IEM expects better university collaboration in N.C.

IEM President Madhu Beriwal hopes collaboration with the universities in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area will help take her company to the next level. Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State are near Research Triangle Park, where IEM is moving. She met with the chancellors of the universities before making a decision to move. One school arranged a meeting with five deans, all of whom spoke about ways they could collaborate with IEM, Beriwal says. Collaboration with Baton Rouge’s universities can be problematic, she says. “From a business perspective, perhaps the process has not been figured out within the administration as to how companies can collaborate with the university,” Beriwal says without mentioning LSU or Southern by name. “There are people who want to work with us; there are people we want to work with. They’re trying, but it’s not a streamlined process for making it happen.” IEM, a disaster-management consulting firm Beriwal founded 24 years ago in Baton Rouge, announced Monday it was moving its headquarters to North Carolina.—David Jacobs