Full Council Meeting DRAFT March 9, 2018 Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator Portland Attendance Members Present: Erin Flynn, Chair, PSU; Chris Harder, Business Oregon; Vidya Spandana, Vidya LLC; Ian Lombard, BroadPeak Capital; Tobias Read, State Treasurer; Dan Dorsa, OHSU (via phone); Jud Virden, PNNL (via phone); Sen. Betsy Johnson (ex officio); Rep. David Gomberg (ex officio, via phone); Rep. Richard Vial (ex officio, via phone); Kanth Gopalpur, Business Oregon Commission Chair (ex officio) Staff Present: Kate Sinner, Janet Soto Rodriguez, Nate Wildfire, Mark Brady Guests: Melissa Leoni, House Economic & Trade Committee; Denise McCarty, Oregon Bioscience Association; Rick Turoczy, PiE, Cindy Dahl, ONAMI; Nandini Rangardthan, PNCA; Jason Lewis- Berry, Governor Brown s office; Bill Gerry, Boeing; Tawny Schlieski, Oregon Story Board; Johannes Loschnigg, Loschnigg Consulting; Gordon Hoffman, NW Tech Ventures; Jennifer Fox, OTRADI; Tim Williams, Oregon Film; Jay Lundquist, ONAMI; Ken Vaughn, Oregon BEST; Ben Dair, Sustainable NW; David Kenney, Oregon BEST; David Almodovar, GCM Grosvenor; Mark Manley, RAIN; Peter Lund, Oregon Gaming Association; Cindy Sagers, OSU Meeting was called to order at 9:15am. Welcome, Introductions, Minute Approval Chair Flynn began a round of introductions around the table, on the phone and in the audience. Chris Harder introduced Kate Sinner, new manager of Business Oregon s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Division. Kate talked briefly about her background and experience. Chris Harder discussed Business Oregon is continuing to implement the new model for Oregon InC with the HIOP and SBIR awards today and the current request for proposals for managing the commercialization fund. Minutes were postponed until the next meeting for approval. Audit Committee Update David Almodovar provided the council with a brief update on the Audit Committee. The committee did not review signature research center s (SRC s) performance metrics in the previous quarter because the SRC s grant agreements took longer than expected to get approved and executed. The committee will have a full report at the next meeting. David shared that two members Sandra Morris and Sheila Martin resigned from the committee. David and Business Oregon are working to replace the two members. One new member will be proposed for a council vote later today. We are looking for a minimum of three members. The group then discussed the agreement development process and where those efforts got slowed down. There was a conversation about how to improve the agreement process and how to get funding done in a timely manner.
Committee Updates Chair Flynn explained that the council would now get updates on where three other committees are in their processes at this time and what has happened since the last meeting. Commercialization Fund Nate Wildfire, Capital Strategist of Business Oregon, and Kanth Gopalpur, chair of the Capital Committee, gave an overview of the Request for Proposal process and timeline for the Commercialization Gap Fund. Kanth reminded the council of the purpose of this RFP to hire one fund manager to oversee and invest approximately $5M over the biennium in earliest stage companies born out of science and research. o The funds used to be split between ONAMI and BEST. o The council determined efficiencies of scale could be realized by utilizing one fund manager vs. two. o After ten years, it was time to take a fresh look at this process. o There was a desire among the council to broaden the industry sectors considered beyond those focused on by the SRC s. Proposals are due today (3/9/18) at 10:00 a.m. Between three and seven proposals are expected The Committee purposefully asked for diverse operating proposals. The Capital Committee will review and shortlist the received proposals next Wednesday (3/14/18) The tentative interview dates for finalists are during the last week of March. Contract negotiations with selected fund manager are expected to take place over April, with money being deployed starting upon contract completion and pipeline of potential investments established. Part of the delay in posting the RFP was due to a Department of Justice review of whether Oregon InC was allowed to take equity positions in companies through this Commercialization Gap Fund. The legal review determined a statute change would be necessary to enable the state to serve as a limited partner in investments. A statute change could not be enacted until the 2019 legislative session. As a result, this biennium s Commercialization Gap Fund investment will be as a grant. Recap o Proposals due today o Review, interview and select new fund manager (March) o Finalize relationship, expectations and agreement (April/May) o Begin deploying resources (summer or sooner) High Impact Opportunity Projects (HIOPs) Ian Lombard (Committee chair) and Mark Brady explained that the request for proposals for HIOPs had closed and described the review process. There were over 30 proposals. We are recommending funding for one today. There are a few others that we would like to try to refine because we liked parts of the proposal, but not the entire proposal. There were some that just did not fit the model of what we are looking to fund in this program. Oregon InC Meeting, March 9, 2018, Portland Page 2 of 5
The intent of HIOPs and one of the reasons to shift the model was to move away from supporting organizations and ongoing operations to supporting specific, discrete projects. There was discussion of how to refine the RFP and communications process to get more and better proposals in a subsequent round. The council discussed the need to do something different to get more projects and remove barriers. The council went through the review process and committee, which was approved by the council. It was moved and seconded to approve the one Food Innovation Center feasibility study HIOP for funding. The council voted unanimously to fund that project. High Impact Opportunity Projects (HIOPs) There were approximately 15 applications for these matching grants. Mark Brady provided an overview of the review process and committee. There were six projects that the review committee recommended for funding. It was moved and seconded that the council approve funding for these six projects. The council voted unanimously to approve these projects for funding. Mark Brady described that there would be another RFP for both HIOPs and SBIR matching grants in the future. The HIOP RFP would go out as soon as practical once it was clear how much funding remained available and after the RFP could be refined to be clearer. The SBIR matching grant RFP would likely come out in the fall or early 2018 to allow more time for Oregon companies to receive federal awards. Committee Participant/Council Vote Nate Wildfire informed the group of the proposed new member of the commercialization fund committee; Kevin Renner, VP Marketing & Product Management, Cayuse. It was moved and seconded that Kevin be approved to be on the committee. The council voted unanimously to put Kevin on the committee. Mark Brady informed the group of the proposed new member of the audit committee, Sucheta (Sue) Ball, Business Development Manager, Athletic & Outdoor Industry, Prosper Portland. It was moved and seconded that Sue be approved to be on the committee. The council voted unanimously to put Sue on the committee. There were two administrative issues brought forward to the council for consideration. There are several empty seats on the council at the moment. This can make it difficult to get a quorum for voting. There was a proposal to clarify that a quorum is a majority of the filled positions on the council. It was moved and seconded to approve that a quorum meant a quorum of filled seats on the council. The council approved the motion unanimously. Because the council only meets quarterly, it makes it difficult to handle some things in a timely manner. Thus, a proposal was brought forward to allow meetings & votes to happen via conference calls between in-person quarterly meetings. It was made clear that these calls would follow all appropriate public meeting rules and requirements. It was moved and seconded to allow council meetings and votes to happen via conference calls in between meetings. The council approved the motion unanimously. Oregon InC Meeting, March 9, 2018, Portland Page 3 of 5
Rural Opportunity Initiative (ROI) Janet Rodriquez presented to the group on her program ROI that is the main entrepreneurship initiative from Business Oregon at this time. Mark Brady introduced Janet and reminded the council that entrepreneurship represents the third pillar of I&E activities in Business Oregon with innovation and capital being the other two. Janet explain the purpose of her presentation was to Inform the council about ROI, the 101 s of why & the strategy Connect ROI with Oregon InC to help grow the impact of ROI By the end of the year, getting everyone to yes for connection to rural ecosystem building Janet then discussed major data and trends around entrepreneurship: Mega-trends are challenging entrepreneurship, especially related to demographics, geography, and the relationship between technology and job growth. Entrepreneurship rates are ½ of what they were a generation ago, at a time when new businesses account for nearly all net job creation. Entrepreneurship is increasingly an urban and mid-size metro areas phenomenon. The US population is increasingly diverse, educated, and older, yet our entrepreneurial population is not changing as fast. Certain regions are falling further behind Working to create more distributed entrepreneurial ecosystem Model is built to adapt to different contexts, local strengths and weaknesses and invest scarce resources. Emphasis on community first Business Oregon requested $2M for ROI but only received $750,000 Currently have 40 applications for ROI funding 38 centered on entrepreneurs The plan is in late March to announce the approximately 4-10 winners Public Comment Chair Erin Flynn asked if there was any public comment. Denise McCarty of the Oregon Bioscience Association asked a clarifying question about next steps and timeline for HIOPs. Mark Brady clarified the different groups into which the current proposals fell, said he would be contacting all applicants about their status at the beginning of the following week and stated that he would move as fast as possible to get the next HIOP call for proposals out on the street. Chair Flynn then adjourned the meeting. Meeting ended at 12:00. Oregon InC Meeting, March 9, 2018, Portland Page 4 of 5
Approved by: Erin Flynn, Chair Oregon Innovation Council Date Kate Sinner Business Oregon Date Oregon InC Meeting, March 9, 2018, Portland Page 1 of 5