2007 Minnesota Biosciences

Governance

Structured analysis teams, including an advisory board and a Core Governance Council (CGC), are providing crucial oversight to Destination 2025. The CGC has in place a series of commissioned groups in various segments of the biobusiness industry—including bioenergy, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and health care R&D—that will generate assessments in five-year cycles within their disciplines. The reports will be presented to a “strategy-build committee” that is run by the CGC.

“We have a lot of the moving parts in place that represent the future of the state and the country,” says Alex Cirillo, a co-chair on the CGC and the vice president of community affairs at 3M.

“The question is how do we gather the parts and align them in such a way that Minnesota retains and creates intellectual property and draws investments from other parts of the world. We want to be a catalyst for business statewide, nationally, and globally.”

Jim Bensen, president emeritus at Bemidji State University, also co-chairs on the CGC and uses his contacts with corporations, foundations, government agencies, and communities to augment the program.

“I find the challenge of joining Destination 2025 to be both interesting and rewarding,” says Bensen. “The academic and research dimension is central to its success. With scientific and technological knowledge bursting on the scene at an incredible pace, we need to harness all the talent that we can muster. Developing a 20-year vision, in five-year increments, is an amazing challenge. This is verified monthly as we see the relentless surge of new developments, breakthroughs, and discoveries.”