President’s advisory council meets at UNC

The nation’s leading innovators planted the seed Tuesday for future Googles, Intels and Microsofts inside Koury Auditorium.

Meeting for only the third time in its existence, President Barack Obama’s National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship held its first public forum outside Washington, D.C. at the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

And it was at the urging of Chancellor Holden Thorp, a member of the council and major advocate of campus-grown innovation, who invited the 24-member council, which includes presidents, founders, CEOs of large companies and leaders in higher education, to UNC.

“It really lowers the mystery about what the panels do and shows the people that we’ve really thought about stuff that’s really important,” Thorp said.

He said federal councils are required to open meetings to the public over the phone, but he thinks Tuesday was the first time a federal advisory council held a forum with an in-person public audience.

Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke led the meeting and spoke about the importance of the university setting.

“We really wanted to allow the faculty and students that are budding entrepreneurs to learn more about the work of our national council.”

The panel helps the U.S. Department of Commerce communicate with entrepreneurs and small businesses and suggests ways to turn laboratory ideas into marketplace results.

Locke said the council’s primary goal is to create a more nurturing environment for entrepreneurs and new businesses in order to encourage innovation and company creation.

He said businesses less than five years old, known as startup companies, created 40 million new jobs in the past 30 years and are responsible for almost all new net jobs during that time.

“All the new jobs that are still remaining today originally came from startup companies,” Locke said. “We want more of these companies that are less than five years old that will eventually become giants.”

Gov. Bev Perdue, who attended the forum, said North Carolina was an appropriate location for the inaugural public forum because the Triangle area is home to several research universities and Research Triangle Park.

“If you read our history, and most of us in the state have, you understand that we have been built on the back of innovation,” Perdue said, citing examples like the Wright brothers’ innovative first flight.

Entrepreneurs like Steve Case, co-founder of America Online, Gururaj Deshpande, chairman of Sparta Group LLC, and Mary Sue Coleman, the University’s former vice chancellor for research and current president of the University of Michigan, each led subcommittees and presented their ideas.

Thorp said the council meeting was particularly well timed as seniors face graduation and limited job opportunities.

“There are a lot of students who realize they’re not going to be working for big companies, so they’re more interested in this,” he said.

“The economy is a factor in why the council exists, but I think that college students in general are adventurous and open to new things and were thinking about entrepreneurial ventures.”

Thorp, who has dedicated the past 15 years to entrepreneurship and co-authored a book about innovation and entrepreneurship, said he is excited that these subjects are gaining national attention.

“For Carolina to be a part of the national conversation on innovation is particularly gratifying,” he said. “I think it was a great day for Carolina.”

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