Timothy (Tim)V. Franklin, Ph.D., serves as Vice President and chief operating officer for the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), an NJIT corporation that applies the intellectual and technological resources of the state’s science and technology university to challenges identified by industry partners.  Franklin contributed substantially to the design and rationale for this innovative, industry-facing university interface designed around innovation labs and services.  In parallel, Franklin serves as Associate Vice President for Business and Economic Development and Special Advisor to the President for New Jersey Institute for Technology (NJIT).  In this role, Franklin leads strategic initiatives, fosters institutional-scale programs, manages public and private partnerships, and articulates programs to advance the University’s economic development and research missions.  Franklin convenes NJIT’s Business Engagement Team, which integrates university programs in comprehensive partnerships with industry and government.

Franklin is an expert in higher education policy, experienced strategic planner, trained Strategic Doing facilitator, inaugural member and vice president of the Academy for Community Engagement Scholarship, faculty for the Strategic Doing Institute, national advisory board member for MForesight (NSF and NIST-sponsored organization dedicated to renewing U.S. manufacturing).

Franklin also brings a history of starting new endeavors.  Prior to coming to NJIT, Franklin founded and led TRE Networks, Inc., a non-profit organization of leading national organizations and universities dedicated to advancing the role of research universities in transformative regional engagement (TRE).  He led national conferences and meetings of the TRE Roundtable focused on accelerating policy and practice in regional development.  While at Virginia Tech, Franklin led the University’s Southside Initiative, a broad-scale effort to define its 21stCentury land-grant mission. In that role, Franklin was the founding Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR), a unique regional stewarding institution that received numerous regional, state, and national recognitions.

Franklin is the former Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development for The Pennsylvania State University.  Tim also served for eight years as Associate Vice President for Government Relations and Planning at Indiana State University.