Date/Time
Date(s) - 12 Oct 2012
7:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Location
Lodge on the Desert
BIOSA Breakfast Event
BIOSA welcomes David N Allen PhD
Executive Director Tech Launch Arizona
Oct 12, 2102 – 7am-9am – Lodge on the Desert
Tech Launch Arizona is an exciting new initiative of the University of Arizona and the Executive Director, Dr David Allen will give us his perspective on the future of technology commercialization at the UofA. (Dr Allen’s bio attached)
Early Registration: $20 for BIOSA members $25 for non-members
After Oct 9: $25 for BIOSA members $30 for non-members
RSVP: Mike@biosaz.org or call 650 207 3480
Tech Launch Arizona and David Allen
Tech Launch Arizona (TLA) is a new organization at the University of Arizona. The operation, managed by the Executive Director, reports to the University President and the Executive Director is a member of the President’s Cabinet. TLA was created to bridge and integrate various existing technology commercialization offices of the University: the Office of Technology Transfer, the Office of Corporate and Business Relations and the University of Arizona Technology Park and its business incubator, the Arizona Center for Innovation. These components will be been augmented with new funds to pursue activities such as Proof of Concept (POC) funding and seed stage venture funding. As part of the TLA mission, the entire technology commercialization effort will be greatly enhanced and sooner than people think is presently possible, we all will be hearing that UA is doing great work in technology commercialization.
The TLA Executive Director, David N. Allen, PhD, has been involved in the study and practice of technology commercialization for thirty years. As a professor at Penn State University (1981 – 1991) he primarily taught graduate courses in public policy and entrepreneurship and conducted funded research on business incubators and the faculty role in commercializing their inventions. During the latter part of this period he served as a consultant to a regional Seed venture capital fund, Zero Stage Partners of Central Pennsylvania. In 1991 he went to Ohio University in Athens to run the Innovation Center (the OU business incubator) and start a Technology Transfer Office as Assistant Vice President of Technology and Economic Development. In 1993 he also became the Director of the Edison Biotechnology Institute. He left OU to become the Assistant Vice President for Technology Partnerships at Ohio State University in 1997. In that capacity he managed the Technology Licensing Office and worked to help create various technology development support organizations for Ohio State. In 2002 he became the Associate VP for Technology Transfer at the University of Colorado. In that role he transformed an underperforming Technology Transfer Office into a university asset and nationally recognized program. Distinctive features included: a nationally preeminent POC program; broad-based subject matter domain experts providing mindshare in support of university commercialization; operational and outcome transparency; two significant royalty monetizations; and, on average, ten growth-oriented start-up companies per year. CU’s TTO was one of a few such operations across the country that attained (in 2004) financial self-sufficiency (based on a $5M annual budget). He came to the University of Arizona in September 2012 with a passion for making this outstanding research University a technology commercialization powerhouse.