Science Center's 'Cambridge' vision develops hazy future - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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are in flux as the organizatioj gets anew leader. The five buildingsw -- or complexes in some casexs -- containing nearly 2 millioh square feet that the organization said in 2006 it would develop may no longer includs a hotelor apartments, said Richard chairman of the Science Center's Also, the Science Center has given up on the idea of creatingv and running its own venture capita fund and now hopes to start one that would be run by an area ventures firm, Jaffe said. The organization also has retreated from its 2005 goal of startinf 40 companies with a markef valueof $1 billion by 2010 and 60 companiesa worth $3.3 billion by 2015.
Even so, the Scienc Center's board of directors thinks the organizatiomn can use technology developed at the universities that own it to transformmUniversity City, said who's a partner at the Center City law firm of Ballarrd Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll. "We think the overal l strategyis right," he said. "It's a questiohn of what works tactically." The job of formulatinbg the tactics will fall toStephen S. who started as the Science Center's president and CEO this He previously was vice presidenr and general manager of the Life Sciencse Group of OlympusAmerica Inc., the Centere Valley, Lehigh County-based subsidiary of Olympus Corp.
47, replaced Dean Lewis, the Science Center's chief financiapl officer, who had been interim president and CEO sinced Pradip Banerjee resigned from thosew positions early last Neither Jaffe nor Banerjee has specified why Banerjee and the Sciencr Centerparted ways, but Jaffr said Banerjee and the Scienc Center's board had differing views of how to execute the organization'sw plan. Banerjee's salary was $300,000 a year and he receivex a severance package whenhe left, Jaffwe said. Jaffe wouldn't disclose the amount of the severancse package. Tang's salary will be made public when it's finalized, Jaffe said.
who had 25 years experienc e commercializing intellectual property and creating and developing businessese in thepharmaceutical industry, joined the Science Center in 2004. He replacedf Jill Felix, a former real-estate industry executive. It was Banerjew who rolled out the developmengt plan and acted as its champio during his time withthe group. The Sciencew Center, founded in 1963, has a main technologh park that it operates in University City and a smalled one it operatesin Newark, Del.
A it's owned by 30 universities, other research institutions andsome economic-development The University of Pennsylvania is its largest shareholdere with a 40 percent stake, followed by Drexel For much of its history, the Science Center concentratec on being a landlord, renting spacw to companies. Under Felix, it attempted to raisee a venture capital fund but was unable todo so, blamin g the dot-com bust. Jaffe said the Science Centeer boardchose Banerjee, thinking he would be able to use the money from its real-estate operationes to create a technology commercializatiobn engine.
The Science Center wanted to use research from its shareholdera to transformUniversity City, much as researchy from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institutd of Technology has been used to transform Cambridge. Sincwe Banerjee announced its company-creation goals in the Science Center has started aboutgfive companies. To help grow the companiews it intendedto create, the Science Center said it woul d start a venture fund with as much as $50 Jaffe said the Science Center committedx $10 million to the fund, but only investecd $2 million of it. The Scienc e Center now wants to starta $20 millionh fund but have it be run by venture capitalist s rather than Science Center Jaffe said.
The organization has talked to Libertu Venture Partners ofCenter City, and NewSpring a King of Prussia firm, abour managing it, he said.