Business View Magazine - October 2018

18 19 and, in collaboration with the university, advance the research, educational, and technology transfer missions of Virginia Tech. Business View Magazine recently delved into the visionary operations and goals of the VTCRC with an interview panel featur- ing: Dr. Joe Meredith, President & CEO of VTCRC; Dr. John Dooley, CEO Virginia Tech Foundation; Dawn Myers, COO of VTCRC; and Carol Stewart, CEO of Association of University Research Parks (AURP). The following is an edited transcript of that interview. BVM: Let’s begin with an overview of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Cen- ter. How/when did it get started, and what was the objective with the build? Dr. Meredith: In the early 1980s, the State of Virginia came to Virginia Tech and asked what kind of programs we had to help manufacturing and service busi- nesses in the state. They acknowledged that we had done a fantastic land grant job with agriculture, but they were con- cerned about the emerging new economy in manufacturing. The university formed a committee to study that issue and recom- mended the formation of two companies: Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, to manage all the intellectual property com- ing from university research; and a Cor- porate Research Center to build relation- ships between research from companies in the Research Park to the university, and opportunities for students and faculty to support companies in the private sector. Around 1988, the first couple of buildings VIRGINIA TECH CORPORATE RESEARCH CENTER were constructed and we never looked back.” Dr. Dooley: “The Foundation took the lead with the development of the Corporate Re- search Center and we’re very proud to be as- sociated with them over this period of time. I believe the original vision was for the VTCRC to be a real estate enterprise, but we’ve discovered that the secret sauce was for it to be a busi- ness/technology services endeavor. Dr. Meredith and his staff do an excellent job of bringing in added value in business programs and devel- opment to the tenants that are here. That is the key characteristic of this enterprise.” BVM: Can you take us through the current operations of the VTCRC? Dr. Meredith: “We go out and recruit compa- nies, we create companies, and we try to lever- age companies that already have a relationship with Virginia Tech. A third of the companies in the research park are local entrepreneurs that conclude they can do something better, cheaper, and/or faster than somebody else. About one fifth are larger companies that are opening branch offices here to take advantage of re- search opportunities or access to talent coming from the university.We have coaches on staff to help early stage companies understand things such as equity, raising money, and business de- velopment, so they’ll be more successful.” Dr. Dooley: “We’re enablers.We want to find ways to connect with emerging technologies and discoveries coming out of the university,