Walter H. Plosila has extensive experience in the public and private as well as non-profit sectors. He is recognized for his innovative approaches to issues such as business-higher education partnerships and publicly-spurred entrepreneurship strategies. He has been responsible for such nationally recognized model programs as the Ben Franklin Partnerships (Pennsylvania), industry-led high technology regional trade associations (Maryland), and industry roadmaps (North Carolina).

Dr. Plosila is Vice President, Technology Partnership Practice, for Battelle. In recent years the Practice has worked with a number of universities, regional business organizations as well as states, in the development and design of technology, biotech/life sciences and information tech strategies as well as such areas as research park conceptualization, research core competencies, cluster analysis, successful program design and implementation. Clients generally are business/higher education/foundation coalitions and they have included such regions as Indianapolis, Peoria, St. Louis, and Western Massachusetts and the States of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, among others.

Previously, Plosila served for as Executive Director of the North Carolina Alliance for Competitive Technologies. For eight years Dr. Plosila served as President of the non-profit Suburban Maryland Technology Council (now Technology Council of Maryland). This organization received industry recognition for its efforts in bringing higher education to industry and establishing technology networks and partnerships, spurring entrepreneurship and repositioning a regional and state economy. For over 11 years, while Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce and Director of the Pennsylvania Governor's Office of Policy and Planning, Plosila developed and initiated one of the country's most comprehensive technology and manufacturing agendas. This agenda included establishment of the Ben Franklin Partnership Programs including seed capital, incubators, networks, and business-higher education partnerships.

Dr. Plosila has served as a management consultant, for both Westinghouse Electric Corporation's Public Management Systems Division and Unco, Inc. He has also been a consultant to over forty-five states and many regions in the areas of economic development, entrepreneurship, technology, and business-higher education relationships over the past 25 years.

Plosila has a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, from which he also received a Distinguished Service Award; an MA from Pennsylvania State University; and a BA from Beloit College (Wisconsin). He has served as an adjunct faculty member at five universities; most recently The Johns Hopkins University and Carnegie-Mellon University. Plosila has published numerous papers and articles in the areas of economic and technology development, entrepreneurship, and strategic management.

He is past chair of the National Science Foundation's Industrial Innovation Committee. He received the Founders' Award from the National Small Business Incubator Association and the Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration. He is a speaker on technology innovation and manufacturing modernization throughout the U.S. and abroad.