Wright offers relationship expertise
through Economic Development

by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

Michael Wright

ew associate director of the Office of Economic Development Michael Wright is looking to support partnerships, teamwork and communication among businesses in the region and between those businesses and the University. On campus since July 2, Wright has been getting to know "the players" in economic development in the region.

     "All of us have to be relationship experts, so the number of our external contacts has to be greater than if we were working on campus only. We also have to be campus-resource experts to make links between what's going on on the outside and what's going on on the inside that respects the University's mission.

      Wright will be working on the Baystate Medical Center collaboration and the Public Service Endowment Grant. He also plans to look into sustainable development to ensure that University contributions to business and economic development are not in conflict with the environment.

      "I feel very fortunate to have Mike Wright join us in UMass Economic Development," said assistant vice chancellor Jaymie Chernoff, who directs the office. "Michael is a versatile program and project developer with breadth of experience in regional and community economic development and professional development for technology professionals."

      Wright has a bachelor's degree in urban and environmental studies and an MBA from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Over the past seven years, he was a lifelong learning specialist at the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, a 60,000-member organization of engineers and engineering faculty and students. He assisted engineers and faculty with career development and worked with companies that employ engineers.
Between 1985 and 1993, Wright was a senior economic development specialist at the Muskegon (Michigan) Economic Growth Alliance, where he coordinated academic, government and private-sector resources to help retain and foster small and medium-sized businesses in the region. While at the alliance, he ran a regional small-business development center for two years and coordinated a strategic county-wide economic-development planning process.

      Wright said his office's emphasis is on new technology, including venture capital for entrepreneurial start-ups, and on building relationships among area businesses and the University.

      "In addition to formal partnerships that exist, we're also on an informal level fostering teamwork and communication, being a good linker," he said.

      Every once in a while there are reasons to work with a company that is interested in locating nearby because of an obvious connection to the University, such as research and development resources, he said. Although OED is not usually in the business of marketing the area to companies, he said, when the intellectual capital and knowledge available through the campus is a major selling point to a possible incoming business, it makes sense for the University to take the lead in wooing the company.

      "We want to see what's the best way to do that and ways the University can gain from that," he said. "We want to be providing opportunities near this campus for students to find great-paying jobs in their fields when they graduate and greater opportunities for our researchers to collaborate with business and industry. I'm part of the team trying to create those opportunities.

      "Another reason to support start-ups is that there are individuals in the University community who, once they begin working in a particular vein, begin to think of starting up a company. Those start small, but some of them become major economic powerhouses. One reason we're located in Research is to give these ideas the best chance of growing into important companies in the future.

      "We don't have a lot of constraints on how one could approach the mission. We have the flexibility to work on a variety of opportunities.

      "And this is an especially appropriate role for a land-grant university. People are doing exciting, innovative things all over the state. The citizens of the commonwealth have a lot to be proud about, knowing the University has put its shoulder to the wheel to help make these things happen."