When NetJets, a private aviation company, announced it would keep and expand its operational headquarters in Ohio, Richard T. Santulli, chairman and chief executive, didn't give credit to tax breaks or any of the other incentives states and cities typically use to woo or retain corporations. Instead, he said the critical factor was the state's higher-education system. Leaders of Ohio's public colleges persuaded the company that they had the breadth and depth of expertise to meet NetJets's needs, including aircraft-maintenance training at Columbus State Community College, logistics specialists at Wright State University, and a top-ranked culinary program at the University of Cincinnati. So in March, after months of considering suitors like Raleigh, North Carolina, and Fort Worth, Texas, the private-jet service announced that it would create 800 new jobs and invest in a $200-million expansion at the international airport in Ohio. Ohio's success in keeping NetJets is part of an aggressive, coordinated, and highly ambitious campaign to transform the state's higher-education system into a driver of economic growth. Ohio's success can be largely credited to two men: Eric D. Fingerhut, chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, who devised the plan, and Governor Ted Strickland, who appointed him to the post almost two years ago and has been a strong supporter of higher education to the state legislature.