Huntington Lambert Named University’s New Associate Vice President for Economic Development Based in Denver
The Colorado State University system has appointed a new associate vice president for economic development who will help connect industry with university programs and research.
Huntington Lambert, currently director of Colorado State University’s Center for Entrepreneurship, will lead Colorado State’s newly created Office of Economic Development. As associate vice president, he will coordinate activities related to technology transfer, startup companies, workforce development, the growth of educational products for the private sector and public policy aspects of economic development among many departments at the university and the Colorado State University Research Foundation.
Lambert will work for the university system in the Denver office starting Nov. 1. He will report to Senior Vice President and Provost Tony Frank until the new Vice Provost for Outreach and Strategic Partnerships, a new position announced last week as part of a university-wide restructuring, is hired.
The reorganization is designed to help the university prepare for the future as a 21st century land-grant institution, including making all university services – such as Continuing Education and the Office of Economic Development – available to more state residents, said Larry Edward Penley, chancellor of the Colorado State University system with campuses in Fort Collins and Pueblo.
"Hunt will help this university build an economic development program that reaches out to the entire state, much like the Cooperative Extension model we have today," Penley said. "We are in every part of the state – that’s the tremendous advantage we have as Colorado’s great land-grant institution. We must take the entire university to Colorado, including the Denver metropolitan area, and deliver the same kind of university values and opportunities that we now deliver with Cooperative Extension. We must provide access to our students and to our community."
Lambert will be based in the Denver office of Colorado State, which includes the Executive MBA program, Continuing Education, The Board of Governors, the Colorado State University System offices and a number of certificate programs. The Office of Economic Development will also have offices in Fort Collins where Lambert will spend about one-third of his time. Colorado State also sponsors the Denver Executive Luncheon, which features a prominent corporate leader.
Lambert will join several state and local boards as Colorado State University’s representative and will build internal and external boards of advisors for the Office of Economic Development.
"It’s a phenomenal opportunity for the university and for me," Lambert said of the new office. "Our goal is to bring industry, the community and university programs closer together with the express purpose of growing industry-sponsored research and shortening commercialization timelines where commercialization is the right method for us to deliver our benefits to society. Now there’s a place for industry to go to enter the university and find the contacts they need. For university officials and scientists, there’s somebody supporting relations they want to build with industry and supporting their startup hopes."
Lambert’s duties will include helping build on the university’s "superclusters", which the university defines as coordinated multidisciplinary efforts among scholars with interests in common global problems. The emerging multidisciplinary superclusters on campus include biomedicine/infectious diseases; information science and technology; food, nutrition, health and well-being; and environmental sustainability.
Lambert will leave his position as director of the Colorado State University Center for Entrepreneurship, but will continue to teach in the Executive MBA program in the College of Business where he has taught since 2001. He was named the Beta Gamma Sigma Professor of the Year at the College of Business in 2004.
In his 22-year industry career, Lambert worked in venture capital, several startups and product marketing, ran U S WEST’s Market Strategy Development organization and led strategic planning for U S WEST International. Over the 22 years, he participated in more than 25 startup businesses in 12 countries ranging from entry-level positions to CEO.
Lambert earned his bachelor’s degree from Colorado College in 1980 and his Masters of Science in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, in 1984.
-30-