M. Duane Nellis, the recently appointed 17th president for the University of Idaho, in Moscow, told us during a get-acquainted visit to Spokane last month that, "One of the things that's most important to me is creating a more entrepreneurial university."

He says he sees the Spokane-Post Falls-Coeur d'Alene corridor, because of its concentration of businesses, playing a key role in that transition through its contribution of expertise and, hopefully, some risk capital to university-spawned startups. Such collaboration could prove beneficial both for UI and the economy here, he asserts.

Over the years, I've heard other college and university presidents—eager to capitalize on the population base here—express similar aspirations. What usually prevents them from being able to walk the talk is the difficulties their institutions encounter in traversing the so-called Valley of Death—the gulf that separates research-and-development innovations from commercial success.

Two things make Nellis' comments stand out, at least a bit, from some of the others. One is that, although he amassed his academic leadership credentials mostly at distant institutions, he has strong Inland Northwest ties. The other is that he already has demonstrated his ability to implement an aggressive strategy aimed at bridging the canyon where the carcasses of countless would-be companies lay.

He was born at Sacred Heart Medical Center and grew up in northwest Montana, earning his undergraduate degree from Montana State University, in Bozeman. His family owned apartment properties on the South Hill, he had relatives living in Spokane, and he remembers fondly such experiences as attending the Expo '74 world's fair and watching an exhibition pro football game at Albi Stadium. That background could work to his advantage as he seeks to foster stronger ties between businesses here and the university, which he says over the last five years has seen its enrollment of students from the Spokane area rise by 20 percent.

Most recently in his 29-year teaching and administrative career, before starting at U of I on July 1, Nellis was dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University, in Morgantown, W.V., for seven years, then provost and senior vice president at Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kan. In the latter post, he founded K-State's Center for the Advancement of Entrepreneurship, an organization focused on growing entrepreneurial awareness, research, and private-sector collaboration there.

The University of Idaho already has a somewhat similar four-year-old program, called Vandal Innovative Enterprise Works, that's aimed at helping students and faculty develop the skills, connections, and entrepreneurial mindset to move innovation from classrooms and laboratories into the marketplace. Nellis says, though, that, "I want to take that and elevate it to a higher level," including through greater private-sector involvement, and also to "extend more efficiently" the research and incubator activities that take place at the university's research park in Post Falls.

Achieving such goals will be particularly challenging at a time when the university, suffering through tough times like other such institutions, has had to adjust to a sizable budget cut and to close, consolidate, or modify more than 30 degree programs.

Nellis says, though, that he's confident the private sector will step up to fill a significant portion of that lost funding and related support, and adds, "We have a lot of outstanding alumni who are eager to come in and partner with us."

Whether or not that support materializes, Nellis comes across as having the type of refreshing business-minded outreach agenda that could serve the university well as the economy heals and entrepreneurial activity rebounds.