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investigative, interdisciplinary research by multi-university consortia. Earlier in his career, he catalyzed the Research Experience for Undergraduates program in the chemistry division and it became an NSF-wide activity.

In 2005, Dr. Harris was elected a member of the Irish Royal Academy, and received the Wiley Lifetime Achievement Award from California Polytechnic State University. He has authored more than 50 research papers and review articles in spectroscopy and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Harris earned his undergraduate degree at the College of William and Mary, and received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of South Carolina.

Sridhar Kota

Dr. Sridhar Kota is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor where he has been involved in teaching and research in Design and Manufacturing area for 23 years. He is currently on leave from the U of M serving as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has authored over 200 technical papers, holds 25 patents and served as an engineering consultant to numerous organizations in manufacturing, automotive, aerospace and MEMS fields. He is the recipient of the ASME Machine Design Award and the ASME Leonardo Da Vinci award. He is the founding President and CEO of FlexSys Inc.—a small business engaged in bio-inspired design of aircraft wings, wind turbine blades and automotive systems. Kota’s research was featured in New York Times, Discovery Channel, Science News, Aviation Week, Popular Science, and other popular press.

In his current role at OSTP, Dr. Kota coordinates Federal advanced manufacturing R&D across agencies and addresses issues related to R&D funding gaps, manufacturing competitiveness, technology development and commercialization.

Ray Leach

Ray Leach is the founding CEO of JumpStart Inc. and under his leadership, the Cleveland-based organization has gained national recognition for its innovative model and economic impact in Northeast Ohio, leading to its recent launch of the JumpStart America Initiative in January 2011. One of the first implementation partners of the Startup America Partnership, Ray is leading JumpStart America’s effort to build public, private, and philanthropic partnerships across the country to develop and grow entrepreneurial ecosystems and transform regional economies. Ray began his career at IBM before founding and bootstrapping two startup companies. Both were sold to Multigraphics Inc. in 1997, after which Ray became Vice President of Sales. In 2000, he founded Capella Investments, Inc., an investment and management consulting firm focused on startup IT companies. Prior to JumpStart, Ray taught at the MIT

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Sloan School of Management while earning his MBA as a Sloan Fellow. He also served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for CommonAngels, Boston’s largest angel investor organization. Ray is a member of the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE), which supports the national innovation strategy by developing policies that foster entrepreneurship. He also serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) which has over 400 members and serves as the voice of the United States venture capital community and advocates for policies that encourage innovation and reward long-term investment. Ray also earned a BA in Finance from the University of Akron.

Lester Lefton

Dr. Lester A. Lefton became Kent State University’s 11th president in July 2006. As Kent State president and chief executive officer, Dr. Lefton oversees one of the nation’s largest university systems. Kent State’s eight campuses provide more than 280 academic programs to nearly 42,000 undergraduate and graduate students from throughout Ohio and the nation, and from more than 100 countries. One of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio, the university employs more than 5,000 full-and part-time faculty and staff.

Prior to coming to Kent State, Dr. Lefton was senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at Tulane University, dean of George Washington University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and dean of the University of South Carolina’s College of Liberal Arts.

Dr. Lefton is respected internationally for his scholarship in the field of experimental psychology. An authority on visual attention and memory, his research has been supported with numerous federal grants and has been published widely in scholarly journals. He was elected a fellow of the American Psychological Association, an honor that recognizes his impact on the field of psychology.

Dr. Lefton has been active in a number of national higher education organizations. He is known nationally as a passionate advocate for undergraduate education. An award-winning teacher with nearly 40 years of university teaching experience, Dr. Lefton’s introductory psychology textbook, now in its ninth edition, is used in college classrooms nationwide.

In keeping with Kent State’s strong support of regional and state economic development, Dr. Lefton is active on the boards and executive committees of NorTech and the Greater Akron Chamber. A member of Leadership Cleveland’s Class of 2008, Dr. Lefton also upholds the university’s role as a regional cultural resource through service on the board of the Musical Arts Association of the Cleveland Orchestra.

At the national level, Dr. Lefton serves on the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Commission on Effective Leadership. The commission advises the ACE’s Center for Effective Leadership, which provides a variety of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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leadership and professional-development programs for presidents and other higher education administrators.

A Boston native, Dr. Lefton earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northeastern University (1969). He holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Rochester (1974), where he held a U.S. Public Health Service Predoctoral Fellowship.

At the start of his presidency, Dr. Lefton instituted an approach to all university operations that is founded on the pursuit of excellence. He initiated an excellence-driven, university-wide strategic plan (dubbed the Excellence Agenda) to lead Kent State into its next decade. Now nearly five years old, this approach and investment in excellence have yielded accomplishments, contributions and recognition of unprecedented size, scope and real-world relevance. In the last five years, Kent State has set records in student enrollment and student academic quality; created a new vice presidency for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; provided students on all eight campuses with 21st-century facilities, including the Robert S. Morrison Health and Science Building at Kent State University at Ashtabula, the Performing Arts Center at Kent State University at Tuscarawas and a rejuvenated Kent Campus library and surrounding Risman Plaza; fostered a new era of cooperation with the city of Kent, including collaboration on a project to build a downtown hotel and conference center; entered into a number of mutually beneficial agreements with leading international universities; begun modernizing the curriculum and streamlining the path to graduation for undergraduates; celebrated its centennial year; launched a $250 million fund-raising campaign that to date has raised more than $225 million, including more than $35 million for student scholarships; saw the May 4, 1970, site added to the National Register of Historic Places and launched plans for a May 4 Visitors Center; created a College of Public Health that offers baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral degrees to help meet a state and national need for highly trained public-health professionals; set records for federal funding of faculty research; and earned international recognition with its inclusion in The Times Higher Education Rankings list of the world’s top 200 universities.

The president and his wife, Linda J. Lefton, have two daughters and three grandsons. Mrs. Lefton’s strong support of Kent State takes the form of volunteer work on a variety of university events and activities. She is an attorney who served as a state prosecutor in South Carolina and was an academic advisor for pre-law majors at George Washington and Tulane universities. A graduate of Leadership Portage County, she served on the board of the Pediatric Palliative Care Center at Akron Children’s Hospital and on the Women’s Committee of the Cleveland Orchestra.

James Leftwich

James Leftwich is the newly appointed director of the Ohio Department of Development. Prior to his current position, he was president and CEO of the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Dayton Development Coalition, the Dayton Region’s economic development organization and principal public advocate. Mr. Leftwich was instrumental in securing a successful outcome for the Dayton Region in the 2005 Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) proceedings which saw the region gain and retain nearly 10000 jobs.

After graduating from the Air Force Academy in 1987, Mr. Leftwich entered the Air Force where he served over 8 years as a logistics officer. He had various assignments and concluded his career as a staff officer at the Pentagon. In 1995 he left the Air Force and joined Synergy Corporation where he served in various roles including program management and business development. In 1999, Jim joined the Rand Corporation as a research analyst where he formulated, conducted and directed research to evaluate new logistics concepts, procedures, and systems needed to support military forces in force projection scenarios. He lead several efforts including the evaluation of organizational structure changes and policies for logistics command and control that today are serving as a guide for logistics command and control transformation.

In 2003 he left Rand and returned to the defense industry where he served as the Director of Logistics Business Development for the GRACAR Corporation. While there, he developed, directed and executed strategic planning and business development activities for Logistics, Commercial, and Enterprise Solution business divisions. He was instrumental in leading growth of company from $6.1M to $12.8M over two years. In 2004, the company was recognized by Inc magazine as number 373 of the fastest growing 500 companies in the country. He remained at GRACAR until 2005 when he assumed his position at the Dayton Development Coalition.

Mr. Leftwich has a B.S. in Political Science from United States Air Force Academy and a Master of Public Administration from University of Dayton. He has also completed Business Graduate Studies at Old Dominion University. Additionally, he completed the Secretary of Defense Executive Leadership Development Program in 1995. Jim has authored several publications and refereed articles in the areas of logistics, command and control and supply chain management. Jim resides in Bellbrook, Oh, with his wife Lynne and their two children, Halie and Drew.

Gary Leidich

Gary R. Leidich is executive vice president for FirstEnergy Corp., currently providing executive oversight for the Allegheny Energy merger integration.

Gary began his career with The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (CEI) in 1974 and held various positions during construction of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant from 1975 to 1986. Gary was named director of System Planning for Centerior Energy, the parent company of CEI and Toledo Edison in 1987, and director of Human Resources in 1991. He was elected vice president of Finance and Administration and chief financial officer in 1993, and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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president of the Power Generation Group in 1995, a position he held until the 1997 merger of Centerior Energy and Ohio Edison that formed FirstEnergy Corp. In 1998 Gary became executive vice president of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. He rejoined FirstEnergy in 2002 and was named president and chief nuclear officer of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company in 2003. In 2007 he was named senior vice president of Operations. In 2008 he was named executive vice president and president, FirstEnergy Generation. He was named to his current position in February 2011.

Gary received his Bachelor of Science Degree in electrical engineering and Master of Science Degree in engineering science from the University of Toledo. He received a Distinguished Alumni award from the University’s College of Engineering in 2007. He completed the Public Utilities Executive Program at the University of Michigan in 1988, and was an instructor for the Reactor Technology Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Gary is on the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Research Institute and is also a member of the American Nuclear Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and a Registered Professional Engineer in Ohio. He is a trustee of the Akron Art Museum.

David Morgenthaler

David Morgenthaler founded Morgenthaler Ventures in 1968 and over 31 years has built a national reputation in venture capital. His current investment focus is on biotechnology. He is Chairman of the Board of Ribozyme Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and has been a director of a large number of companies, ranging in size from the startup stage to large public companies. Between 1957 and 1968, he was President of Foseco, Inc., a venture-backed manufacturer of specialty chemicals. From 1950 to 1957, he was Vice President and Director of Sales at Delavan Manufacturing Company, which became the largest manufacturer of jet aircraft fuel injection nozzles in the world. Previously, he was an entrepreneurial manager with several growth companies. He was an Advisor to the Brentwood Associates Fund, and Vice Chairman of the Edison Biotechnology Institute. He is serving or has served as a Trustee of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, a member of the Visiting Committee of Carnegie Mellon University, the Sloan School of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Weatherhead School of Business at Case Western Reserve University, and a trustee of various philanthropic organizations. He served as Senior Vice President-International for the Young Presidents’ Organization and as President of the Chief Executives Organization. Mr. Morganthaler was President of the National Venture Capital Association when the capital gains tax reduction was enacted in 1978, and played a leading role in testifying before Congress for the new legislation. He has frequently been asked to testify before Congress, and to speak before various administrative groups on venture capital and economic development. He is the first recipient of the National Venture Capital

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and more recently was inducted into The Private Equity Analysts Venture Capital Hall of Fame. He is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering).

Richard Pogue

Richard W. (“Dick”) Pogue is Advisor (i.e., full-time independent consultant) at Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio. A graduate of Cornell University (1950) and the University of Michigan Law School (1953), he served three years (1954-1957) in the Patents Division, Office of The Judge Advocate General, United States Army, in the Pentagon, and left with the rank of Captain. He holds Honorary Doctorate degrees from the University of Akron and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 1972 he served for six weeks in the White House as a consultant on antitrust policy.

Mr. Pogue joined the law firm Jones, Day, Cockley & Reavis in Cleveland as an Associate in 1957, and became a Partner in 1961. Over the years his primary fields of practice were antitrust, corporate takeover work, and commercial arbitration/mediation. On 3/1/84, he became Managing Partner of the firm, by then known as Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. During his nine years (1984-1992) in that position, the Firm grew from 335 to 1,225 lawyers and from five domestic to 20 worldwide offices, and became the second largest U.S. law firm. Today Jones Day has over 2,500 lawyers in 36 offices around the world.

In 1994, Mr. Pogue retired from Jones Day and became Senior Advisor to (and a Director and major shareholder of) Dix & Eaton, a Cleveland-based regional public relations firm. Then on 1/1/04, he returned to Jones Day in his present capacity, where he assists the Firm’s Managing Partner (Stephen J. Brogan) and its Cleveland Office Partner-in-Charge (Lyle G. Ganske) and others in client development, special projects, and civic engagement.

Over the years Mr. Pogue served as a Director of various companies, including Continental Airlines, Derlan Industries (Canada), M.A. Hanna Co., IT Group, KeyCorp, Ohio Bell Telephone Co., Redland PLC (England), and TRW. Today he is a Director of Rotek Incorporated, and a member of the Advisory Committee of SS&G Financial Services.

Mr. Pogue has chaired many major organizations in the civic arena in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio (including The Cleveland Foundation, Business Volunteers Unlimited, University Hospitals Health System, the Greater Cleveland Growth Association (“GCGA”), The City Club of Cleveland, the Presidents’ Council Foundation, The 50 Club, Kulas Foundation, the Greater Cleveland Chapter of the American Red Cross, and the successful $52 million United Way Campaign in 1989). He was the principal organizer in 1997 of the Regional Business Council, the predecessor of Team NEO, a Regional marketing group serving the 16-county Northeast Ohio Region. He presently co-chairs the $30 million Gordon Square Arts District project, and chairs the Advisory Committee for the (Ralph) Regula Institute at Mount Union College

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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and the Greater Cleveland project to honor the late Ohio Chief Justice Tom Moyer at Ohio State University.

He has been active in the field of Higher Education. A former Trustee of Case Western Reserve University, he is currently Vice Chairman of the Board of the University of Akron, and a Trustee of both the Cleveland Institute of Music (where he recently co-chaired a successful $40 million Capital Campaign) and the Northeast Ohio Council on Higher Education (of which he served as Interim Executive Director in 2001). In 1993-94 he designed and taught a course as Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan Law School entitled “The Business of Law.” In 2003-04, he chaired the (Ohio) Governor’s Commission on Higher Education & the Economy (“CHEE”), a 33-member group of business leaders, college presidents, and State government officials, which publicly reported on 4/29/04 a number of major recommendations relating to Higher Education’s role in the State’s economic development. This led to his 2005-06 activity in helping the Ohio Business Roundtable to organize the (Ohio) Business Alliance on Higher Education & the Economy (“BAHEE”), a group of active and retired CEOs, to carry on some of the work of CHEE. Since 2007 he has served as the (first) chair of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the University of Michigan Law School. As Jones Day’s Managing Partner, Mr. Pogue led the Firm’s entry into international practice, beginning 1/1/86; during his stint the Firm opened overseas offices in London, Paris, Riyadh, Geneva, Hong Kong, Brussels, Tokyo, Taipei, and Frankfurt. As Chairman of the GCGA he co-founded the Greater Cleveland International Trade Alliance, which acquired World Trade Center status. For several decades he has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Active in many aspects of the 1980-1996 “Cleveland Comeback,” he was called “the most powerful man in Cleveland” by Cleveland Magazine in 1988. Years later, in 2005 Inside Business Magazine said of him: “Pogue is this region’s consummate insider. There isn’t much that goes on in this town, or this region, for that matter, that Pogue hasn’t been consulted on, is aware of, or approved of.” In that Magazine’s 2010 “Power 100” for Northeast Ohio he is one of 18 for-profit company representatives out of the 54 listed from Cuyahoga County. Mr. Pogue and his wife Pat have lived in Shaker Heights, Ohio since 2/1/57. They have three children (Mark—Providence, RI, Tracy—Manhattan, and David—Westport, CT), and eight grandchildren.

Rob Portman

Rob Portman is a United States Senator from the state of Ohio. He was elected in 2010, running a campaign that focused on common-sense conservative ideas to help create jobs and get the deficit under control. Rob won with a margin of 57 to 39 percent, winning 82 of Ohio’s 88 counties.

Rob was born and raised in Cincinnati, where he lives today with his wife Jane, and their three children, Jed, Will and Sally. He grew up in a small business family, where he learned early on the value of hard work, leadership,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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and fiscal responsibility. When Rob was young, his dad, Bill Portman, borrowed money to start Portman Equipment Company, where Rob and his brother and sister all worked while growing up. His father, and then his brother, built the family business from a small forklift truck dealership with five employees, with Rob’s mom as the bookkeeper, to one that employed more than 300 people. Rob became a lawyer and developed his own private practice, representing Portman Equipment Company and other small businesses. In 1993, Rob was a partner in the Cincinnati law firm of Graydon, Head and Ritchey when he was elected to Congress, where he represented the diverse, seven county Second District in southern Ohio. He was proud to serve the Second District for twelve years, and in seven elections, he never received less than seventy percent of the vote.

During his time representing the Second District, Rob earned a reputation as a serious leader who focused on results. Rob was actively involved in crafting and promoting the historic welfare reform efforts as a member of the committee that wrote the legislation, and he was a forceful advocate of the balanced budget that passed in 1997. Rob gained the respect of both Republican and Democratic colleagues through his successful, bipartisan legislative initiatives, including several measures he authored to increase retirement savings, reform the IRS and add over fifty new taxpayer rights, curb unfunded mandates, reduce taxes, and expand drug prevention and land conservation efforts.

In 2005, Rob left Congress when he was asked to serve as the United States Trade Representative, the Cabinet-level official responsible for implementing and enforcing U.S. trade policy. In his one year in the job, Rob was successful in reducing barriers to U.S. exports and increasing enforcement of trade laws to help level the playing field for American farmers, workers and service providers. Under his leadership, American exports increased and the U.S. brought successful legal challenges against international trade law violations.

Following his accomplishments as Trade Representative, Rob was asked to serve in another Cabinet post, this time as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. A deficit hawk, Rob made his mark by proposing a balanced budget, fighting irresponsible earmarks, and putting in place new transparency measures for all federal spending.

Rob succeeded George Voinovich as Ohio’s U.S. Senator on January 5, 2011 and immediately began fighting for pro-growth, pro-jobs policies to help get Ohio and our nation back on track.

Luis Proenza

Luis M. Proenza is chief executive officer of The University of Akron. He has led its transformation into a powerful engine for regional economic development, a catalyst for collaborative initiatives, and the preeminent public university in Northeast Ohio. In 12 years of his leadership, UA’s revenue and research portfolio more than doubled, and private donations established all-time

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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records. His initiatives have distinguished the university nationally and internationally and made it a national model for innovation. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Dr. Proenza to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the nation’s highest-level policy advisory group for science and technology. Dr. Proenza also is a member of the executive committee for the Council on Competitiveness and its Manufacturing Competitiveness Steering Committee, the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable of the National Academies, the Technology Innovation Program Advisory Board for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Council on Foreign Relations. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Emory University (1965), a master’s from The Ohio State University (1966) and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota (1971).

Ronn Richard

Ronn Richard is the president & CEO of The Cleveland Foundation. Over the past 28 years, Mr. Richard has held a variety of key management positions in government, the private sector and the nonprofit sector. In addition to his responsibilities at the Foundation, in January 2009, Mr. Richard had been appointed by Governor Strickland to the volunteer, temporary post of Infrastructure Czar to oversee the expenditure of the federal stimulus funds for Ohio.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Richard was the managing director and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital fund. In this role, he worked to ensure the prompt and effective delivery of new technologies into the U.S. intelligence community.

Before joining In-Q-Tel, Mr. Richard spent 13 years at Panasonic in senior management positions. Among other assignments, he served as president of Panasonic’s North American R&D operations; president of Panasonic Home & Commercial Products Company, a major sales and marketing division of Panasonic USA; president of Panasonic Strategic Ventures Company, in charge of mergers and acquisitions and strategic alliances; vice president for planning, technology and public affairs, which included heading up Panasonic’s corporate philanthropy; and vice president for internet business development.

Early in his career, Mr. Richard was a U.S. diplomat serving at the American Consulate General in Osaka/Kobe, Japan and at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC, as a desk officer for North Korean, Greek and Turkish affairs, respectively. He also served in San Francisco as a Pearson Program Fellow where he researched and reported on U.S.-East Asian and U.S.-Latin American trade, investment flows and technology transfers.

Mr. Richard began his career at the nonprofit Japan Society in New York City as director of the national public affairs program.

Mr. Richard served for many years on the board of trustees of Spelman College and on the board of advisors of the Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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He was a visiting professor for international business at Bennett College in North Carolina during the spring 2003 semester. For many years he served as chairman and then as a member of the board of trustees of the International Biomedical Research Alliance (an academic joint venture between NIH-Oxford and Cambridge Universities).

He currently serves on the boards of Council on Foundations, Living Cities, Ohio Grantmakers Forum, Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital National Leadership Council, and the Finca Vigía Foundation (dedicated to preserving Ernest Hemingway’s home in Cuba). Mr. Richard chairs the Ohio Grantmakers Forum’s Task Force on educational reform for the State of Ohio, and he also serves on a corporate board in the biotech sector.

Mr. Richard holds a master’s degree in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, a bachelor’s degree in history from Washington University in St. Louis, and honorary doctorates from Notre Dame College and Baldwin-Wallace College. He is a recipient of the African-American President’s Council Champion Award for his work in the area of inclusive economic development, and in 2007 he received Wheaton College’s Otis Award for Social Justice (previous recipients include Senator Edward Kennedy, Gloria Steinem and Marian Wright Edelman). Mr. Richard was inducted into Hiram College’s Garfield Society (the college’s highest honor) and was the recipient of the Entrepreneurs for Sustainability’s 2007 Champion of Sustainability award.

Barry Rosenbaum

Barry Rosenbaum obtained his PhD in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in 1967. Upon graduation, he joined Exxon Chemical Elastomers Division where he held a number of senior technical and business positions in the specialty polymers industry during a thirty-year career.

In 1991, Dr. Rosenbaum helped to found Advanced Elastomer Systems, a joint venture between Exxon and Monsanto in Santoprene ThermoPlastic Elastomers and was the vice president of technology until 1997. Dr. Rosenbaum became the chief technology officer of GenCorp/OMNOVA Solutions from 1997 until his retirement in 2005 when he became a senior fellow with the University of Akron Research Foundation.

In his new role, Dr. Rosenbaum works closely with The Research Foundation and the Office of Tech Transfer to help commercialize new technologies from the University of Akron in addition to networking across northeast Ohio to promote Innovation: Transforming Knowledge into Wealth. In late 2005, he was a founding member of the Akron based ARCHAngel Investment Network sponsored by the University of Akron to focus on wealth creation in northeast Ohio.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Baiju Shah

Baiju R. Shah is President and CEO and a Founder of BioEnterprise, a partnership of Case Western, Cleveland Clinic, Summa Health, and University Hospitals. BioEnterprise is a business acceleration initiative to support the growth of bioscience companies. Since 2002, it has helped more than 100 Cleveland companies that have collectively attracted more than $1 Billion in new funding. Prior to BioEnterprise, Shah was with McKinsey & Company, where he played a leading role in the Growth and Business Building practice. In the community, Shah is a Founder and has served as Chair of Global Cleveland, TiE (The International Entrepreneurs) Ohio, and Summer on the Cuyahoga. He also serves on the Boards of Great Lakes Science Center, Saint Luke’s Foundation, Cleveland International Fund, United Way of Greater Cleveland, and Sustainable Cleveland 2019. Shah has been named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and has been recognized as one of Cleveland’s most powerful and influential leaders by several publications. Shah, a Cleveland native, received a J.D. from Harvard and his B.A. from Yale.

Phillip Singerman

Phillip Singerman serves as Associate Director for Innovation and Industry Services at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In this capacity he is responsible for the NIST suite of external partnership programs, including the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Technology Innovation Program, the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, and NIST technology transfer and small business innovation research awards.

The position of Associate Director was established in October 2010 as part of the first major realignment of NIST programs in 20 years; Mr. Singerman was appointed to this position in January 2011. Immediately prior to joining NIST, he was a Senior Vice President at B&D Consulting, a DC-based firm providing strategic advice and technical assistance on federal economic development programs to non-profit organizations, local governments, and universities. Previously he was a managing director of a $120 million seed stage venture fund that invested in early stage technologies.

Mr. Singerman has more than 30 years of experience in tech based economic development; he was the first chief executive of two of the best known public-private partnerships, the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Maryland Technology Development Corporation. During the Clinton Administration he served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, a Presidential appointment requiring Senate confirmation.

Mr. Singerman has participated on scores of local, state, and national advisory boards and associations, including the State Science and Technology Institute, the Technology Council of Maryland, the International Economic

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

Development Council, NGA’s Advisory Committee on Entrepreneurial Policy, NSF’s Small Business Advisory Committee, the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association, the Strengthening America’s Communities Initiative Advisory Committee, and the Editorial Board of the Economic Development Quarterly.

Mr. Singerman received his bachelors degree from Oberlin College and holds a doctorate from Yale University. He has taught at Yale College, Barnard College (Columbia University), and the Fels Institute of Government (University of Pennsylvania). After graduating from college he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia, South America, working in rural community development projects.

Mr. Singerman is a co-author of “Beyond Recovery: Moving the Gulf Coast Toward a Sustainable Future” (February 2011), published by the Center for American Progress and Oxfam America, and the “Handbook on Climate Prosperity” (May 2009), published by the International Economic Development Council.

Richard A. Stoff

Richard Stoff is the founding president of the Ohio Business Roundtable, a nonpartisan organization of the chief executive officers of the state’s major business enterprises.

In his capacity as Roundtable president, Mr. Stoff provides leadership and support to a number of education-related organizations. He was instrumental in the creation of Ohio’s BEST, which is regarded as one of the nation’s broadest, deepest and most effective business-education coalitions. He serves as the treasurer of BEST and he co-chairs the Coalition’s acclaimed BEST Practices initiative. Mr. Stoff has been especially active in workforce issues, spearheading the Ohio Skill Gap Initiative. He was appointed by Governor Voinovich to the Ohio Workforce Development Board, serves on the national board of directors for Jobs for America’s Graduates and is vice-chair of its resource development committee. He is helping to create a world-class Ohio Principal’s Leadership Academy and he has helped to start the Ohio Community Schools Center. He works closely with Achieve, the National Alliance of Business, The Business Roundtable and other national groups on a range of education reform issues.

Prior to his appointment as president of the Roundtable, Mr. Stoff spent 16 years as a management consultant. A former partner with Ernst & Young, Mr. Stoff directed the firm’s services to state and local government in Ohio. His core competency is organizational change and he has assisted clients in improving quality, productivity, systems and cost management. He has specialized experience in conducting financial feasibility studies for stadiums and arenas. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Mr. Stoff served as a senior consultant with Touche Ross (now Deloitte & Touche); working with a wide range of clients in manufacturing, real estate, banking, retailing, health care and government. He began his public service career as a budget analyst with the Fairfax County, Virginia Bureau of the Budget and the Ohio Office of Budget and Management.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

A native of New York City, Mr. Stoff received his bachelor’s degree in political science, with honor, in 1972 from Northeastern University and his master’s degree in public affairs in 1975 from Syracuse University’s Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Bahman Taheri

Bahman Taheri is the CEO and a founder of AlphaMicron Inc. He also holds an adjunct faculty position at the Liquid Crystal Institute. Bahman received his B.S from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and M.S. and Ph.D. in laser Physics from Oklahoma State and is a graduate of the OPM program at Harvard Business School. He has published in the areas of liquid crystals, lasers, optics and condensed matter and hold international patents in a number of device and processing areas. Bahman was the finalist in Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the year and one of Crain Business “40 under 40”.

Lorry Wagner

Dr. Lorry Wagner, an experienced energy engineer and longstanding member of the Great Lakes Energy Development Task Force became President of the Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (LEEDCo) in May 2010. Previous energy project experience includes hydroelectric, nuclear, as well as wind. Other relevant work was performed in the fields of adaptive learning, failure analysis, and explosion-proof control systems.

A nuclear engineer with several degrees from Purdue University, Dr. Wagner previously served as president of Azure Energy LLC, a renewable energy development corporation based in Solon, Ohio. At Azure, he played a leading role in the development and installation of several land based wind projects. Dr. Wagner, a lifelong boater and member of Cleveland Underwater Explorers (CLUE), brings extensive knowledge of maritime and subsurface issues, central to the deployment of offshore wind turbines.

Charles Wessner

Charles Wessner is a National Academy Scholar and Director of the Program on Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. He is recognized nationally and internationally for his expertise on innovation policy, including public-private partnerships, entrepreneurship, early-stage financing for new firms, and the special needs and benefits of high-technology industry. He testifies to the U.S. Congress and major national commissions, advises agencies of the U.S. government and international organizations, and lectures at major universities in the U. S. and abroad. Reflecting the strong global interest in innovation, he is frequently asked to address issues of shared policy interest with foreign governments, universities, research institutes, and international organizations, often briefing government ministers and senior officials. He has

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

a strong commitment to international cooperation, reflected in his work with a wide variety of countries around the world.

Dr. Wessner’s work addresses the linkages between science-based economic growth, entrepreneurship, new technology development, university-industry clusters, regional development, small-firm finance and public-private partnerships. His program at the National Academies also addresses policy issues associated with international technology cooperation, investment, and trade in high-technology industries.

Currently, he directs a series of National Academy studies centered on government measures to encourage entrepreneurship and support the development of new technologies and cooperation among industry, universities, laboratories, and government to capitalize on the nation’s investments in research. Foremost among these is a congressionally mandated study of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program, reviewing the operation and achievements of this $2.5 billion award program for small companies and start-ups. He is also directing a major study on best practice in global innovation programs, entitled Comparative Innovation Policy: Best Practice for the 21st Century. Today’s meeting on “Building the Ohio Innovation Economy” forms part of a complementary analysis entitled Competing in the 21st Century: Best Practice in State & Regional Innovation Initiatives. The overarching goal of Dr. Wessner’s work is to develop a better understanding of how we can bring new technologies forward to address global challenges in health, climate, energy, water, infrastructure, and security.

John West

John L. West, professor of chemistry, joined Kent State University in 1984 as a senior research fellow of the Liquid Crystal Institute. He served as Director of the Liquid Crystal Institute and of the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center, ALCOM from 1996-2002. He served as Vice President for Research and Dean of Graduate Studies at Kent State from 2003-2010. During this time he collaborated with Nortech to establish FLEXMatters, a collaboration designed to support the growth of the flexible electronics industry in Ohio. In the summer of 2010 he returned to full time to the faculty at Kent State. He now splits his time between Kent State University and the University of Central Washington, where he is establishing a research foundation and helping to move innovation from the laboratory to the marketplace.

In parallel with his administrative duties, Dr. West maintains an active and productive research program. He has published over 125 articles and holds thirteen U.S. patents related to liquid crystal materials. He concentrates his research on the development of PDLC and cholesteric materials for use in flexible displays and of responsive liquid crystal fibers.

Dr. West earned a B.S. in chemistry from the College of William and Mary, and M.S and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
×

David Wilhelm

David Wilhelm is the president of Woodland Ventures, a company dedicated to the proposition that entrepreneurial vision and managerial talent may be found anywhere, including the hills of central Appalachia and the prairies of the Midwest. To this end, Wilhelm launched Adena Ventures and Hopewell Ventures, with a combined $140 million under management, bringing investment capital to high growth companies situated in these underserved regions of the country. Today, these venture capital funds have invested millions of dollars in companies located in communities such as Marquette, Michigan; Nelsonville, Ohio; Charleston, West Virginia; and Lansing, Illinois, creating hundreds of jobs for the people who live there and the prospect of strong returns for the investors that backed the basic Woodland premise: the flip side of a capital gap is a market opportunity!

Earlier in his career, Wilhelm led a number of enterprises that could easily be categorized as the ultimate start-ups: political campaigns. He was the national manager of the 1992 presidential campaign of William Jefferson Clinton and has served in similar capacities for Mayor Richard M. Daley, Senator Joseph R. Biden, and the late Senator Paul Simon. Following the election of President Clinton in 1992, Wilhelm was named chair of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the youngest person ever to serve in that role in American history.

Wilhelm is the recipient of a master of public policy degree from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio University. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Ohio University and the University of Charleston, he has taught classes at the University of Chicago and DePaul University, and he has been a fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics and Ohio University’s Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Speakers." National Research Council. 2013. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13538.
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Since 1991, the National Research Council, under the auspices of the Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy, has undertaken a program of activities to improve policymakers' understandings of the interconnections of science, technology, and economic policy and their importance for the American economy and its international competitive position. The Board's activities have corresponded with increased policy recognition of the importance of knowledge and technology to economic growth.

One important element of STEP's analysis concerns the growth and impact of foreign technology programs. U.S. competitors have launched substantial programs to support new technologies, small firm development, and consortia among large and small firms to strengthen national and regional positions in strategic sectors. Some governments overseas have chosen to provide public support to innovation to overcome the market imperfections apparent in their national innovation systems. They believe that the rising costs and risks associated with new potentially high-payoff technologies, and the growing global dispersal of technical expertise, underscore the need for national R&D programs to support new and existing high-technology firms within their borders.

Similarly, many state and local governments and regional entities in the United States are undertaking a variety of initiatives to enhance local economic development and employment through investment programs designed to attract knowledge-based industries and grow innovation clusters. These state and regional programs and associated policy measures are of great interest for their potential contributions to growth and U.S. competitiveness and for the "best practice" lessons that they offer for other state and regional programs. STEP's project on State and Regional Innovation Initiatives is intended to generate a better understanding of the challenges associated with the transition of research into products, the practices associated with successful state and regional programs, and their interaction with federal programs and private initiatives. The study seeks to achieve this goal through a series of complementary assessments of state, regional, and federal initiatives; analyses of specific industries and technologies from the perspective of crafting supportive public policy at all three levels; and outreach to multiple stakeholders. Building the Ohio Innovation Economy: Summary of a Symposium explains the of the study, which is to improve the operation of state and regional programs and, collectively, enhance their impact.

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