URI biz center could one day serve all state colleges

SEEING CLEAR: Katharine Hazard Flynn, executive director of the URI Business Engagement Center, says her time at EDC gave her a “wider lens” for viewing economic-development, business and finance opportunities. / COURTESY URI
SEEING CLEAR: Katharine Hazard Flynn, executive director of the URI Business Engagement Center, says her time at EDC gave her a “wider lens” for viewing economic-development, business and finance opportunities. / COURTESY URI

Katharine Hazard Flynn has worked for the business community – specifically, the finance industry on Wall Street – and with the business community, through the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. Now, in her new role as executive director of the University of Rhode Island’s Business Engagement Center, she is working for the university as well as for and with business and industry, seeking to connect employers with opportunities that “engage” URI’s resources, faculty and student body for mutual benefit.
While carving out this new niche, one that could extend future services well beyond the URI campus, Flynn continues to work in advancement for the university.

PBN: After working in the private sector at such companies as Prudential Bache and Societe General, what is it you like and appreciate about the way the business community works?
FLYNN: I like the way business leaders and businesses in general think because they tend to be looking forward. They are always looking for new and better ways to do whatever they do and they’re generally looking to innovate around their core competencies, at least the successful businesses do.

PBN: You worked seven years for the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. What did you learn when working with business leaders?
FLYNN: I had come from working on Wall Street, where most of the conversations were around finances and financing. What the EDC allowed me to do was open that lens so the discussion became more robust. I did a lot with helping businesses relocate. I learned a lot about lean manufacturing and helping businesses get more energy efficient. It taught me to look at a business more holistically. And when I meet with industry leaders now, I have a wider lens, so it’s not just about their balance sheets or their financial health.

PBN: You work now half-time as director of URI’s corporate foundations and relations unit. How will the philanthropic scope of that job inform and affect your role at the Business Engagement Center?
FLYNN: The BEC, since it will serve as the front door for industry to come and use the resources of the university, could very easily lead to philanthropic dollars or research dollars coming to the university. For instance, a company decides to have a faculty member do research for them, that will end up in dollars for the university. There will be a nice synergy between what I am doing now and what I was doing raising dollars philanthropically for the foundation and the university. It will allow me to lead with partnership as opposed to leading with the tin cup, as in, “Please give.”

PBN: Who is the first new business you made contact with as the BEC’s executive director? How did that go?
FLYNN: Hope Global, a large textile manufacturer in Cumberland, reached out. I knew the CEO anyway but they reached out to connect to our international engineering program because they are expanding in both China and Mexico. So they need interns and permanent career people who understand the language of engineering, which is the goal of our international engineering program, where the student graduates with a double major in a language and in engineering. They came to campus to talk about that. That conversation went well and there’s follow up happening. From that conversation came possibilities for two projects, one of which was being chosen by Hope. When the company comes in for one thing, they end up finding out about other opportunities. They came in looking for students for careers and internships and they ended up also hiring our engineering students to solve a real-world problem that they have on their factory floor in their senior year.

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PBN: What do you see as the biggest challenge facing business prospects hoping to work with the university system today and how do you plan to tackle that?
FLYNN: The biggest problem is they don’t know where to start. They may think they want to hire, say, someone who’s really good in social media but they have absolutely no idea who to call. They don’t know whether they want an intern or a permanent career person. As a result they don’t call. Now, they have a place to call. And there’s a natural place for me to steer them.

PBN: What is your ultimate goal for the BEC? Where do you hope it will be 10 years from now?
FLYNN: If you look at the University of Michigan, our original [model], I would love to get to the point where we have a self-sustaining model. It won’t ever be as large as Michigan, [their BEC has] 18 employees. In terms of the student body, we’re about one-third of the size of Michigan. I hope we have six or seven employees to network with businesses. There’s a possibility we take it to the next level, which is also where Michigan lives. They ended up with a statewide BEC. Could we have a BEC that represents … all of the universities in the state? They’re all so different [but] that would be pretty amazing. •INTERVIEW
Katharine Hazard Flynn
POSITION: Executive director of the URI Business Engagement Center
BACKGROUND: In early September, Flynn became executive director of the University of Rhode Island’s new Business Engagement Center. A 1981 graduate of Brown University, she worked for various companies in the finance industry on Wall Street from 1981 until 2002, then took a two-year hiatus to move to Rhode Island. In 2004, she began work as business-development manager at the R.I. Economic Development Corporation. She became the EDC’s director of business development in 2007. In 2012, she became director of URI Corporate and Foundation Relations, a post she continues to hold while working at the BEC.
EDUCATION: A.B. degree in mathematical economics from Brown University in 1981
FIRST JOB: Scooping ice cream at Friendly’s Restaurant
RESIDENCE: Providence
AGE: 54

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