Brett is the Senior Director of Learning Networks for Forward Cities, an organization aiming to help close the racial wealth gap in America using entrepreneurship as a vehicle for change.  They do this through working with stakeholders at the ecosystem level to improve and create practices aimed at better connecting entrepreneurs with resources in their community.  Brett uses Strategic Doing to help diverse teams activate new strategies and opportunities in these engagements in an effort to close these gaps.  He has applied the methodology in well over a dozen communities large and small across the country.

Tim Franklin, Ph.D., serves as Principal and co-Founder at Franklin Solutions (FS), which he rejoined full-time following his recent retirement from a 25+-year career as an innovating senior university leader/administrator that included many regional, state, and national recognitions for his projects and work. At FS, he translates this leadership experience into client value.

Franklin is an expert in higher education policy, experienced strategic planner, credentialed Strategic Doing Fellow and Workshop Leader, as well as bringing a history of starting new endeavors, including serving on the Strategic Doing Institute’s Core Team, which supports SDI’s ongoing development. Tim’s achievements include substantial contributions in founding, designing, advocating, and building two market-facing, special purpose institutions focused on technology development and economic growth. The New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) and Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR) represent two successful national models, one confronting urban challenges and the other rural. Both leverage the strengths of polytechnic research universities (NJIT and Virginia Tech, respectively) through organizational interfaces designed around applied research, innovation labs, and a comprehensive set of related educational programs and outreach services. Franklin led these intermediary organizations from start-up through institutional growth of more than 125 employees (both) and $85M+ in annual operating expenditures (NJII).

Previously, Franklin held leadership positions at Virginia Tech, Penn State, Indiana State University, and New Jersey Institute of Technology, all of which focused on strategic change and partnerships. Franklin’s responsibilities have included strategic planning, government relations, policy analysis and advocacy, strategic initiatives, fostering institutional-scale programs, fund development, leading public and private partnerships, hiring institutional staff, and articulating programs to advance the University’s economic engagement and research missions. Franklin has strategically aligned numerous partnerships between higher education, community, industry, and government focused on delivering notable regional, cluster, and technology development impact. He has obtained funding for, developed staffing, and led/overseen numerous economic and workforce development programs. 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) efforts.

Franklin brings skills and a reputation:

· As an incisive strategist, catalyzer of constructive change, and author of messages leading to trust in and commitment to new endeavors,

· As a master collaborator and team builder in both his internal and external relationships,

· For his vision, leadership, and skills in competitive contexts,

· For building talented, high-performing work teams, whose discretionary efforts make ambitious strategic goals achievable,

· For innovation and creative solutions in confronting complex, messy problems,

· For mastering the technical and policy subjects at the core of his efforts, and

· As a builder and for starting new endeavors.