business backgrounder | economy suspected there was a lot of unlocked potential in the lab, and we have the ability to become more of a powerful force than we have been.”
It’ s a job that fits Truman’ s strengths, former colleagues say. The specific fields of science may be new for her, but they all come down to business potential.
Nicholas Donofrio, now retired as IBM’ s longtime executive vice president for innovation and technology, met Truman in the mid-1990s, when the company was undergoing a massive restructuring. Donofrio was responsible for re-examining IBM’ s investments and efficiencies in development, and Truman was on the team that recommended revamping company processes.
“ We had to hit the emergency-off button and restart the whole company, and it was she and her team that gave my colleagues and me the courage and conviction that we really needed to do this. And we did it,” says Donofrio.“ I was forever in their debt.”
Donofrio says she will bring the same can-do attitude that she brought to IBM and other companies.
platformize
Born in Oklahoma and raised in West Virginia, Truman was one of six children. She was encouraged from a young age to work hard, inquire and achieve. A graduate of Smith College( with a triple major in Mathematics, Economics and Industrial Engineering and Operations Research), Truman landed her first job at Goldman Sachs by submitting a business plan that, she estimated, would save the company $ 40 million.
Over time, Truman sought out educational and professional opportunities that enhanced her knowledge of IT and business strategy. Along her career path were positions at Oracle, Ernst & Young, Booz Allen Hamilton and IBM— all, in one form or another, assignments to evaluate and improve an aspect of the business.
Robert Berg, New York-based senior vice president of marketresearch firm IRI, hired Truman for a project at IBM and has
“ Rosemarie has a passion for tech transfer, a wealth of experience and boundless energy to make things happen that are transformational.”
— Malin Young, deputy director for science and technology, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory worked with her on other ventures, including the Center for Advancing Innovation’ s start-up challenges.
Berg recalls how Truman impressed his team at IBM with her“ unique mental horsepower” and ability to identify problems and solutions quickly and comprehensively.
“ If you think of life as the time you spend, she doesn’ t want to waste a minute. What she gets done in the space of a day some people couldn’ t get done in a week,” Berg says.“ She wants to help you do your job. She’ ll bring everything together, and she’ ll put it in front of you, and if you have trouble compiling it, she’ ll start building it for you.”
After years of helping companies optimize and monetize, Truman formed the Center for Advancing Innovation to— in her words— platformize. The Bethesda, Md.-based company embarked on a study with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and determined, after poring over eight years of data, that there are some 150,000 patented inventions( intellectual property, technology and equipment) that haven’ t been brought to market—“ sitting on the shelf with significant untapped opportunity,” as she puts it. Of those, about half were produced by federal agencies.
If even 6 percent of all those inventions were brought to market, and assuming an 80 to 95 percent failure rate, they still could generate a $ 500 billion to $ 1.5 trillion impact on the economy, Truman points out.
rosemarie truman bio
• Rosemarie Truman, director of innovation impact, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Age: 44
• Education: Smith College, B. A., Mathematics, Economics and Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
“ It was her idea to send out the best technologies from the National Cancer Institute. It’ s a great example of how what she envisioned, in terms of the types of technology, can be accelerated for the people they can help the most.”
— Sourav Sinha, CEO, Oncolinx, a Boston company that was among the winners of the Breast Cancer Start-Up Challenge, created by Rosemarie Truman
• Business background: Investment banking, strategic consulting, growth and transformation, including positions at Oracle, Booz Allen and IBM
• Proudest Achievement: founding the Center for Advancing Innovation( 2012)
•“ It is hard and lonely to be an entrepreneur, especially when you ' re creating something from nothing, and when you ' re trying to make a positive sustainable impact.” winter 2017 51