Greetings Fellow WCNCR Members,
I am honored to be considered for the board of the Wharton Club of the National Capital Region. To highlight my background, I am trained in behavioral science (PhD, Rice) and engineering (MSE, Penn). I’ve spent time on the innovation side of start-ups, Federal labs, growing businesses, institutions of higher education, and various contract research organizations. The largest portion of my career has been in health care, but I’ve worked in other sectors too. Despite my love for research and development, I’ve held positions of responsibility in all functional areas of the enterprise. I’ve worked internationally too, in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America most notably on project finance and institution-building programs of the World Bank and the National Academies of Science. To share a few career accomplishments:
I founded and/or restructured technology parks and research centers in former East Germany, Hong Kong, San Antonio (TX), and Philadelphia (PA);
I structured and implemented informatics, research, and applied technology programs for the National Academies of Science, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and The World Bank;
I planted and grew the Wharton Alumni Club of Indonesia together with local graduates of Wharton in Jakarta;
I’m a single father of a 17-year-old boy and an Assistant Scoutmaster of BSA Troop 68, Bethesda, Maryland.
I have a lot to share with WCNCR members and am eager to serve because I’ve benefited from strong mentors throughout my career. I also take pleasure in seeing others succeed. Equally important to WCNCR members perhaps is that I am also willing and able to work.
Should I be elected to the WCNCR Board, I am drawn to the affinity groups. I can add value due to my multi-sector experience. I hope to avail WCNCR of the analytical tools I’ve integrated into my work from the library sciences, i.e, simple analytics tools for business intelligence.
If elected, I am prepared to take the lead with affinity groups in healthcare, infrastructure, public health preparedness, and/or space commerce, where I envision sharing outputs from my issue tracking tools -- now scanning the trade, technology, and grey literatures -- with WCNR members. Over time, I feel confident these tracking tools will deliver insights of value to all WCNCR programs and activities. And if the WCNCR budget allows, these tools might seed a robust collaboration platform for the exchange of intelligence among all WCNCR members.
Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Richard Morris