Bill Duncan, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, visits with Jason Edmonds, right, chairman of the Lawrence-Douglas County Economic Development Board, during a luncheon at Maceli's, 1031 N.H. Duncan was the featured speaker during the event, sponsored by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

Animal health scientists in the Kansas City area soon will be able to hone their business skills with a new graduate program at Kansas University.

KU’s School of Business is launching a Master of Business Administration program with an emphasis in animal health.

The first four students in the program – incoming doctorate-level scientists brought in by Bayer Animal Health, based in Shawnee – will start in January, taking advantage of a curriculum that will start with core MBA courses and then stretch into concentration offerings and electives tailored to life sciences and animal health issues. Among planned courses:

¢ Strategic Management for Animal Health Industries.

¢ Economic Impact of Bioscience and Animal Health Regulation.

¢ New Venture Creation in Bioscience.

The goal: Help fill a labor pool with scientists who can do more than run formulas, conduct tests and create products that could change the way animals and people live.

The next stop is helping scientists understand the mechanisms for getting their products to market, and giving them the best chance for success.

“I know of no other place in the country where this is being done,” said Bill Duncan, president and CEO of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, who visited Lawrence on Tuesday to meet with school representatives and address 40 guests during a luncheon organized by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. “It’s an important first step.”

The arrangement with Bayer – which will pay tuition for its MBA students – looks to be the first of many that could be arranged with animal health companies, said Bill Fuerst, dean of business. There are more than 120 such companies with operations spanning from Manhattan to Columbia, Mo.

“This is a strategic effort for us,” Fuerst said. “Even though we’ll probably start with four students in the program, once we start the affiliations with the other 120-plus companies we can grow even further.”

By helping scientists add management skills, he said, companies will be able to better recruit and retain talent even among themselves, thereby strengthening the entire region. And where talent builds, money follows.

“One of the first things that venture capitalists always look at is management talent,” Fuerst said. “They’re going to look at the talent pool, and we can help with that.”

Duncan, an organic chemist, said he had learned about business himself without any formal business schooling.

He recalls a board member at Oread Laboratories once handing him a book about financial management, suggesting that it would be “a good idea” for Duncan to read it.

Duncan laughs about it now, but he remembers the impetus: At the time, Duncan was president and chief operating officer for Oread, the pharmaceutical powerhouse that grew exponentially during his tenure, from 1988 to 1995.

Now, other scientists will get a chance to learn through formal coursework, guest lectures, case studies and projects – and potentially blazing an educational trail for others to follow with MBAs designed for colleagues in plant and human sciences, too.

“This has the potential for having rather broad implications,” Duncan said.