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"OSU is an outstanding university. Universities
alone can’t do it anymore. And industry alone can’t do
it anymore, but by working together, we can. Together we can make
OSU a Top-25 school."
- Jim Johnson
Jim Johnson says OSU's Top-25 drive has all the
earmarks of a start-up venture. New ventures, he believes, are like
jumping off a cliff with a ball of string; you weave a parachute
on the way down. It requires confidence, commitment, and a team
willing to take risks together that others never would.
Former Intel executive Jim Johnson has been an
omnipresent force behind OSU's phenomenal push toward the Top-25.
Driven by a deep conviction that investment in higher education
ultimately builds a robust economy, Johnson often visits campus
to obtain a close-up look at the College's research and teaching,
and shares his knowledge about building dynamic enterprises.
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Jim Johnson began working
for Intel 27 years ago when the company that is now the world’s No.
1 maker of computer chips employed fewer than 5,000 people. In 1978 he
moved from California to Oregon, where he ascended through the company’s
management structure to serve as the Oregon Site Manager.
Two years ago, however, Johnson
discovered that he and others working in high technology were living in
a bubble of prosperity generated by Oregon’s high-tech boom of recent
years. And this bubble did not extend to many Oregonians residing beyond
the borders of high-tech-intensive Washington County.
“When I started becoming more
involved in community issues and began touring some of the timber communities
and the timber industry’s plants that were still open, I saw the
devastation that has happened in this state,” Johnson says. “I
realized that not everyone in Oregon has benefited from the prosperity
of the last decade.”
Johnson, who holds an electrical
engineering degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s in computer science
from Stanford, decided to do something about it. Fueled with the same
fiery passion and commitment he has employed while at Intel, Johnson rolled
up his sleeves and went to work, determined to help grow Oregon’s
economy by encouraging investment in higher education—especially
at OSU’s College of Engineering.
Working with the state’s Engineering
Technology Industry Council (ETIC), the New Economy Coalition (NEC), the
Oregon Business Council (OBC), the American Electronics Association (AeA),
and many other groups, Johnson has been instrumental in boosting the state’s
overall investment in engineering education by more than $94 million,
and in helping usher five new technology transfer bills through the legislature.
In fact, Johnson became so involved
with helping OSU and other Oregon institutions of higher education that
he retired from his position at Intel this past August. “My job got
in the way,” he says with a shrug and a grin. But he has no plans
to stop working for Oregon now that he’s retired. “My passion
remains economic development and higher education.”
Johnson, who has worked closely
with OSU President Paul Risser, Dean Ron Adams, and others at the College
of Engineering, plans to commit even more of his time to help the College
attain its Top-25 goal. “OSU is an outstanding university,”
he says. “The more I dig, the more I find. Together we can make OSU
a Top-25 school.”
Johnson says that many important
factors are now falling quickly into place at Oregon State—an “alignment”
that will generate the momentum needed to thrust OSU into the Top-25.
“Everything is aligning,” he says. “The College of Engineering
has its mission aligned, which is aligned with the larger institution.
The public is aligning as evidenced by the legislature’s recent increase
in public financial support. The alumni are aligning. Industry is aligning.
And it’s through this alignment that we can really make a lot of
very exciting things happen. One plus one can equal three.”
Johnson believes that the economy
of the 21st century is going to be driven by information and technology,
and that intellectual property is going to become very important. It is
crucial that universities—the “source” of intellectual
property—work very closely with industry, he says. “Universities
alone can’t do it anymore. And industry alone can’t do it anymore,
but by working together, we can.”
Because Dean Adams came to OSU following
a long tenure working in industry at Tektronix, Johnson says the College
now has an enhanced understanding of the need to develop symbiotic relationships
with industry. “I’ve heard it said that what universities value
is knowledge and what industry values is results,” Johnson says.
“What Ron Adams brings to OSU is a magic combination of those two—a
respect for the traditional academic issues and the ability to integrate
some of the results-oriented business practices.”
Johnson says that OSU’s emphasis
on work-ready engineers is a direct result of Adams’ business experience,
and an ideal bridge to industry as the Knowledge Economy spreads. It is
these work-ready OSU engineers, he says, who will ultimately do great
things for Oregon, and beyond.
“OSU is really focused on producing
graduates who are going to go do useful, practical things. There are places
in this world for all. We need strict academics who do the pure science,
we need hardcore engineers who do the implementation, and we need lots
of people in between. OSU really focuses on that middle area, which allows
people to come up with great new ideas—intellectual property—and
then apply these ideas to really help mankind. That’s the kind of
stuff that gets me very excited.”
The College of Engineering is excited
to have the support of Jim Johnson and others from industry who have joined
us as we build a Top-25 engineering program here at Oregon State.
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