Why Did the UI Board Take Such Actions to prevent future University of Illinois originated talent and Fortune 500 companies from “walking out the back door”. Talent and Fortune 500 Companies "walked out the back door" Burn me once…shame on you - Burn me twice…shame on me. In short, these decisions were launched in a red-hot economy that had numerous success stories with University of Illinois origins. In almost all cases, the technology "walked out the back door" to either coast where there was venture funding and a more established culture of university technology commercialization. The leaders of the effort being Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Stanford. Amgen, a $74 Billion company with several blood therapy blockbuster drugs on the market, got it's start at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1982 and was looking for city incentives. Mayor Jane Byrne and the local alderman as well as the university were unable to agree on support issues. In 1984, they broke ground on a building in Chicago but never occupied it as investors in Thousand Oaks, CA, gave them support-it remains the location for their worldwide headquarter. Netscape, the basic browser program for everyone using the World Wide Web, was invented at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois in Urbana. Again, the founder received a greater assistance in patent development and venture funding in the Silicon Valley and the $600 million's headquarter is in Menlo Park, CA -not to mention that the university also lost a law suit to claim royalties on the technology. The two above examples are probably the most well known amongst university administrators on both campuses and the board of trustees. Major goals in progress at Illinois Universities: Streamline university patent or technology transfer office Encourage faculty and student innovation beyond traditional research Financially support with university Foundation money and special funds-start-up companies from the university The new vice presidents, new mission, and new boards are assigned to do just that.