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Executive in the Spotlight New PRA exec to heighten Pittsburgh's international profile Sunday, April 30, 2000 By Joyce Gannon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Roger Cranville took two life-changing leaps in 1991: First, he relocated from England to Pittsburgh to be closer to his wife's family. Second, he took a job in the public sector after a 20-year career in private industry.
Cranville, 50, has no regrets. He calls his adopted homeland "probably the best country in the world to live." And his foray into the noncorporate world put Cranville on a successful track that eventually resulted in an official position in state government and now a top role at the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.
Cranville joins the economic development and regional marketing agency tomorrow as PRA's vice president-international.
His new job, he said, will be to develop a strategy to promote the region as a place where international interests should invest capital and do business. Among his first orders of business this week will be to host members of the Manchester, England, Incubation Partnership, a group of technology transfer experts who will be scouting the Pittsburgh region for business opportunities.
Cranville had a similar promotional job for all of Pennsylvania in his last position: deputy secretary for international business at the state Department of Community and Economic Development. He joined the state agency in 1996 as director for Asia/Pacific development. "Six weeks later the deputy secretary left and I got that job," Cranville said.
In Harrisburg, he helped spearhead the Ports of Technology project that tried to develop business links between Pennsylvania and foreign countries. The goal was to attract international companies to the state's technology incubators where they could grow and develop in environments rich with university research and technology transfer tools, such as research parks at Penn State University and the University of Pennsylvania.
One of the things Pittsburgh needs is such a "bricks and mortar" center for technology companies, Cranville said.
One attractive possibility, he said, would be the proposed Tech 21 -- a 223-acre site in Marshall whose proponents include Francois Bitz, a founder of Fore Systems, which is now part of Marconi Communications.
"We want companies to look at Pennsylvania as a destination to do business," Cranville said, "but we need the infrastructure to attract them."
Born and raised in southeastern England, Cranville earned an engineering degree in 1971 from Letchworth Technical College, then spent 13 years as a project manager for International Computers Ltd., now part of Fujitsu, a global information technology company. In 1984, he joined Acorn Computer Ltd. in Cambridge, England, where he worked in international marketing for what Cranville described as "one of the original technology growth companies in England."
Roger Cranville
Age: 50
Title: Vice president-international, Pittsburgh Regional Alliance.
Education: Bachelor's in engineering, 1971, Letchworth Technical College, England.
Career Path: 1971-84: project manager, International Computers Ltd., England; 1984-91: manager of marketing services, Acorn Computer Ltd., Cambridge, England; 1991-96: manager, international export development, Southwestern Pennsylvania Corp.; 1996-2000: director, Asia/Pacific and deputy secretary for international business, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
When he and his wife, Clair, and their two daughters relocated to Pittsburgh in 1991, Cranville joined the Southwestern Pennsylvania Corp. as manager for international export development. Five years later, he got a phone call from Harrisburg that resulted in his stint in state government.
While he worked in the state capital, Cranville's family maintained its Kilbuck home, so his new job at the PRA won't involve another move.
"I know the people there and their business ... It seemed a natural to me," he said of the PRA.
Cranville said his new position included some of the duties that formerly fell to John Thornburgh, the PRA's executive vice president who left the agency in February to join an executive search firm. He maintained that he didn't have the inside track on who might succeed Tim Parks, the PRA's chief executive who is leaving that post in July.
"I'll leave that to the board [of directors]."
Cranville considers the Pittsburgh region's assets to be a skilled and well-trained pool of job candidates; highly ranked research universities, including the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne; and a strong base of companies in technology fields, including software, biotechnology, robotics and engineering. With the recent arrival of Redleaf Group, a venture capital firm, Pittsburgh also can boast credible capital resources, he said.
"I want to focus my efforts to put Pittsburgh on the map," Cranville said, then elaborated: "I think we're on the map, but we need to increase our profile."
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