He comes to the organization as the former head of corporate development at a Silicon Valley-area cloud communications company, with strong ties to the region as a native of central Ohio, an Ohio State University engineering graduate, and an Ohio Tech Angel Fund investor and portfolio company board member. Wald, who began his career as a software entrepreneur in college and systems analyst for the B-1 bomber program at Rockwell International, takes the reins of The Columbus Collaboratory which had been led by interim CEO Brad Ashbrook since it was formed in early 2014. "It became clear during the search that he was the right fit with the vision and relationships to build a successful company." "We are so incredibly fortunate to have Matt lead the Collaboratory," said Patty Morrison, search committee chairwoman. there’s a fixed pool of talent, then we compete for it,” Keller said.COLUMBUS, OH -(Marketwired - March 30, 2015) - The Columbus Collaboratory Board of Managers announced today the appointment of Matt Wald as the new CEO. “Historically, if we get a ‘hot’ skill area. But the idea isn’t to poach talent from partner companies but “to create an ecosystem” of demand for technology workers and develop a pipeline with Ohio State, ultimately creating more jobs in the region. Many of the Collaboratory’s employees are expected to be new hires, although some are expected to come from Battelle and other organizations, Keller said. That’s something we’re all interested in." And we know that we’ll be leveraging data analytics to optimize call centers. And we know that applying advanced analytics to cyber-security will be important. We know we’ll work on customer-related data analytics, to help organizations attract or better serve customers. “Frankly, the list is bigger than we can look at right now. “We’ve identified general areas where we’ll be working together, but we have not made specific projects,” Keller said. The Collaboratory also will engage in technology research projects to help the partner organizations over the long term. “We believe there could be opportunity to expand the partnership,” Keller said, “but with the understanding that any new partners would come from outside of the industries already represented so we don’t add a competitive dimension.” Even other comparably sized cities wouldn’t have as diversified an industry base.”īy design, Collaboratory partners are in different sectors and don’t compete against each other. To have this many large companies here and be noncompetitors, and the CEOs are already working together with the Columbus Partnership - it really is pretty unique. “I don’t think you could do it in a larger city or region. The creation of the Collaboratory is “unprecedented,” McDonald said. “The board of managers will make that decision over the next couple of months,” Keller said. The company doesn’t yet have a permanent home, but two sites are under consideration: at the Battelle headquarters on King Avenue or in a new building in the Grandview Yard development. Its interim CEO is Brad Ashbrook, vice president of business development at Battelle, who will be in charge while a national search is conducted for a permanent CEO. The Collaboratory will be led by a board of managers that will include representatives from each of the member organizations. While IBM will continue to be “the preferred partner” in data analytics, the Columbus Collaboratory will work on technologies in the areas of cybersecurity, customer service and efficiency. The seven entities recently pledged $28 million to get the new company up and running. So we made the decision to split the missions” and create the new venture. “But there were other elements that weren’t satisfied by the IBM center. “We looked at areas of high growth and interest, and one, data analytics, led to the IBM Analytics center landing here,” said Mike Keller, Nationwide’s executive vice president and chief information officer. The Columbus Collaboratory is the result of Columbus 2020’s efforts to bring together the seven entities - Nationwide, Cardinal Health, L Brands, Huntington Bank, Battelle, American Electric Power and OhioHealth - to share what works and be more competitive. “From our perspective, having more-competitive companies is maybe the best economic development thing you can do,” said Kenny McDonald, CEO of Columbus 2020. Rather than develop technologies that meet those aims alone, seven top companies and organizations are launching the Columbus Collaboratory, a company that will set up shop at a site north of Downtown this summer and eventually employ 100. Major players in central Ohio business and research have a common set of goals: to be more efficient, more secure and more customer-focused.
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