University Times

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg remembers feeling impressed — but also envious — whenever he worked with Don Smith, Carnegie Mellon University's economic development director.

Along with Nordenberg and CMU President Jared Cohon, Smith was an architect of the Pittsburgh Digital Greenhouse, a state-funded consortium of companies, universities and nonprofits working to make southwestern Pennsylvania a chip-design center. Smith also helped in developing a $600 million Pittsburgh BioVenture/Life Sciences Greenhouse plan to improve Pittsburgh's biotechnology industry. The plan, announced by Nordenberg and Cohon last November, outlines strategies for creating at least 5,000 new jobs, another 10,600 spinoff jobs, and starting up or attracting 110 bioscience companies.

After seeing Smith in action, Nordenberg would tell himself, and occasionally other people: "Pitt really needs a guy like Don Smith."

Last week, the chancellor and CMU President Cohon named Smith to coordinate economic development at both schools.

"Suddenly, Pitt does not just have a guy like Don Smith," Nordenberg crowed at a Jan. 17 news conference. "We have the Don Smith."

The chancellor added: "To the best of our knowledge, this is a unique arrangement in higher education, to have one individual leading the economic development initiatives of two major research universities."

As vice president of economic development for the Mellon Pitt Carnegie Corp. (MPC), which was founded during the 1960s to foster collaboration between Pitt and what then was called Carnegie Tech, Smith will coordinate technology transfer activities at Pitt and CMU. Other duties include identifying, cataloging and coordinating economic development projects between the two universities, and working with regional economic development organizations.

Smith will report directly to Cohon and Nordenberg. Pitt and CMU each will pay half of Smith's salary.

Donald F. Smith Jr., 37, began his economic development career in 1985 as an intern with the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce. After earning his bachelor's degree in economics at Harvard, he was a strategic projects coordinator at the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce from 1986 to 1988 and was the lead analyst for the state's economic development strategy, Investing in Pennsylvania's Future. After earning his Ph.D. in public policy at Carnegie Mellon in 1994, Smith worked for Rand Corp.'s Critical Technology Institute in Washington, D.C.

He returned to Pittsburgh in June 1995 to direct CMU's Center for Economic Development and teach economic development.

University Times Assistant Editor Bruce Steele interviewed Smith following last week's news conference.

University Times: It seems the most obvious opportunity for deepening the Pitt-Carnegie Mellon relationship is matching CMU's strengths in computer engineering and information science with Pitt's biomedical expertise.

Smith: That's certainly one of the most promising and exciting possibilities, marrying the IT-computer science-engineering strengths of CMU with the medical excellence and biomedical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. That's really the premise behind the Life Sciences Greenhouse, bringing these strengths together to create an initiative that is competitive with any region in the world. Both universities are good in their own right, but together they're even better.

One of the other areas that is quite ripe for collaboration is in the area of technology commercialization, particularly as it relates to entrepreneurial activity by faculty and staff. There are efforts in this area at Pitt already, through the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence and the Office of Technology Management, and there are similar efforts at Carnegie Mellon. One of my duties will be to coordinate those activities and look for opportunities for new joint activities. We also want to make sure that when companies want to access specialized resources at the universities, we make that as easy as possible for them.

When Gov. Ridge was appointed U.S. Homeland Security Director, some said Ridge was in a losing position because his new job lay outside the entrenched bureaucratic structure. Likewise, you're neither a CMU fish nor a Pitt fowl. Do you face the same kind of challenge that Ridge faces?

I think there are some of the same challenges. The intention is not for me to come in and direct each of these units or activities that are going on at the universities. But I already have relationships with the people who run these entities. We've collaborated on projects before. We have good personal relationships. And so my job is to make it clear to all of these people that I'm here to help them — to help bring resources and attention to their programs, to help them connect with outside industry and civic leadership, and that I'm just here to help make the system, which includes all of these individual pieces, work more efficiently.

It's absolutely critical that my position reports directly to the chancellor and the president. Tom Ridge said of some of the existing [federal] units, "Well, I have the ear of the president. They don't." And that's what he felt was a distinguishing characteristic about his job. Likewise, it's very important that I have the ear of the chancellor and the president and the two provosts, so that I can bring the concerns of existing units that are doing entrepreneurship or tech transfer or whatever, to the executive offices and also that I can look for opportunities for collaborative efforts among them, since I don't have day-to-day management responsibilities for those entities.

How do you do that? Do you work the phones, make the rounds of offices and labs?

I spend a lot of my life in meetings, talking to people who are running efforts like the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence, but also talking with faculty. I will meet with all of the deans of the various schools and ask for their help in identifying who some of the faculty are in their schools who I really need to get to know.

I need to build the network on the Pitt side that I have already constructed on the Carnegie Mellon side. When a company says, "I need to talk to somebody with expertise in area X," I'll need to have the connections where I can go to the appropriate faculty member, dean or center to make that connection and make sure that the industry folks find out about all of the great research going on at both universities.

In some ways, I'm kind of like the switchboard operator who makes the connections and keeps the information flowing.

Let's say I'm a Pitt researcher with an idea that may have commercial possibilities. To reach you, do I need to go through my dean or can I contact you directly?

People should feel free to contact me directly. One of the things I have pledged to do is work with the Pitt deans, the Office of Technology Transfer and the Office of Sponsored Research. My position can't be seen as a way of going around those established offices. Hopefully, I'll be able to help publicize the resources that are available for faculty members who have ideas with commercial potential.

Smith can be reached at Pitt by telephone at 412/624-2202. His e-mail address is: ds2i@pitt.edu

You'll have an office on the first floor of Pitt's Cathedral of Learning, in CMU's Warner Hall [where Carnegie Mellon administrators, including President Cohon, have offices] and Downtown at the Regional Enterprise Tower [formerly the Alcoa Building]. How much time will you be spending on each campus — or in Harrisburg, or Washington, D.C.?

I would be in Washington and Harrisburg strictly on an as-needed basis. Both universities have governmental relations staffs. If they think it would be useful for me to participate in [government-related] activities, I'm available to do that. I have a pretty good relationship with the governor's office and the Department of Community and Economic Development as a result of all of the initiatives we've worked on over the last five or six years.

When I'm here in Pittsburgh, I'll probably spend the biggest block of time Downtown at the Regional Enterprise Tower, where the digital and life sciences greenhouses are located. But it is key that I also spend real face-time on both campuses so that I can interact not only with the administrations — the chancellor, the president, the two provosts — but also so that other administrators and faculty get used to seeing me around campus. One of the things we have learned from organizational studies is that serendipitous interactions are often the most fruitful. If someone runs into me on campus, they might say: "You know, I have an idea about a product that I need some assistance with," whereas they might not think to contact me by e-mail or phone.

As time goes by and the greenhouses move to Oakland, which eventually they will, then I'll essentially be splitting my time between the two campuses.

The recent growth of Pitt-CMU collaborations has been attributed to the close working and personal relationship between Jared Cohon and Mark Nordenberg. Is your hiring part of an effort to institutionalize relationships between the two universities — so Pitt-CMU collaborations will proceed even if, in the future, the two universities' CEOs don't get along so well?

I think so. A big part of this was to not only institutionalize but also to strengthen the personal relationships and interactions that go on between the chancellor and the president. The two of them do have a very good personal relationship and genuine respect for each other. It was critical from my perspective that I get along well with, and have a great deal of respect for, both of them.

When you talk about institutions that don't have long histories of collaborating as a routine thing, to break down those cultural barriers you have to rely on personal relationships. It's very important for me in this new role that I'm viewed as an honest broker who can help to identify collaborations that are good for both schools as well as pursuing projects that might be good for one school or the other.

What are the cultural barriers between Pitt and CMU?

I think there are some historical, cultural barriers but I think they're soft barriers. If you make purposeful efforts to overcome or minimize them, I think you can. One thing that we shouldn't lose sight of is that a certain amount of competition is good. It makes everybody better and sharper when you're competing with other good players. I don't think we'll ever see a situation where the two universities don't compete on any level, but it's important that we realize, especially in something like regional economic development, that our collaborative interests are so much larger than our competitive rivalries.

Will your job include helping to recruit promising students and keep them from leaving the region once they graduate?

Indirectly. [Pitt professor] Susan Hansen has done a very good study of the vocational decisions of graduates from Pitt and Carnegie Mellon. What's clear from that and other research is that there are two dominant factors in determining where students choose to go following graduation. One factor is a city's culture, lifestyle, entertainment activities. But by far the most important factor is the availability of good jobs with good companies. All of the economic development activities that the universities are undertaking to help start and grow new technology-driven companies, entrepreneurial companies — these are exactly the kinds of companies that are creating jobs that will retain our graduates in the region as well as attract graduates from the best universities around the world to Pittsburgh.

How do you envision the Pitt-CMU partnership five or 10 years from now?

A number of things are becoming more and more clear. It's clear that Oakland is the economic driver for the region, and that the ideas and talent coming out of the universities represent the region's key competitive advantage. So, my vision for the future is: We're able to generate more resources to grow and sustain the teaching and research that go on at the universities. We have the world's best system for taking that talent and those ideas and turning them into companies and economic growth in the region. And, we've created an environment in the greater Oakland area that is conducive to attracting the best faculty, attracting and retaining the best students, and generating an entrepreneurial- and technology-driven economy that makes this a highly attractive place to live and work.

You've mentioned working closely with President Cohon and Chancellor Nordenberg. What will your working relationship be with UPMC Health System and its president and CEO, Jeffrey Romoff?

Certainly, Jeffrey and UPMC also are critical players in the region's economy, both through the jobs they create but also as a clinical care vehicle for some of the biotechnology that's developed at both universities. And UPMC will be a key player in the Life Sciences Greenhouse as well.

As far as I know, I won't have any formal role with UPMC, but I expect to do a lot of collaboration with Jeff Romoff, and with Scott Lammie of the [UPMC] Diversified Services Group that is working on things like entrepreneurship and venture capital and those kinds of activities that help fuel the economy.

President Cohon said this morning that he immediately endorsed the idea of your joint appointment, when Chancellor Nordenberg suggested it to him. What did you think of the idea?

Mark Kamlet, provost at CMU, called me and said: "Hey, I've got a new idea for you. What if you were the director of economic development for CMU and for Pitt?" I thought he was just kidding. It's an idea that makes so much sense, but it's one that we had never discussed. After I thought about it for a few minutes, though, I said: "Geez, that sounds great. Let's talk some more about this."

For someone whose whole career has focused on technology, entrepreneurship and university-based economic development, to be able to access and market the resources of two powerhouse research universities….what a great opportunity!