In an effort to generate new business investment and technology transfer, Cornell officials arranged for executives from 11 U.S. companies that evolved from Cornell research to meet with venture capital groups and industrialists in a meeting that took place in Taiwan on Jan. 15.
The all-day meeting at the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Taipei included President Hunter Rawlings; Norman R. Scott, Cornell vice president for research and advanced studies; Chin Lin, president, and other officials of China Venture Management Inc.; Michael Stamm, president of Tompkins County Area Development in Ithaca; Inge Reichenbach, Cornell acting vice president for public affairs; Tsu-lin Mei, the Hu Shih Professor of Chinese Literature and Philology at Cornell; Catheryn Obern, Cornell director of International Public Affairs; and executives of 11 U.S. companies in Central New York, California and Atlanta.
The Americans made presentations to some 100 Taiwanese venture capitalists and industrialists during the meeting, which was hosted by China Venture Management Inc. The U.S. executives are looking for investment capital, marketing and sales partner ships and licensing opportunities.
Rawlings, who also met with Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui during his trip to Taiwan, said Cornell actively supports entrepreneurship, business creation and innovation based on research developed at the university.
"The discovery of new knowledge with potential commercial value is something that happens with surprising regularity at
Cornell," Rawlings said. "As a major re search university, Cornell takes very seriously its responsibilities to make its facili ties and the results of its research available for the benefit of society."
To spur new businesses, the Cornell Office of Technology Access and Business Assistance (COTABA) was created a year ago, Rawlings said, and a new initiative, the Cornell Value-Added Research Fund, is in the planning stages. The fund, created ini tially from private contributions, will move commercially promising discoveries from the laboratory to the marketplace by investing in areas where Cornell already has out standing research strength, in fields that include medicine, engineering, agriculture, computing and physical sciences.
The Jan. 15 meeting was a continuation of relationships developed during President Lee's historic visit to Cornell last June. At that time, Lee, who earned his Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Cornell in 1968, met with leaders of several high-tech com panies that have connections with Cornell and gave his endorsement to building stron ger relations with them.
Cornell alumni are well-represented in Taiwan's universities and scientific and re search organizations, including National Taiwan University and Academia Sinica, the major academic and scientific research organization in the Republic of China.
On Jan. 16, the U.S. executives were scheduled to tour Hsinchu, Taiwan's sci ence-based industrial park, which includes 170 manufacturers employing more than 35,000 workers. Cornell has exchange agreements, established in 1994, with Hsinchu research institutions in nanofabrication, supercomputing and synchrotron radiation.
Companies and executives attending the meeting under Cornell auspices are:
·Advanced Polymer Systems Inc. of Redwood City, Calif.; John J. Meakem, chairman and president.
·AC Technology Inc. of Ithaca; Charles Hsu, president Pacific Region.
·Fiber Reinforced Plastics Corp. of Ithaca; Petru Petrina, president and CEO.
·Life Network Engineering Technologies Inc. of Ithaca; Ramiro Zeron, president, Bernard T. Candelaria, vice president, and Thomas P. Hanna, program leader for the Child Abuse Prevention Network of Cornell's Family Life Development Center.
·Metabolex Inc. of Haywood, Calif.; David W. Prichard, vice president and chief financial officer.
·Pathlight Technology Inc. of Ithaca; James H. Watson Jr., president.
·3D/EYE Inc. of Ithaca and Atlanta; Tao-Yang Han, chief technology officer.
·TGT Inc. of Geneva, N.Y.; Rustin Howard, president.
·TMS Technologies Inc. of Ithaca; Greg
Galvin, president and CEO.
·Moore Computer Consultants Inc. of Ithaca; Terry Moore, president and CEO.
·RM Capital Holdings; Robert E. Maroney, president and CEO.
The 11 companies participating in the meeting are in the early growth stage, with interests ranging from computer graphics (3D/EYE) to microelectromechanical de vices (TMS) to biological non-chemical pesticides (TGT).
"We are very pleased that Cornell took the initiative to organize this trip," said Stamm of Tompkins County Area Development. "We have an excellent opportunity to access significant capital resources because of Cornell's longstanding relationship with the government in Taiwan. This effort is one more example of Cornell's commitment to economic development in our region."
Cornell ranks ninth in the nation in R&D expenditures, with more than $330 million in total research projects. In recent years, at least 46 firms with annual revenues of $270 million and 2,250 employees have been developed from Cornell research; 32 of them in Tompkins County and the remainder primarily in upstate New York.
The Cornell Research Foundation, which administers the university's patent and technology licensing, has 800 domestic and 450 foreign patents approved
or pending. Forty new patents approved last year range from veterinary drugs and vaccines to medical devices, food products and processes, and nanofabrication and semiconductor technologies.
Scott noted the great energy among the audience and speakers, which was exhib ited throughout the day -- both during the respective presentations in the morning and in the afternoon at private meetings between the American businessmen and Tai wanese colleagues.
"The day was filled with a spirit of enthusiastic sharing of information and discus sion of future collaborations for tangible development of new business relationships," Scott said.
Stamm said, "We were pleasantly surprised with the level and seriousness of the interest by Taiwanese venture capitalists in investing in Ithaca-area companies. For a variety of reasons, the timing of the Cornell-organized trip was perfect. It is clear that the Taiwanese business people have great respect for Cornell. We feel confident that the foundations of many long-term, mutually profitable relationships were formed."
The Republic of China on Taiwan is one of the world's wealthiest economies with foreign exchange reserves exceeding $100 billion, second only to Japan. Taiwan ranks as the United States' sixth-largest trading partner with $42.4 billion worth of goods.