Smeal College's Farrell Center Director Named To National Innovation Initiative

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (February 17, 2004) – Anthony C. Warren, director of the Farrell Center for Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Penn State’s Smeal College of Business, has been named to the 2004 National Innovation Initiative (NII), a yearlong project to develop a strategic and actionable agenda to drive innovation in the United States.

Sponsored by the Council on Competitiveness, a forum for elevating American competitiveness to the forefront of the national consciousness, and co-chaired by Samuel J. Palmisano, chairman and CEO of IBM, and G. Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, the NII will culminate with a National Innovation Summit in December 2004. The summit, which will offer a comprehensive National Innovation Agenda based on the findings of various NII working groups, will be attended by presidential administration officials, governors, members of congress, and private sector leaders.

Warren, whose Smeal College research center contributes to and interprets the best in academic research in entrepreneurship—encompassing both start-up situations and innovation within corporate settings—will contribute his expertise to the NII’s 21st Century Working Group.

Meeting for the first time on Feb. 26-27 in Atlanta, the working group will seek to identify new dynamics of innovation while developing new metrics for innovation in the 21st century. The group will also attempt to identify ways to drive innovation at the intersection of services and manufacturing while striving to stimulate innovation across the services sector.

“In today’s more open, competitive, and networked environment, there has certainly been a shift in the nature of innovation,” Warren said. “Economic growth, productivity, job creation, and rising standards of living all stem from innovation, and for the U.S. to remain competitive in this increasingly global marketplace, the time is now to evaluate this country’s innovation potential and to chart the future.”

Other NII working groups will address themes such as organizational frontiers, innovation skills, public sector innovation, innovation finance, innovation environment and infrastructure, and innovation markets, with each group producing three-to-five recommendations to the NII Principals Committee over the coming year. Composed of distinguished CEOs, university presidents, and labor leaders, the committee will receive additional support and advice from an advisory committee of leaders from business, academia, labor, and government.

Warren was selected for the initiative because of his extensive experience as a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. Prior to joining the Smeal College to head the Farrell Center, which also develops new educational methods to provide all students in high school and college with skills in innovation and entrepreneurship, Warren spent much of his career with the international consulting firm PA Technology. During a period of more than 17 years he grew international revenues for the United Kingdom-based firm to more than $50 million while also consulting with many of the world’s largest corporations on managing creativity and accelerating product development. He is also a venture partner with Adams Capital Management, a nationwide venture capital firm with more than $700 million under management, and a regular speaker and government advisor on entrepreneurship and innovation funding mechanisms.