A lofty idea to create a $100 million-plus venture-capital fund is gaining momentum, even though college leaders have just started tossing around the notion.
"Sometimes, all it takes is a great idea," Ohio State University spokeswoman Shelly Hoffman said yesterday.
Higher-education officials have been buzzing about the idea this week since OSU President E. Gordon Gee told a newspaper that he'd like to see the state's public schools partner with private businesses to move more research discoveries into the marketplace. Venture-capital funds invest in new ideas in the hope of gaining big returns.
Gee's comments to the Dayton Daily News made the idea public, but Ohio State officials have been vetting the possibility on the sly for the past several months.
"I've been talking to a number of people in Columbus and throughout the state quietly about the idea, at least until yesterday," OSU Chief Financial Officer Geoffrey S. Chatas said with a laugh. "I'm glad to see that Gordon apparently likes the idea."
Chatas, a former JPMorgan Chase executive, joined Ohio State in February partly to help the university jump-start its effort to bring faculty inventors and businesspeople together to turn ideas into money and jobs.
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