Jeffrey Brancato
Senior Advisor, Economic Development
Jeff Brancato, Principal at Brancato Solutions LLC, has nearly 25 years of experience in economic development, science and technology policy and the management of public-private partnerships to advance innovation, economic growth and regional competitiveness. His work includes development and use of public sector policy tools to enhance collaboration, creation and implementation of university initiatives to build research programs and connect more strongly to industry, and execution of regional strategies that leverage historic manufacturing and technology assets for higher-value uses.
From 2011 through 2014, he served as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, at NorTech, a leading innovation-based regional economic development organization Northeast Ohio. He led the organization’s strategic planning and government advocacy efforts, and in particular managed joint efforts with academic institutions and federal and other research facilities.
Prior to NorTech, Mr. Brancato held senior administrative positions at the University of Massachusetts and Columbia University, focused on building academic research programs and the enhancing the role of the university in regional innovation economies. Most notably, at UMass he managed seed investment program for new faculty research initiatives. Over six years, roughly $5 million in investment led to $165 million in follow-on support from state, federal and industry partners. At Columbia University, he led the development of an integrated intellectual property management system for a 26-member consortium conducting biodefense research under an NIH grant. He also served for a number of years as an executive committee member of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Prosperity (APLU/CICEP). Earlier in his career, he was in the federal civil service as a budget officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF), where his work also focused on improving federal programs to promote industry-university partnerships.
Mr. Brancato holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Williams College and a Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.