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Connect Looks to Link With Other Local Institutions

Connect, the UC San Diego program that for two decades has helped entrepreneurs set up businesses and commercialize new technology, plans to continue that work as a private, nonprofit organization beginning July 1.

Members of Connect’s executive committee and university leaders said they plan to take Connect out from under the university’s control and reorganize the group under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

“It’s time for us to work on a more equal footing,” said John Woods, UCSD’s vice chancellor for resource management and planning.

Duane Roth, who has held the director’s post at Connect since October, said the organization is fighting a perception that Connect is focused squarely on UCSD technology.

“The perception of being a neutral broker is at the core of what Connect is,” Roth said.

Connect is now governed by an executive committee of 17 people; five are deans or vice chancellors at the university.

Mary Walshok, the associate vice chancellor for public programs and dean of university extension, said the group will reorganize under new bylaws. Once re-established, Connect will boost its board membership to the range of 30 to 50, officials said. Walshok characterized the new board as “inclusive.”

The university leaders who oversee Connect expressed hope that the Burnham Institute, the Salk Institute, the Scripps Research Institute and San Diego State University would work more closely with Connect in the future.

Roth and Walshok shared plans to reinvigorate one Connect program called Springboard. Springboard sessions are confidential meetings where entrepreneurs meet experts such as intellectual property lawyers, executives and venture capitalists and talk about turning technology into practical business models.

Walshok expressed the hope that Connect can take the near-dormant program , the number of Springboard sessions has dwindled to five per year , and turn it into 100 or 150 sessions per year.

Roth said he hopes that Springboards will draw students from UCSD’s new Rady School of Management, as well as San Diego State, for a look at some real-world problem-solving.

“This isn’t role-play for business school students. This is real-time,” Roth said.

Other Connect programs, such as the Most Innovative New Products awards, will remain.

Connect will also continue to advocate public policy that benefits the high-tech electronics and biotech industries, Roth said. This “innovation agenda” has included streamlining federal approval for biotech products and allowing foreign-born technicians to work in the United States under H-1B visas.

Embryonic stem cell research is another issue important to Connect. “We think that’s good for the community,” Roth said.

Connect was founded in 1985, and for much of its existence was led by the charismatic Bill Otterson, who died in 1999. Fred Cutler was named director the next year, but he left the post in 2003.

In the last nine months, Walshok said, the Connect leadership has interviewed dozens of community leaders about the direction they would like the organization to take. She came away from the interviews with the message that startup companies still need Connect’s help.

This spring has been a time of transition for groups supporting tech businesses. In February, the San Diego Regional Technology Alliance became part of Connect. Previously, the RTA distributed state grants, but more recently it encountered budget problems and had to cut staff.

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