Jacksonville Fl, – 26 April 2023 – Kirchner Group, a boutique advisory, operational support, and asset management firm, today formally announced the launch of its unique academic initiative focused on leveraging institutions’ current assets to generate new resources while also growing their societal impact.

Higher education in the United States is facing numerous challenges related to public expectations and perceptions as well as the economic realities impacting the industry. When considering resources invested, many believe that universities and colleges could and should be making greater contributions to addressing major societal needs while offsetting economic investment. At the same time, universities are also under financial pressure related to the current economy, the need to diversify revenue streams and the compounding effect of declining student enrollment.

Given these factors, Kirchner Group has developed a new model that allows universities to grow their enterprise by expanding their societal impact while generating the resources needed to both sustain and grow that impact. The firm believes that the necessary expansion of societal impact while solidifying a foundation of systematic sustainability and mechanisms for growth lies in two fundamental premises; increased collaboration and partnering and taking advantage of expertise and experience that can come from outsourcing asset assessment, plan development and implementation strategies.

Kirchner Group’s team currently includes Dr. Patrick McNees, Dr. Richard Marchase, Dr. Harold Jones and Dr. James (Jim) Hill who represent over 100 years of academic experience in roles such as Interim President, Dean, Associate Dean, Department Chair and Vice President for Research and Economic Development. In addition, Kirchner Group has more than six centuries of collective experience including both process experts and numerous resident domain experts. The academic team will leverage the decades of experience within the Kirchner organization including its operational support expertise, its strong asset management track record collaborating with 14 funds and over 150 portfolio companies as well as its specialization in crystallization of intellectual property and enterprise development.

A key to Kirchner Group’s academic approach is producing value from “underperforming assets.” An “underperforming asset” in an academic portfolio could be any human, physical, financial or asset such as intellectual property that has been created but perhaps not identified or not moved to market. Thus, such assets are not providing optimal return in terms of impact and/or revenue. Kirchner Group will work with its academia clients to discover their “underperforming assets” and leverage them to create added value that is consistent with the vision, missions, goals, values and culture of the organization.

Generally speaking, the new offering will typically begin with a comprehensive assessment and SWOT analysis providing institutions with an independent perspective to determine the nature of its assets and their potential value to external entities. Kirchner Group will then collaborate with its clients to implement recommendations as needed.

“We have built a team with unparalleled academic expertise that can leverage our firm’s four decades of experience for the benefit of academia,” stated W.B. (Bud) Kirchner, Founder and CEO of Kirchner Group. “Our ability to establish this new paradigm to help address the challenges currently facing academic institutions is extremely important as we strive to continue to make a positive impact in all our activities.”

“Our approach offers a new way of thinking about resourcing the academic engines that better our world,” added Dr. Jones. “As a group that itself is committed to bettering the world around us, we stand ready to help academic institutions, and the units within them, develop the strategies and partnerships needed to leverage their resources in ways that allow them to extend their positive impact on society.”