Arizona State University’s transition to an economic engine humming along

The most successful regional economies around the world are built on great universities. Silicon Valley business connections have meant billions of dollars for Stanford and the University of California-Berkeley. They have been, well, economic engines.

If ever a place was vulnerable to a Music Man huckster, it was metropolitan Phoenix in 2002. The region had sleepwalked through the previous decade and found itself far behind in the race to build a high-tech, high-wage economy. A sharp slowdown made us even more needy for something, anything, to move beyond dependence on housing and population growth.

Enter Michael Crow as Arizona State University’s new president and a pledge to rev up the institution as an economic engine. Skeptics quietly wondered if he was "Professor" Harold Hill, here to lead (Salt) River City on a parade to nowhere. Economic engine, indeed.

More than four years later, nobody can sing that song. ASU has indeed become a dramatically more important and activist part of the regional economy. Some high points:

Jon Talton
Republic columnist

Full Story: http://www.azcentral.com/business/columns/articles/0227biz-talton0227.html#