Kent State College of Business Administration’s associate dean for graduate and international programs has been selected to join the Startup Officers Leadership Council.

 

Robert Hisrich, also the Bridgestone Chair in the university’s international marketing department, is the newest member of the invitation-only organization.

The council was established by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer (NCET2)—a coalition of entrepreneurial universities across the country that create and fund startups launched by universities—which works with more than 200 universities to connect them with Fortune/Global 1000 companies, investors, economic development organizations and government agencies in building innovation centers.

As a part of the council, Hisrich will work with other members “in finding improvements to the university-corporate-startup ecosystem, providing congressional staffers ideas for legislation to fill the ‘funding gap’ and provide infrastructure funding to universities and to lead the university community on gap funding advocacy, startups demo days,” according to a July 27 Kent State news release.

The first task Hisrich will work on as a member of the council includes the University Startups Demo Day in Washington D.C., in September, hosted by the National Council of Entrepreneurial Tech Transfer.

Thirty-five tech startups associated with universities will gather at the USDD to have the opportunity to partner with and be funded by angel and venture capitalist investors.

Additionally, the event will be used as a way to increase Congressional awareness of the role university startups play in national competitiveness.

“So much of the technology developed in the university setting languishes rather than be developed further,” Hisrich said in the university news release. “I see this as an opportunity to help correct that problem through training, fundraising and advocacy.”

Prior to joining Kent State in 2015, Hisrich served as director of the Walker Center of Global Entrepreneurship at Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona, as well as honorary and visiting professor at eight universities spanning across six countries.

Alex Delaney-Gesing is the editor of The Summer Kent Stater, contact her at [email protected].