by Mike Gibson
Unlike so many men in comparable positions, NTRC Inc. board member C. Howard Capito makes it clear that he doesn't want the organization he chairs to be just one more cash-siphoning acronym.
"We're under self-imposed pressure to become revenue self-sufficient," says Capito, seated in his charmingly appointed personal office just outside the UT campus boundaries. "To date, we've lived off grants and investors, but our goal is to be fiscally solvent by the end of 2005; we want to be a thriving, economically viable research entity."
According to Capito, much of impetus for founding the NTRC proper came as a result of the Department of Energy's Technology Transfer Initiative, a plan to transfer some of DOE's intellectual and technological resources to the private sector in the wake of the department's diminished presence in Oak Ridge. Throughout the '90s, DOE reduced funding for all three of its Oak Ridge operations, including the Y-12 weapons manufacturing plant, the now-dormant K-25 uranium enrichment site, and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
If NTRC was the embodiment of technology transfer, NTRC Inc. was intended to be its right arm. A small operation located in a corner of the NTRC headquarters off Hardin Valley Road, the Inc.'s task was determined to be that of actively promoting NTRC resources to the private sector.
"Our marketing plan is to develop a research and development profile in the Southeastern automotive industry," says Capito, a former executive for Bank of America. "Not so much the primary manufacturers, but the ones located down the food chain a little, the original equipment manufacturers. We're picking a niche that's below most marketing radar."
With a 13-member board overseeing a two-man payroll (the only employees are President Joe Petrolino and an assistant), NTRC Inc. seeks to find private research projects and subcontract them to ORNL and UT scientists at NTRC.
"We're sort of analogous to a general contractor," Capito says. "And if the skills aren't here, we can go elsewhere and manage the project for them.
"Maybe someone might come up with an idea in their garage, but they don't have the skill to make a marketable prototype. Or maybe they need someone to perfect a product, or help them overcome some technological or financial barrier."
According to Capito, pending projects include possible inventory tracking research for a major package delivery company, developing new pneumatic braking systems for a consortium of trucking companies, and collecting emissions research data for a company that makes special power generators for 18-wheel trucks.
Capito readily admits that getting NTRC Inc. off the ground has been a slow and sometimes thankless task. And since Inc. is still subsidized almost entirely by public benefactors such as DOE, it's been one of diminishing returns; investment revenues were almost $1 million in 2001; $680,000 in 2002; and only about $500,000 in 2003.
Speaking frankly, Capito charges that some of the NTRC partners were less than participative at the outset. "I don't think we really had UT or ORNL commitment to get going until about six months ago," he says. "Now we've got people like (UT Provost) Loren Crabtree and (UT/Battelle CEO) Jeff Wadsworth on the board, and they're committed heart and soul."
After nearly three years of struggle, Capito says he truly believes the organization has turned the corner and headed for solvency. "My job has been to build a board of working, committed people, and I think we're there now," says Capito. "Two years ago, it looked pretty damned discouraging, but now I think we're ready to start negotiating projects."
January 22, 2003 * Vol. 14, No. 4
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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