Science and Technology Panel - Clip 3: Transcript

JERRY HULTIN

Here's the five things I think are strong in this city. The first one is financial, not just because of the fact that it's a big industry but it has within it two components - financial engineering, which is our fastest-growing program right now in the city - and secondly, financial technology. The ability to do transactions at the speed of light is getting to be a fundamental competitive advantage in this industry, and that's going to require engineers, competency, and it's a market.

It's here to be taken by those who want to take it, because all the major players are in this city in terms of the financial industry. What's not here is enough engineering, enough technology and enough science.

The second one is biomedical. If you talked about New York science, if you talked about New York's hospitals, which are two fundamental ingredients because you need a hospital in order to test - have a population - if you talked about a lot of venture capital in this city, it's all here.

What's missing is what Jonathan described, an engineering layer that takes science and translates it into products and services. And the city's aware of it now. It's one of the reasons why we're talking about merger with NYU, because they have great science in this area and they don't have the engineering, and, as you heard from Jonathan, they're mainly licensing.

Why? Because if you don't have engineers to turn it into products and things, your best way to capitalize on the value of a new patent is to license it to someone else that does. With the engineering in this town, those patents would stay in this town and they would turn into companies.

The third big area is one we just discussed, new media. Clearly there's an opportunity not only to do all that was described but also to bring the engineering and technology to bear.

I just had dinner two months ago with head CTOs at - pick the names - Time Warner Cable, Hearst, Bear Stearns' chief venture capitalists in this area, New York Times' lead on new technology. They all are dying to have in this city something that matches the Media Lab in Boston, at MIT, or X Media at Stanford.

So I went up to Albany. I've got Albany committed to send us some money to start such a center. But that's what's needed. And you marry the creative with the technology and now you've got all that L.A. has to offer, plus you've got the money in this city - not as much in L.A.

It's interesting. There's a major player out of Israel in high tech. Comes to the U.S. and holds a high-tech entertainment media show once a year. Where does he hold it? L.A. Why doesn't he hold it in New York City? You've got the same desire to bring media to technology.

So we're talking to him. So is the city of New York, Mayor Bloomberg's team. But to bring that to the city and do that show, you'll see things that aren't happening now.

The fifth area that I'd like to talk about is sustainable urban. No one's talked about it yet. But if you think about the mayor's 20-30 plan, it's essentially about sustainable technology that allow you to have a million more people in a city without increasing the power footprint, etc., etc.

All that goes into that is a science and technology problem. That's the best way to solve it. Rather than build another power plant, figure out how to make energy use more efficient.