By Mike Fitts
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

COLUMBIA -- Don Herriott doesn’t see running out to find construction financing as his first priority as the new head of the University of South Carolina’s Innovista effort.

First, Herriott said, is a more business-oriented approach. It’s time to evaluate the strategic plan that’s in place for Innovista and see what still works and what needs re-evaluation, he said.

Herriott, former CEO of Florence-based Roche Global Chemical Manufacturing, was introduced Thursday in his new role as director of Innovista Partnerships. He will report directly to USC President Harris Pastides, a stipulation of Herriott’s that Pastides said was easy to agree with.

Pastides reiterated that despite setbacks on construction financing, USC is as committed as ever to the vision of Innovista as a development of a whole sector of Columbia stretching to the Congaree River as a home for research, private enterprise and entrepreneurship.

“This is not something I ever thought of walking away from,” Pastides said at a news conference in the Discovery building on Greene Street, which already has been outfitted for public health research. “What I think Don does is actually further indicate our commitment.”

Herriott said he will begin to look at Innovista’s assets and opportunities by asking questions the way a business would.

“How do I make this more valuable to business? How do I make this more valuable to the community?” Herriott said.

His strategic review will include examining the current focus areas where resources have been concentrated, in fields such as nanotechnology and hydrogen fuel cells.

“If we had a targeted area of focus and its commercialization prospects have changed, then we need to change the plan,” he said.

Some businesses will find value in having their headquarters right next to the emerging research at USC, Herriott said, while others will choose different locations, with different property costs.

Herriott and Pastides both define his mandate as going beyond the physical campus, to making sure that the discoveries and intellectual properties generated at USC are connected to business opportunities.

“My focus is on partnerships,” Herriott said. “Don Herriott is not Innovista. I’m part of a team that is Innovista.”

That team extends to leadership in Columbia and around the state’s economy, he said.

Herriott noted that he has lived in innovation hubs such as Boulder, Colo., and California’s Silicon Valley, and he has lived in Europe, where homes and offices often are within walking distance of each other. Innovista has similar potential for spurring growth and making South Carolina more globally competitive, he said.

Some critics have said that Innovista’s struggles — such as the long and so-far fruitless effort to finance construction of the Horizon II building — have shown that the university is getting too involved in private enterprise.

But Herriott sees a fundamental synergy: Researchers produce innovations, some of which can be turned into profitable products and services by private enterprise. And that’s key to staying competitive in a knowledge-based economy, he said.

“If a business can tap into the knowledge that was created out of the university by close collaboration, they have an opportunity to be first on the market.”

Published Feb. 8, 2010