By Jim Workman
Assistant Managing Editor
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS —
If West Virginia University was looking for someone to head up its College of Business and Economics with an unbelievable plethora of expertise and experience, Dr. Jose “Zito” Sartarelli surely fits the bill.
His enthusiasm for the state and its economic future is a significant bonus.
Sartarelli was named the new Milan Puskar dean of the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics on July 30.
Thursday, he attended the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s 2010 meeting and business summit at The Greenbrier.
He certainly has a plan in place for the college.
“As we access the potential of the college and we aim at elevating the college in terms of quality and making it more competitive and eventually have the college ranked, there are five things we are focusing on,” Sartarelli stated.
“We’re focusing on attracting talented students and professors and staff.
“We’re focusing on educating them properly, appropriately and successfully so that we enable them to get to the marketplace and do well.
“We’re focusing on how we enable our students to be placed eventually, to be employed.
“We’re focusing on making sure that we organize ourselves for success. We want to have an efficient organization. We want to be as flat as possible — we don’t want too many layers.
“We want to make sure that we fund our operations properly. Obviously we depend on the state, and we appreciate that very much. But we also depend on parents and students that pay their fees and tuition and we depend on our alumni and donors that contribute to elevate the college.”
Sartarelli’s master plan included this week’s visit to The Greenbrier.
“Part of the connect is to also reach out to the business community,” he explained. “There’s no better venue than this. The top business people of West Virginia are meeting here. They’re discussing the issues that affect them and affect the state. This is a good opportunity for us to reach out to them and showcase the college and, in my case, introduce myself. I’d like for them to get to know me better.”
WVU President James Clements is expected to speak on WVU’s role as a land-grant university in the global economy at the summit today
Sartarelli, who said he and Clements are “very much on the same page,” certainly knows WVU’s potential for a greater global impact.
His own background and experience are worldwide — literally.
He came to WVU from Johnson & Johnson, where he served as pharmaceutical group chairman for Asia-Pacific, Japan and Latin America, overseeing a business of more than $3 billion in annual sales spread over more than 50 countries, supported by over 9,000 employees.
Previously, he served at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. as president of two international groups and senior vice president of franchise management, business analysis and planning.
Sartarelli also held senior positions in marketing and management at Eli Lilly and Co. in the United States, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
“One of the challenges that we have in our state is we have not been growing our per capita income as we should have been growing it,” he said. “That means we need to be creating new jobs. We need to develop new industries and better paying jobs. The college should play a role in that — as a magnet for talent. We have a sufficient amount of international students, but we’d love to enhance our global footprint. That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to continue with our primary objective — to educate the sons and daughters of West Virginia. But in this globalized world, I think we need to make sure we extend that land-grant tradition of not just enabling a state like West Virginia but perhaps enabling the world to some extent.
“By doing that, we’re also establishing bridges to those countries that our students originate from. That’s an extra connectivity for West Virginia. It may enhance our exports and open up new markets for us.”
Sartarelli said WVU’s impact on West Virginia’s economy is promising.
“It already plays a major role, with close to 30,000 students enrolled,” he said. “The multiplier factor of what we do is very significant. I think there’s no question that in the future we’ll play an even bigger role.
“For us to serve as a magnet for innovation for the state and for the creation of new industries, I think it’s very important. Is it going to happen overnight? No. It’s going to take focus and the dedication of men and women. But if you stay the course, there’s no question that we should be performing the same role that other major universities perform in substantiating the economic development of their respective regions, be it Silicon Valley or Route 28 in Massachusetts. WVU can play that role.”
West Virginia’s abundance of natural resources gives the state a boost in economic growth, Sartarelli said.
“West Virginia has several important sectors in the economy,. Energy will continue to be important in the future. There’s no question that the difference between a developed society and a non-developed society is the intensity of its use of energy. Sometimes the sources of energy are exhaustible, so that’s a challenge. We also have to think about our environmental impact. But energy is very important. It just so happens that we have a sector that we play an important role.
“There are other sectors in which we play an important role — general trade, hospitality and tourism is also very important,” Sartarelli added. “It’s a beautiful state, its foliage, its rivers. We have great highways, state parks — there’s a lot to do here. That’s another vocation that we have to expand on. One great example is The Greenbrier. It’s the epitome of that and how we capitalize on it more effectively.”
Attracting new business to West Virginia should be a priority, Sartarelli stated. But having an attractive and stable business climate is a key factor.
“In addition to all of the things that we’ve heard like policies that we adopt, tax policies and regulatory policies, those are very important, but one thing that is important in business is predictability,” he said. “Not only do you have to have policies that are very welcoming to businesses, but they have to be predictable. They cannot be ever-changing. When a company makes an investment, they do their research because they are long-term investments. You can’t make an investment if 12 months in people change the rules of the game. That’s very important.
“We also have to have a can-do attitude. Everything has to start somewhere. We have successful business executives that might be interested in coming to the state. The first thing we need to be doing as West Virginians is reaching out. We need to get to know some of these companies. We need to showcase our state. We need to even reach beyond our borders. I’ve been on the receiving end, when I worked overseas. Trade missions came in from Indiana, Georgia, New York and California. The development boards of the states were showcasing their respective states and saying, ‘Come and locate your company in my state.’ If you just sit tight and wait for someone to come to you, they may not.
“It’s almost like a field of dreams,” Sartarelli added. “Not that you have to build and they will come, but to go and showcase what we are so that they become interested. Because the options they have are many. A lot of companies are being wooed by all kinds of state governments and regions. This is what you need to do in a global economy.”
Sartarelli’s background could have taken him anywhere in the world.
Yet he saw opportunity for growth in West Virginia.
“I saw a lot of potential in the state,” he said. “After 30 years in global business, working with different countries and different people, I wanted to give back to society and maybe help to shape some of the minds of future generations. I don’t think that there’s a better opportunity for me to do that than to be at the university level. That was the major driver for me.”
— E-mail: jworkman@register-herald.com
