Innovation head says university/private sector cooperation improving

Terry Jones, head of a new, as-yet unnamed organization that seeks to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the Capital Region, says helping commercialize the knowledge and research produced by the universities and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center is an important part of improving the region’s economic ecosystem. LSU officials admit the school hasn’t been very good at that in the past, but say they’re trying to get better. “It’s definitely improved,” Jones says. “The entire awareness of innovation and commercialization of technology and ideas is better understood now than five years ago, or even two years ago.” Jones is the founder of Dean Capital and has worked for Source Capital and various local banks. He says he has been involved in funding technologies that were spun out of universities. He cites Mezzo Technologies as a business that benefited from his efforts; it is headquartered in the Bon Carre Business Center on Florida Boulevard and produces heat exchangers used in industries as diverse as aerospace, defense and auto racing. —David Jacobs