New organization to lead high-tech economic development

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

SUNY Polytechnic Institute at the UAlbany campus.

ALBANY — State university and development leaders have created a new organization to lead high-tech research and economic development and have named an industry veteran to run it.

New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering and Science, or NY CREATES, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. It is expected to build on reforms at two nonprofits affiliated with SUNY Polytechnic Institute, which was rocked by the September 2016 arrest of its president on bid-rigging charges.

NY CREATES will be run by Douglas A. Grose, who served as CEO of GlobalFoundries in 2009-2011.

It will be headquartered in Albany on the SUNY Poly campus and will assume control of the operations of the two nonprofits, Fuller Road Management Corporation and Fort Schuyler Management Corporation.

The two currently manage a dozen projects across upstate New York, including The Center for Semiconductor Research in Albany. Under the new leadership, other SUNY schools and private universities will have access to their unique research facilities, tools and capabilities.

With SUNY as the lead academic institution, NY CREATES will partner with other universities and colleges across the state and with Empire State Development, the state’s chief economic development agency, to advance new research and development projects and develop assets that support the growth of high-tech companies.

NY CREATES will:

Identify promising R&D and high-tech development projects;
Solicit state, federal and industry resources to fund projects;
Collaborate with ESD to negotiate project terms and commitments;
Develop, operate, maintain and lease high-tech assets;
Contract with university and industry partners to deliver projects;
Partner with universities to ensure that projects foster education, research and workforce development benefits.

Industry and academic representatives will have a chance to advise future technology directions of NY CREATES through a technology advisory board.

Grose holds a BS, MS and PhD in materials engineering and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He worked in IBM’s Technology Products Division from 1979 to 2002, then was chief operating officer of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies; executive vice president and chief operating officer at NanoTech Resources; senior vice president at Advanced Micro Devices, during which he helped direct the formation of AMD spinoff GlobalFoundries; and was GlobalFoundries’ CEO.

Officials said SUNY Poly’s academic mission and leadership will remain unchanged but NY CREATES will improve management of SUNY Poly’s economic development portfolio.

Officials said NY CREATES will continue the policies that Fuller Road and Fort Schuyler adopted two months after Kaloyeros’ arrest, including compliance with state Open Meetings Law and Freedom of Information Law.

They also said NY CREATES would maintain procurement, property disposition, whistleblowing and compliance policies and procedures designed to promote integrity, transparency and effectiveness in its operations and projects.