WASHINGTON:  A prominent Indian-American businessmen will lead a venture to collect funds for University of California with an aim to invest in innovation opportunities.

Anchored by USD 250 million from University of California's investment office, the fund will be an independent entity run by Vivek Ranadive, who will build a business team and help attract outside capital.

"Our business plan for the UC innovation fund is designed for the next 100 years," said Paul Wachter, chair of the UC Board of Regents Committee on Investments.

"Therefore, it's important that we get this right with a great team and an independent structure, which is what we have accomplished by recruiting Vivek to lead the fund," he said.

Mr Ranadive, is the founder and former CEO of TIBCO, a multimillion-dollar real-time computing company. The Indian- American is also the owner and chairman of the Sacramento Kings, a National Basketball Association (NBA) team.

"Vivek is a visionary who has transformed the way businesses operate across the world and developed his own innovations in Silicon Valley," UC's Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher said.

"This venture will support the research and entrepreneurship of UC faculty and student researchers whose discoveries can benefit people throughout California, the nation and the world," the university's President Janet Napolitano said.

"Vivek is a leader who can make that happen. His involvement will enable us to achieve our objective of capitalising on UC innovation," he added.

"It is a tremendous honour to partner with the University of California in this unique collaboration focused on investing in breakthrough technologies emerging from the world-class University of California system," Mr Ranadive said in a statement.
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