Getting an appointment with Patrick Tam is something of a challenge.


The business day of the new executive director of the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute goes way beyond doing lunchTam routinely books meetings at times when other Spokane businesspeople are eating their breakfasts or dinners.


At those and other times, the energetic Tam is pounding the pavement to get the message out that SIRTI will change markedly under his stewardship.


To back up the talk, Tam, just two months on the job, already is taking action on several new projects. They include opening three SIRTI branch offices, creating a short-term loan fund for technology companies to tap when filling big orders, and pulling together a SWAT team of executives who can provide quick advice to small, high-growth companies.


Ive made a point of reaching out to the community and sharing our focus, he says.


In Tams eyes, SIRTIs role is to grow technology companies in the region by taking ideas generated in university laboratories and by small startups and turning them into money-making products and services. The goal of the organization, he says, should be to serve as a platform to bring this region into national prominence.


Thats lofty talk for an organization thats often been criticized for having a fuzzy mission and a mediocre track record of success. Tam says he recognizes that the state-funded economic-development agency needs to be run more like a business to help businesses here succeed.


Some Spokane executives believe Tam may be just the man for the job.


He certainly has a lot of ideas and seems to have excellent energy toward implementing those ideas. He seems to know the difference between talking about them and doing them, says Skip Davis, CEO of Sacred Heart Medical Center, whom Tam approached to talk about potential collaborations.


Randy Long, CEO of the Inland Northwest Technology Education Center (INTEC), also has met with Tam to discuss how his organization and SIRTI can work together. Says Long, Hes going to be a great catalyst for getting things done in Spokane. I think hes a very collaborative guy, an extremely bright guy, and an entrepreneurial guy.


In his own career, Tam has headed several technology-based companies, served as president of the Washington Research Foundationthe technology-transfer arm of the University of Washingtonand, most recently, was president of ARRAE International, a Seattle company that focuses on transferring technologies from Chinese research institutions to U.S. markets.


Farm system


Tam, 54, who has a doctorate in bioengineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a masters in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, already is working in a number of ways to build SIRTIs influence.


Next week, for example, SIRTI is holding a workshop for potential angel investorshigh-net-worth individuals who, together or in a group, make up an important part of early-stage technology financing. The event, at the Davenport Hotel, will be cohosted by the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds.


The next day in the same location, SIRTI will hold a showcase of technologies springing from Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), in Richland, Wash. The exhibitors are working on what Tam calls disruptive technologiesthose that change paradigms of industry and disrupt the current status quo, he says.


He hopes the technology showcase is the first in a series of similar events, some of which could occur on the West Side of the state. The goal is not only to introduce developers of new technology to potential investors, but also to start spreading the word about how much innovation is being done in the Inland Northwest.


Later this month, SIRTI plans to open a branch office at WSU, and that schools technology-transfer arm will open its own branch office in the SIRTI building, at 665 N. Riverpoint Blvd. Similar branch offices are planned at EWU and PNNL.


Tam also is beefing up SIRTIs relationship with Technet, a technology-industry trade group here. A SIRTI staff member now works 10 hours a week on Technets behalf, and were going to see if we can find funding for the organization, he says.


Both the branch offices and the Technet alliance are ways for SIRTI to beat the bushes for entrepreneurial ideas, Tam says. In the former case, SIRTI will gain access to university research; in the latter, it will be looking for companies that want to go in a new direction or spin off some operations, he says.


Such efforts represent a very strong farm system for us, he says.


Short-term loan fund


While fostering new technology companies is important, Tam says its easier to create jobs at existing companies by helping them grow.


To that end, SIRTI would like to do more for the regions technology companies and its own incubator graduates, he says.


One idea is for a team of seasoned executives, such as a CEO, a chief financial officer, and a marketing expert, to spend the day at a smaller company going over its books and talking to its managers, he says. Those people would put themselves in the shoes of the companyif I were running this company, what would I do and how would I grow it? he says. At the end of the session, theyd propose a map for success.


Tam says hes talking with executives who might be willing to take part in such exercises from time to time, and hopes to stage the first session in mid-October.


Hes also submitting a proposal to the U.S. Economic Development Administration to create a short-term loan fund to provide bridge financing for small, growing companies, he says. Sometimes, for example, such companies dont have enough money to buy the materials necessary to fill a big purchase order; in those cases, they could tap the SIRTI loan fund to buy materials, and repay the loan fund when they receive payment for the order.


More long term, Tam says he supports the goals of building biotechnology and energy-sciences clusters here, but also would like to build on WSUs strengths in agricultural technology and animal husbandry.


He envisions a national center for implementing agricultural research here, and hopes he can persuade Monsanto Co. to be part of it, he says. Monsanto, a big St. Louis, Mo., ag-services company, has taken a large number of patents from WSU, Tam says. Hed like the company to set up a development center in the Inland Northwest region, as well as a field office, and believes he can structure a compelling business case for the company to do so, he says.


Tam also wants to build on WSUs top-flight animal-science programs by establishing a center to produce transgenic animals. Such animals are bred with specific genetic traits for use in biotech research and in the production of pharmaceutical proteins.


Tam says that few other schools offer the animal-husbandry capabilities of WSU, and we should exploit areas of expertise that are already here.


Whether Tam is able to accomplish all that he envisions will depend on whether he can get the support of the community, says Sacred Hearts Davis. In turn, SIRTIs existence depends on getting the support of the state.


In the 2003-2005 biennium, SIRTI is asking the state for $2.8 million, compared with $3 million in the current biennium, Tam says. It expects to leverage that support in the 2003-2005 biennium, however, into about $19 million to $37 million in private investment and federal research dollars for the companies it assists. Further, the organizations goal in that time period is to attract 12 new companies as tenants in its incubator space.


Tam asserts that the state support will be money well spent. In its eight years in existence, SIRTI has groomed 60 companies that have attracted private equity investment and public research funds totaling $40 million, he says.