Another day, another potential breakthrough for the CornellNYC Tech.
The team that will lead Cornell’s development in New York City continues to grow, adding a familiar personality with ties to a technological powerhouse.
The University announced on Wednesday that Greg Pass, ’97, former Chief Technology Officer for Twitter, will serve as CornellNYC Tech’s founding entrepreneurial officer. The position will primarily be responsible for assuring constant communication between the school and local industries, while also promoting entrepreneurial skills in the classroom.
Pass graduated from Cornell in 1997 with a degree in Computer Science. He stepped down as CTO of VP of Engineering at Twitter almost exactly a year ago on May 20, 2011.
“The idea is for the new program, is that we really ought to have someone specifically focused [on] making sure that the academic program and industry partnerships will successfully result in entrepreneurial value for students and faculty and the New York tech community,” Pass said in an interview with Business Insider. “We want to bring students that are specifically interested in making a difference and having an impact on technological innovation and are entrepreneurial.”
With the move, Cornell has proven determined to demonstrate that they have the networks and influence necessary to make the CornellNYC Tech campus a reality and to turn New York into a technological powerhouse that can rival Silicon Valley.
In the last week, New York has been outshining its West Coust prototype. Two days after tech icon Google (who had previously backed Stanford in Mayor Bloomberg’s contest) announced that they will rent space to Cornell for the school’s first five years of operation, Pass has followed suit and cut his ties with his Silicon Valley comrades in favor of a move back East.
“I see this as a unique opportunity to give back to my profession and figure out how to better cultivate the types of students interested in making an impact,” Pass continued. “How can we actually educate those types of students better and give them a better education to increase the size and quality of the talent pool?”
Answering this question now falls on the shoulders of Pass and his growing team of technological gurus.
