As president and CEO business incubator
Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, RoseAnn Rosenthal has traveled all over Pennsylvania examining innovation and tech transfer operations and talking shop with state leaders. Her journeyman style has helped BFTP Southeast regional office grow more than 1,600 companies from the basements and garages of invention to industry-leading commercialization.
After taking so many businesses from regional success to national acclaim, it is no wonder that Rosenthal has done the same for herself. This week, at an
Innovation Forum at the University of Michigan, U.S. Commerce secretary Gary Locke took the podium to ask Rosenthal and a slew of innovation specialists from across the country to join the newly-formed National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“America’s innovation engine is not as efficient or as effective as
it needs to be, and we are not creating as many jobs as we should,”
Locke said. “We must get better at connecting the great ideas to the
great company builders. The National Advisory Council will help the
administration develop a broader strategy to spur innovation and enable
entrepreneurs to develop breakthrough technologies and dynamic
companies, and to create jobs all across America.”
Formed by presidential order, the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship will examine ways to create jobs and stimulate the economy through research and commercialization. After announcing the
National Innovation Strategy last fall, which called for doubling the budgets of
agencies including the National Science Foundation, the White House now looks to convene the advisory board to oversee the increased funding and get the most national impact from American innovation. The board will have a lot of resources to work with as the president’s 2011
budget--while freezing domestic discretionary spending overall--increases funding for civilian research and development by $3.7 billion.
While Rosenthal could not be reached for comment, she joins a cavalcade of intrepid entrepreneurs and tech transfer professionals including the co-founder of Yahoo! Jerry Yang, and VP for Research at MIT Claude Canizares. View the full list of advisers joining Rosenthal
here.
Source: Gary Locke, U.S. Department of CommerceWriter: John Steele