Thriving Think Tank Gets Ready to Expand
By Sabine Vollmer, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Jan. 24–RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK — RTI International has spent the past 30 years making itself known everywhere from Jakarta to Baghdad.
The international inroads are paying off in the Triangle.
The nonprofit think tank, which does everything from helping establish democracy in foreign lands to turning coal into a cleaner fuel, is planning a $100 million face lift at its sprawling Research Triangle Park campus.
The project, which still requires approval from RTI’s board of governors, can be credited to a push in the past seven years to boost revenue and expand its global presence.
“The present growth is unprecedented in RTI’s history,” said Jim Gibson, RTI’s chief financial officer.
Over the past four years, RTI’s revenue has nearly doubled, to $546 million in 2006.
With 2,600 employees in 40 countries — including 2,100 in the Triangle — RTI has become the second-largest nonprofit think tank in the U.S. behind Battelle, based in Columbus, Ohio. It maintains seven regional U.S. offices and five international offices and is considering establishing a presence in India and China.
“We’ve grown tremendously fast, and so far we’ve been able to keep up with it,” said Victoria Haynes, president of RTI.
“But to support that is a big job,” she said. “Now the institute needs to focus more on internal investment.”
The face-lift would add more, and more modern, work space to RTI’s campus. It would accommodate up to 100 additional employees a year and let RTI relocate 600 workers who are in leased office buildings off of its campus.
Three of RTI’s oldest buildings are tagged for demolition over the next 10 years. They would be replaced with two five-story office buildings. RTI’s board is expected to vote on spending about $25 million on the first building in about three months. Construction could start as early as the fall, said Allwyne Richards, RTI’s vice president of facility strategic services.
The staff is thinking about using architectural design to make a statement. “We do want to be proud of it,” Gibson said. He wouldn’t reveal more details, but don’t expect anything flashy.
Most of the work that RTI’s Triangle employees do serves federal government agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and NASA. The 180-acre campus — rolling meadows criss-crossed by walkways and dotted with 20 buildings surrounded by trees — rarely sees visitors.
“We believe the culture of RTI and this campus are unique,” Gibson said.
The campus mainly serves the scientists who have chalked up accomplishments over the years, from discovering a widely used cancer drug in the 1970s to reducing the number of aviation accidents caused by wind shear in the 1990s. Each success contributes to attracting more, and more diverse, government work.
Haynes, a chemist who worked for Monsanto and BFGoodrich, stepped up RTI’s growth when she took the helm in 1999.
William Greenlee, chief executive of the CIIT Centers for Health Research, an RTI neighbor in Research Triangle Park, remembered having lunch with Haynes shortly after he arrived in the Triangle the same year.
“I was impressed by her vision for RTI,” Greenlee said.
Haynes urged RTI scientists to take the risk of commercializing their inventions.
The results so far include two companies involved in developing computer-chip technology: Ziptronix of Morrisville, spun off in 2000, and Nextreme Thermal Solutions of RTP, created in 2005.
Haynes also stressed relationships with for-profit companies.
In 2001, RTI created Health Solutions, a business unit that helps pharmaceutical companies test new medicines. Health Solutions generated about $30 million in revenue last year.
The same year, RTI focused on international expansion by changing its name.
RTI, which went by Research Triangle Institute for 43 years, had done work outside the United States since the late 1970s.
But Haynes felt the name change told the world “we’re serious.”
Federal agencies in Washington heard the message.
In 2003, the U.S. Agency for International Development selected RTI to establish democratically elected local governments in Iraq. With extensions, the multiyear contract will generate more than $300 million in revenue.
The Iraq project put a lot of strain on RTI, which had to set up the administrative support network, Haynes said.
But it also demonstrated that the think tank could deliver on large, international contracts.
As a result, RTI was awarded two contracts worth $230 million last year. The work involves developing ways to better deal with neglected tropical diseases and control malaria.
“We’re right on track,” Haynes said with a smile.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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