Chris Laing, PhD

Executive Director

Capital City Innovation

Chris leads Capital City Innovation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is providing vision, strategic direction, advocacy, and synergy among the organizations and individuals creating, growing, and sustaining Austin's Innovation District.

It was founded by Central Health, Seton Health, and The University of Texas at Austin and began operations in 2017.  Austin’s innovation district is committed to economic diversification, inclusive place-making, and healthy community.

HTA - Tell us about your personal/professional background?

My personal and professional backgrounds are both meandering! I was born in Hong Kong, I grew up in Australia – the suburbs of Sydney – and when I finished school, I took myself to the UK where I lived and worked in and around London before making my way to the U.S. – first Philadelphia and, most recently, Austin.

I initially trained as a veterinarian and worked in companion animal practice for a number of years. But the idea of discovery has always been exciting to me, and I did my Ph.D. and post-doctoral training in molecular biology. I’ve spent a few years teaching and doing research, and then I caught the entrepreneurial bug. After my post-doc, I worked with a series of startups - mainly medtech and biotech companies spinning out of universities.

Over the last 12 years, I have been working with organizations that build entrepreneurial ecosystems and innovation districts. I’ve always enjoyed collecting experiences, meeting new people, and the challenge of making new starts! But one thing I’ve always found – whether personally or professionally – every experience has been useful.

HTA - First thing you do when you wake up?

Check the news. I’ve become a junkie for news on BREXIT – maybe it’s a distraction...

HTA - How do you unwind at the end of the day?

Spend time with my dog. She’s a Philly girl who made the trip to Texas with me, and she loves it here. But she still shows off her Philly ‘tude sometimes when another dog barks at her!

HTA - What's the update on the Brackenridge development?

We’re heading into an exciting time for the Innovation District. We expect the existing, unused buildings of the Brackenridge Medical Center to be demolished in the late Summer or Fall, and to break ground on the first building – the flagship of the Innovation District – immediately after. Starting to have physical development in the Innovation District will be a real milestone for us! We’ll be announcing more in the coming months, so stay tuned for more!

HTA - What's accomplishment(s) are you most proud of since taking the job at Capital City Innovation

Everything we do is about convening organizations and supporting collaboration. Our role is often to be in the background, providing support and frameworks for our region’s innovators to do what they do best.

We’ve created the strategy and plan for a consortium of organizations, including UT Austin, Central Health, Seton, Downtown Austin Alliance, Opportunity Austin, the City of Austin, and Travis County, to create Austin’s first health and life science Innovation District. And this effort is starting to get recognized by national organizations like the National League of Cities. If you want to see what these organizations are doing to innovate and build the district, check out the 2018 annual review of the Innovation District: www.capitalcityinnovation.org/annual-review

We’ve built an affinity network of regional organizations, including Dell Med, Austin Technology Incubator, UT College of Pharmacy, Texas State University, Austin Community College, and the Temple Health and Bioscience District, that are collectively supporting more than 50 life science companies. We help them to create critical mass, aligned messaging, and shared programming. The startups they are supporting are the next generation of up-and-coming high-growth companies, and they will transform our region.

We’ve brought together companies like Ford with Austin’s key clinical and safety-net organizations, including CommUnity Care, Seton, Dell Med, Integral Care, Meals on Wheels of Central Texas, Lone Star Circle of Care, El Buen Samaritano, and others like the Transportation Empowerment Fund – to share diverse perspectives on how organizations are connecting people with resources and services that keep them healthy. This topic has now become a key focus of the City of Austin’s collaboration with Ford’s City One Challenge.

And we’re becoming an integral part of the economic development landscape for our region, working with partners like the Austin Chamber, UT Austin, the City, and Travis County. We’re also starting to engage in conversations with our region’s fantastic colleges, including Huston-Tillotson, St. Edward’s, and Concordia, to find ways to plug them into the growing life science sector and the Innovation District.

HTA - What did you learn at your previous job, that impacts how you lead Capital City Innovation today?

Like any ecosystem, an innovation district needs to consider a full spectrum of elements – that means you can’t concentrate on only startups, or only university researchers, or only real estate, or only the community. You need to focus on how all these elements interact. Creating common value among academic, real estate, non-profit, large and small business, community, and other participants are how the business model of innovation districts work – so that the success of each contribute to the success of the others. Capital City Innovation’s strategy is to prioritize activities in four areas simultaneously: connecting the innovation community, investing in innovation, building capacity (workforce), and creating the venue(s).

Having a consensus builder is key since there are so many organizations involved, each with their own priorities. This is the true value of convening organizations, like the Science Center in Philadelphia, and Capital City Innovation in Austin – they are neutral intermediaries that can serve as platforms for building consensus in a way that delivers value to all the participants. Capital City Innovation’s approach is to work via partnerships wherever possible. Our approach is not to solve challenges on our own, but rather how can we connect with business, academic, community, government, and non-profit partners who have aligned visions? Easy, right?

HTA - What are some of the similarities and differences of Philadelphia and Austin?

Philadelphia is a large, historical, northeastern city – the home of the original American entrepreneurs – who created our nation by drafting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. But, like many industrial-era cities, it has also experienced a decline. Its current renaissance is being driven by significant collaboration among its academic, business, and cultural institutions. The population (particularly Millennials) is growing, and there is an exciting revitalization of its downtown.

Austin is smaller - and for all that it has grown rapidly in recent years, it still manages to retain a great small-town feel. It is newer, and so are most of its residents! Its culture of entrepreneurship is perhaps stronger and feels more recent. But there does seem to be less systematic connectivity among its business, academic, civic, and cultural sectors.

And I won’t even try and pit cheesesteaks against breakfast tacos!

However, there are perhaps more similarities between the two places than you might think. Both sites have an ambitious and collaborative spirit. Both cities’ residents are down-to-earth and value authenticity. And both cities are positioning themselves as internationally-recognized centers of innovation and entrepreneurship. While I think Austin may have a slight edge – we can’t get complacent!

HTA - What has surprised you about Austin’s healthcare and tech ecosystem?

There are already so many organizations in this space, and they’re already doing so much – a lot more than I realized before I arrived. And there has been a lot of interest in engaging in the Innovation District!

Of course, that association network starts with the University of Texas at Austin and its Dell Medical School in partnership with the new Dell Seton Medical Center, owned and operated by Seton/Ascension, and Central Health’s downtown campus – the former Brackenridge medical center. Brackenridge is being planned by Central Health and its partners in alignment with Central Health’s mission and its community consultation project - part of the campus was just approved for lease-to-develop by a non-profit working with the University of Texas.

Three significant community health systems – Seton, St. David’s, and Baylor, Scott and White – all of which have engaged with us in exploring ways to work to further connect innovators to the communities they serve. There has been terrific engagement by a robust set of safety-net organizations – Central Health, Integral Care, Lone Star Circle of Care, Meals on Wheels and others – all of which are enthusiastic about exploring how innovation can further transform what they are doing!

And, of course, there is a burgeoning set of start-up companies. I’ve found that the lab space, mentorship, and resources available to health and life science companies here in Austin can stand up against any that can be found in any innovation hub in the northeast – and by aggregating them, they will be even more competitive. That’s why Austin is looking to create a health Innovation District.

HTA - Austin is consistently recognized as having great potential for healthcare innovation, how can it achieve great success?

Austin (and Texas) has a great international profile for innovation and entrepreneurship. It has a substantially large corporate presence, particularly in sectors such as semiconductors, e-commerce, and logistics. It is world-renowned in the creative industries. It has a top-40 research university. It has terrific platforms for bringing world-leaders together in all these spaces, and it is recognized as a great place to live!

But, at least in my experience, it is not well-recognized healthcare and life science innovation hub, yet. The good news is that we’re taking steps in that direction! Austin’s innovation capabilities in health and life sciences have the potential to advance considerably with the Dell Medical School and with Austin’s Innovation District. And if we are going to compete effectively with the hundreds of other innovation hubs around the world, we need this. Industry diversity is essential if Austin is to be placed among the top of its peer innovation hubs.

If you look at innovation cities across the county – like Atlanta, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Research Triangle, San Francisco and others - most are substantially over-represented in one field (often health and life sciences). More than 70% of their innovation, at least as measured by academic R&D, occurs in that dominant sector. Being dominant in one field is like putting all your eggs in one basket. If priorities or opportunities shift, you’ve already made your bets, and you may be less nimble in responding to changing circumstance.

There are only two significant innovation hubs in which strengths are evenly distributed among multiple industry sectors (life sciences, engineering, computer science and others) – one is Boston-Cambridge, arguably the most successful innovation hub in the country. The other is – you guessed it – Austin. We have strong engineering, computer science, communications, and other capabilities – and now we’re strengthening our health and life sciences innovation capabilities. If we do this right, we will be positioned among, arguably, the greatest innovation hubs in the world!

But, if we’re going to make an impact, we need to stay focused. In the world of innovation districts, Austin’s is a start-up – which means we need to leverage existing strengths and remain laser-focused! We need to know our niche! We are not trying to develop another Kendall Square, or another Research Triangle Park, or another Texas Medical Center. We need to create our niche! Leverage our strengths in academic, corporate, entrepreneurial, and community organizations – the intersection of engineering, digital analytics, biology, and social enterprise. Austin will be where traditional biology, medical devices and diagnostics, and therapeutics intersect with population health and the business of health. It will be the birthplace of a new approach to getting and keeping America’s communities healthy.

HTA - Who were your early mentors, and how did they impact your career?

I’ve been lucky to have worked with many great people who put into action the philosophy that leadership is about empowering others. This list is not complete, but I’ll call out:

Professor David Fraser, my PhD mentor at the University of Sydney, who originally convinced me that I was actually a creative enough thinker to enjoy a career in research – he was right (and who also convinced me, despite my reluctance, that I would find great opportunities in the U.S. – he was right about that too!)

Dr. Jane Alexander, the principal of Windmill Veterinary Center in the UK, who took a chance on hiring me as a green veterinarian, and who taught me that I knew more than I thought I did, and to have confidence in myself. I still struggle with this daily, but remembering my time at Windmill under her leadership helps.

Dr. Stephen Tang, the former CEO of the University City Science Center and current CEO of OraSure, who empowered me to build an exciting innovation district unit, and taught me the importance of consensus in achieving big visions.

HTA - Right now, who is on your personal advisory board?

Wow – way too many to list. I have been very blessed to have an enormous list of very smart and giving people in my network. During my professional life I’ve moved from Sydney to London to Philadelphia to Austin, and in each place I’ve been amazed and humbled at how willing people have been to share their advice and assistance to help me to “soft land” and to find success.

I’ve learned two big lessons from this: 1) have faith in people – they are usually trying to help; 2) listen to everyone – you’ll be surprised where the best advice may come from. I do want to especially mention my colleague at Capital City Innovation, Victoria O’Dell, who has been a valued member of the team and a great contributor to the vision.

HTA - If not the Executive Director of CCI, what would you be doing?

I wouldn’t be doing any other career – this is it! I love what I do! And thankfully I haven’t had to do too much thinking about alternatives. I guess the best way I can answer your question is the following:

Things I am qualified to do:

Startup or corporate product development – I love research, but I’m more drawn to product development than to hypothesis-driven research. I like setting a goal and going for it! If I hadn’t moved into innovation ecosystem development, I probably would be with a corporation or a series of startups.
University professor – I enjoy research and teaching (young, enthusiastic minds are inspiring, aren’t they?). If I hadn’t moved into product development, I probably would have enjoyed a career at a university somewhere.

Veterinarian - for as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a vet (well, sometimes when growing up I’ve wanted to be a journalist, and sometimes a lawyer – but mostly a vet). I did it for a few years and I loved it (mostly). But I loved research more. (I still miss the connections with pet owners). I guess if I didn’t move to research, I’d own a kick-ass vet clinic somewhere – and I’d really enjoy petting your dog!

Things I’m not qualified to do, but which I love conceptually:

Writing: I love (I mean, really) words. Language is such a fantastic medium. I both love and fear when my job relies on written communication. If I had to take a step into an alternative universe, I guess I’d love to be a journalist, a historian, or a novelist. I can’t think of anything more powerful that describing the world with words.

Farming: I’ve always been fascinated with our relationship with our environment. We’re part of it and subject to it. The complexity of ecosystems are just as important in farming as they are in jungles. I’ve always had an interest in the intersection of farming and sustainability. From bees to kangaroos – and I am particularly interested in the idea of farm to fork. In different circumstances I could imagine getting involved in a business in sustainable agriculture.

Traveling: I love how diverse our world is. I love visiting new places, seeing new things, and hearing the experiences of people who grew up there. I have my parents, who are avid travelers, to thank for this curiosity – one of the many things for which I’ll always be grateful to them