To rally Delaware's economy, Harker gathers business elite

The News Journal

Four months after becoming the 26th president of the University of Delaware, Patrick Harker is demonstrating he means business about giving the university a greater role in shaping Delaware's economic future.

The university will host a conference in Newark on Friday that will bring together a lineup of heavy hitters from academia, government, finance and industry, including the chairmen of the DuPont Co. and Perdue Farms Inc.

Economists and others invested in transforming the state's economy call Harker's convening of the event courageous and farsighted. The program, which allowed for a total enrollment of 400 people, sold out this week.

"I think he's trying to set a pace, to show that he has ideas and quickly demonstrate how they might translate into something real," said John H. Taylor Jr., executive director of the Delaware Public Policy Institute in Wilmington, a think tank that is one of the conference's eight sponsors.

The conference comes at a crucial time for Delaware as the state grapples with historic changes in the structure of its economy. For the first time in more than 100 years, the state is without a fast-growing dominant employer.

DuPont pulled the state through most of the 20th century. When it began to pull back in the early 1990s in response to heightened global competition, MBNA credit card bank stepped into the breach. Now that MBNA has been swallowed up by Bank of America, the state lacks a Delaware-based corporate giant to provide the kind of employment and deep support to the educational, social service and cultural communities to which the state has been long accustomed.

Instead, economists and economic development experts predict the state's economy will become more diversified as it shifts to smaller and emerging companies dealing in innovation and knowledge.

But Delaware has some hurdles to overcome. A 2003 study by the Council on Competitiveness found that small businesses were unaware of opportunities to collaborate with the university to develop and commercialize technology. What's more, Delaware ranked among the bottom five states in a measure of entrepreneurial activity released last year by the Kauffman Foundation.

"I think it's certainly the case for Delaware that economic activity will no longer be concentrated in a few big companies," said Phil Hopkins, director of research for Select Greater Philadelphia, the regional economic development and marketing organization for the 11-county greater Philadelphia region, which includes New Castle County.

The roster of speakers and panelists participating in "Creating Knowledge-Based Partnerships: Challenges and Opportunities" indicates the kind of heft that Harker brings to his new job. He was previously dean of the renowned Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

"It's a tour de force," said David Weir, director of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute in Newark, which Harker has praised as a model for successful partnerships based on knowledge. "This is a very impressive list representing all the constituencies."

Anthony Farina, spokesman for DuPont, said "there appears to be a great deal of energy to convene a group like this to address issues that have a direct impact on all of our lives in Delaware."

The university will be key in helping the economy adapt, Hopkins said. Institutions of higher education, in general, help economies respond to competitive pressures on a number of fronts, he said. They can train students in new technologies. They can form partnerships or collaborate with private industry to do research and development.

But they also can encourage faculty and students to be more entrepreneurial and innovative. Some highly successful companies have sprung from faculty research and bright students.

Student and faculty at Stanford University near Palo Alto, Calif., for example, have been the forces behind Google, Yahoo and PayPal.

"Universities are places based on knowledge," Taylor said. "What better place to form partnerships based on the kind of knowledge you would need to go in new directions."

Hopkins said the high level of participation from so many top executives and officials indicates the priority they place on helping the economy transform. DuPont Chairman Chad Holliday will be the keynote speaker. Abby Joseph Cohen, chief U.S. investment strategist with Goldman Sachs, is scheduled to be the lunch speaker.

"This is a very important event for both the future of Delaware, economic development for the state and support for the science and technology companies in the area," Farina said. "Partnerships between industry, academia and government will help drive economic development, as well as additional prosperity to the state."

John R. Cochran, part of the team that helped start MBNA and now a senior vice president at Bank of America Card Services, will participate in a panel on Delaware's advantage in corporate governance. Jim Perdue, chairman of Perdue Farms Inc., will sit on a panel about environmental and agricultural partnerships. Robert Barchi, president of Thomas Jefferson University, will participate in a panel on life sciences.

"It shows they recognize the importance of this kind of activity," Hopkins said.

The conference is the first of a series. The date and topic of the next program will be announced at Friday's event.

The event is sponsored by the university, Select Greater Philadelphia, Delaware Public Policy Institute, the governor's office, Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, Delaware Business Roundtable, First State Innovation and The News Journal.

Contact Maureen Milford at 324-2881 or mmilford@delawareonline.com