ROI-NJ Names President Bloom, NJIT Execs Most Influential People in New Jersey Business
ROI-NJ, a publication that reports on New Jersey economic news, released its “ROI Influencers Power List” for 2018. Featured on the list are Joel S. Bloom, NJIT’s president; Donald Sebastian, president of New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), an NJIT Corporation; and Tom Gregorio, NJII’s senior executive director, Healthcare Delivery Systems iLab.
Bloom, president of NJIT since 2012, has overseen tremendous growth at the university. In the midst of a $400 million campus improvement, he has expanded NJIT’s capabilities with the Life Sciences and Engineering Center, a $21 million state-of-the-art research facility focused on the future of health care; Makerspace at NJIT, a training-focused, rapid prototyping facility that is central to both the university’s hands-on learning mission and its growing relationship with New Jersey’s manufacturing community; the $86 million Central King Building renovation, the largest single project funded by the state of New Jersey through the 2012 Building Our Future Bond Act, which revitalized the building into a hub for collaborative learning; and the Wellness and Events Center, a 220,000 sq.ft. iconic multipurpose building that provides large-scale space for professional conferencing, training and career fairs, as well as social settings for NJIT students, faculty and staff.
As head of NJII, Sebastian is leading the charge to use technology to improve everyday life in smart cities, health care, biotechnical and pharmaceutical innovation, defense and homeland security, and financial services. NJII is a leading example of harnessing the power of higher education to find innovative business solutions. In its first three years, NJII has grown to over $60 million per year in sponsored programmatic activity.
Gregorio and his team are connecting top innovators with the health care industry to change the way health care is administered not only in New Jersey, but across the country. The focus of the group is simple: to improve the quality of care while reducing business inefficiencies through technology-based innovation. Gregorio and his team are working on new care models that adapt technologies to human behavior and vice versa, boosting productivity with strategic IT investment.
A number of other ROI Influencers with NJIT ties made the list, including New Jersey Senator Paul Sarlo '92, '95; Bob Garret and Dr. Andrew Pecora of Hackensack Meridian Health and NJII iLab partners; John Kennedy of New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program; and Michele Brown, Debbie Hart and Michele Siekerka, board members of NJII.