March 4, 2020: President Broderick discusses maritime opportunities.

Dear Colleague:

At the State of the University, I announced the formation of the "ODU Economic Development Catalyst Task Force" aimed at leveraging our assets for Hampton Roads and Virginia regarding tech talent, innovation, and commercialization.The 24-member Task Force, comprised of business, community, and ODU leaders, is co-chaired by Dubby Wynne (retired president and CEO, Landmark; chair, Reinvent Hampton Roads; and chair, GO Virginia Foundation) and Nancy Grden (associate vice president, ODU Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship).

I am pleased to report the Task Force has identified the maritime domain, broadly-defined, as the key economic focus of its work. Hampton Roads has a unique and leading maritime ecosystem, encompassing one of the world's deepest natural harbors, the Virginia Port Authority, the U.S. Navy, and commercial maritime shipbuilding and repair.

In addition, the Commonwealth's offshore wind project, major regional broadband capacity, and a possible Navy sustainment pilot for shipbuilding and repair, are happening in real time. Along with regional leaders, ODU has already identified coastal resilience and adaptation as an area of focus. These many opportunities, however, could compete for and drain high-demand talent, supply chains, and resources if not viewed from a strategic perspective.

In fact, while tech talent has been the Commonwealth's top priority with Amazon, it has been said that maritime is the Commonwealth's second and next major priority. Given that Hampton Roads is the leading maritime ecosystem on the east coast and possibly in the U.S., the Task Force will pursue five projects related to Navy sustainment, offshore wind, resilience, targeted talent pipelines, and an overall situation analysis.

The Hampton Roads community has recognized Old Dominion as a major catalyst and leader in the maritime domain. To that end, one additional project of the Task Force is to develop a plan that would further nurture ODU as a leading maritime academic institution, bringing together resources for research, workforce training, data analytics, and innovation, and building upon them to grow our impact regionally and nationally.

These activities will leverage our decades of training for current and emerging roles in maritime through research and innovation centers such as VMASC, Open Seas, Offshore Wind, and ICAR. Finally, our efforts will position ODU as an anchor institution for the region's maritime strategic direction.

Dubby and Nancy will be in contact with a number of you in the near future to participate in this exciting initiative to further our regional and state leadership in economic development.

Thank you in advance,

John R. Broderick
President