Startup Course Instructors

Keith Marmer serves as chief innovation & economic engagement officer at the University of Utah. In this role, Keith has transformed the culture of commercialization at University of Utah, launching three accelerators, a business incubator and a venture fund to support startup companies, facilitating the creation of 52 companies, and generating more than $60 million in university revenue from licensing and industry collaborations. His strong leadership skills come from 30 years of experience as an inventor, entrepreneur and investor. He has three patents, launched three companies, and helped entrepreneurs raise more than $1 billion in investment capital. Previously, Keith was co-founder and managing director of SG3 Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on early-stage life science companies. Prior to SG3 Ventures, Keith was chief business officer at Penn Center for Innovation, University of Pennsylvania. Before his university-based commercialization roles, he was an entrepreneur, founding and scaling two companies and co-founding a consulting firm that advised early-stage growth companies. Across his career, Keith has launched, help to launch or overseen teams responsible for starting more than 140 companies. Keith serves, and has served on numerous corporate and non-profit boards and is a past entrepreneur-in-residence at Princeton University. He received an MBA, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Master of Physical Therapy and Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences from University of the Sciences.

Mostafa Analoui, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Venture Development and Technology Incubation Program (TIP) at UConn. Previously, he was Head of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Livingston Securities (New York, NY) with investment focus in private and public companies in biotech, medtech and healthcare services. Prior to that, he was the Senior Director at Pfizer Global Research and Development. Dr. Analoui is actively involved in investment, management and scientific/business development of nanotechnology, drug discovery/development, diagnostic imaging, and global strategies.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Dr. Analoui was the Director of Oral and Maxillofacial Imaging Research, Associate Professor of Radiology at Indiana University, and Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical & Comp Engineering at Purdue University. He was also President and CEO of Therametric Technology Inc. He has received his Ph.D. from Purdue University, followed by Post-Doctoral Fellowship at IBM TJ Watson Research Center in NY.

Dr. Analoui has authored over 130 publications, including journal articles, a book and book chapters and technical reports. He was Chairman of the Board of VirtualScopics (NASDAQ: VSCP) and currently serves as Chairman of the Board member of Cyclica, member of the board of Connecticut Innovations, and NanoBusiness Commercialization Association.

Kornelius Bankston is the managing partner and founder of TECHPLUG. He leads the firm’s strategy and business development efforts. He’s a graduate of Morehouse College (BSc. Chemistry), Emory University (MSc. Biomolecular Chemistry) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (MBA). After graduating from Emory University, Kornelius worked for a startup founded by Dr. Dennis Liotta as a business development intern. He went on to become a project manager with the Georgia Department of Economic Development where he worked to help recruit Baxter (now known as Takeda) to Georgia. He moved on to manage Morehouse School of Medicine’s first Office of Technology Transfer and Office of Industry Sponsored Clinical trials.  He was able to help underserved populations who traditionally do not participate in clinical trials to become more engaged in clinical research. Kornelius served as the director of bioscience ecosystem expansion for the Metro Atlanta Chamber where he worked to recruit bioscience companies to the Metro Atlanta region.  While at the Metro Atlanta Chamber he launched Global Health ATL, www.globalhealthatl.com, to promote Atlanta as the Center for Global Health. Most recently, Kornelius served as the director of business development for Color Genomics leading the company’s southeast business development efforts.  Color Genomics is a Silicon Valley based biotech company.

Paul Corson has led entrepreneurial initiatives in the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia for nearly three decades. His focus on entrepreneurship cuts across the public and private sectors, as well as NGOs and higher education. Paul has held leadership roles in three startup companies, developed and implemented public policy at the federal level for the Secretary of Commerce, NASA, and the White House, and spurred technology commercialization, access to capital, and business formation in higher education.

At PIVOT, Paul has facilitated the launch of dozens of companies aided by three technology accelerators, a business incubator, and a highly successful in-Residence program. Previously, as the founding Chief of Staff, Paul oversaw efforts to launch and build the Office of Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the President of the University of California System. Paul was also the founding Executive Director of Innovation Fund America, a national family of pre-seed startup investment funds housed within community colleges that has invested over $13M in more than 200 companies. At the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), Paul served as Deputy and Acting Director and launched and managed the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Also while at DOC, he managed the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship; helped design, launch, and manage a congressionally-authorized national grant program that has subsequently award over $100M for technology-based economic development; and co-managed and co-hosted President Obama’s Global Summit on Entrepreneurship.

Douglas Hockstad is TLA's Assistant Vice President. TLA helps to accomplish the broader University of Arizona mission by providing a variety of services to faculty that protect intellectual property, streamline the technology commercialization process, support the creation of startups based on University technology, and find commercial applications for university research. Doug joined the UA with 25 years’ of experience in high tech markets, primarily in the software market, including both established company and startup experience, and most recently having served as Associate Director, Software & Engineering Licensing in the University of Michigan's Office of Technology Transfer. In this role, along with his primary responsibility for managing software and other copyright-related intellectual property created across the entire U of M campus, he also managed the office's information technology requirements, and served as the liaison between the Office of Tech Transfer and the College of Engineering.

Rick Huebsch is Executive Director for the University of Minnesota’s Technology Commercialization team, which is responsible for all facets of technology transfer including IP protection, marketing, licensing, and startups through the Venture Center.  In addition, his team partners with the UMN Foundation on the University's Corporate Engagement initiatives. He also serves on the Launch  Advisory Board for the State of Minnesota. Rick joined the University in 2008 after 20 years of software industry experience including roles in software engineering, technology strategy, and executive management with Minnesota and California software companies.

Peter Melley serves as the Director of Venture Development for the University of Utah’s PIVOT Center.  Peter has twenty years of experience in several capacities in the start-up ecosystem, including investor, legal counsel, entrepreneur, and bench trained scientist.
  
Previously, Peter served as the Director, New Ventures for the University City Science Center, where he directed two investment programs providing venture capital to emerging-state technologies. He performed due diligence, market analysis, financial forecasting, and gap analysis for investments and then leveraged that information to invest and manage approximately $7 million in related programs and funds.
Peter practiced with three global law firms and as in-house counsel, where he crafted his skills representing venture capital, private equity, mezzanine, and other public and private companies in a wide range of life cycle transactions including structuring formations, funding, and stock offerings. He counseled investment advisors, private fund managers and investment companies on compliance issues. He also drafted service contracts; employment, sales, purchase, and non-disclosure agreements, and option grants. Peter holds a B.S. in Biology from The American University, and a M.S. in Biotechnology and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Nichole Mercier, PhD, is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Washington University in St. Louis & the Office of Technology Management’s Managing. Dr. Mercier started her career in tech transfer at Boston Children’s Hospital before moving to St. Louis in 2005 as a member of OTM’s licensing team. In addition to leading tech transfer, she is dedicated to improving how underserved academic innovators participate in commercializing research. She developed and instituted WashU’s Women in Innovation and Technology (WIT) program to engage female innovators in technology transfer, and in 2020, she created the national event, Equalize, to empower academic women in entrepreneurship.

Stephen Nappi has been in the business of commercializing university discoveries for the past 20 years. Mr. Nappi joined Temple University in 2008 as its Director of Technology Transfer and he currently serves as Associate Vice President of Technology Commercialization and Business Development within the Office of the Vice President for Research. In that role, Mr. Nappi heads the university’s efforts to identify, protect and commercialize research-based discoveries while growing an ecosystem to support technology acceleration and startup creation.

At Temple, Mr. Nappi benefits from a growing research environment that has led to the creation of over 35 startup companies in the past 10 years. These companies have successfully launched 5 products and collectively raised more than $160M in funding in the past 2 years. To support the university’s startup portfolio, Mr. Nappi contributed to the formation of seed and venture-stage investment programs. Prior to joining Temple, Mr. Nappi spent 7 years at Florida Atlantic University in its Office of Technology Transfer.

Mr. Nappi holds a BBA in business management and marketing from Florida Atlantic University. He is a member of AUTM and the Licensing Executive Society. Mr. Nappi is President Emeritus of BioStrategy Partners and continues to serve on its Board of Directors.

Jim O’Connell is the Assistant Vice President of Commercialization, and Director of Tech Transfer, responsible for commercializing and translating UF technologies into the marketplace as well as all startup activity and its two world class business incubators. Jim has a broad background in business and product development as well as an extensive technology transfer experience from the University of Michigan and the University of Miami. He also has large corporate experience from Stryker Instruments, as well as startup experience from Xoran Technologies and Sensicore. In his more than 20 years in industry, Jim’s roles have always focused on growing and establishing businesses while commercializing new, high tech products, with both operations and engineering responsibilities. He has helped commercialize over 35 different products including biomaterials, RF Ablation devices, infusion pumps, surgical power tools, high volume sterile disposables, CT Scanners, surgical navigation systems, resorbable plates and screws, and amperometric electrochemical sensors and is also a patented inventor. He has a BS in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer and an MS in Engineering Management from the University of Maryland. Prior to industry, Jim was a helicopter pilot in the U.S. Air Force.

Todd Sherer has led Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer since 2003. During that time, he transformed the program into an internationally recognized leader in academic technology transfer.  He introduced the use of product pipelines to illustrate the important role that research plays in the innovation pathway and built a team of professionals focused on risk-reduction and value creation.  He was able to combine industry sponsored research with technology transfer to create a one-stop shop for companies looking to partner with Emory researchers.  Other accomplishments include the creation of an in-house patent group to reduce costs while aligning patenting and licensing functions, and a dedicated technology scout function to increase the disclosure of new inventions.

In 2005, Dr. Sherer worked with colleagues to monetize Emory’s future HIV drug royalties for Emtriva, resulting in a one-time payment of $540 million to Emory—the largest royalty monetization of its kind at that time.  He has been involved in transferring technology that led to FDA approval of several new drug therapies and medical devices, as well as many other products.  He has also worked with dozens of faculty-driven startup companies over the years where he guided them in their pursuit investment dollars and management teams.

He is a Past President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), the professional association representing more than 3,000 technology transfer professionals from more than 30 countries.Early in his career, Dr. Sherer became a Registered Patent Agent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  He is also a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP™) and a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP).  He received the Georgia BIO Community Award in 2014 and its Industry Growth Award in 2016 for his contributions to the life science industry in Georgia.  He is a Past Chairman of Southeast BIO (SEBIO), a regional non-profit organization that fosters the growth of the life science industry in the Southeast US.  He has served on other boards and councils over the years including his role as President, EmTech Biotechnology Development, Inc—a joint-venture biotechnology incubator between Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Eric Smith brings with him almost a decade’s worth of technology commercialization experience and a passion for entrepreneurship. Smith came to the UA Center for Innovation after serving as the commercialization network manager for Tech Launch Arizona (TLA), the UA’s office responsible for moving UA research and technological innovation into the marketplace. While at TLA, he focused on building and leveraging a network of domain experts and business leaders who consult on university technologies to help reveal their commercial relevance as they are prepared for the market. He also managed TLA's National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps (I-Corps) Site grant program which teaches inventing teams about lean startup methodology and customer discovery. An entrepreneur in his own right, after Eric started, developed and sold his first company, he embarked on a career in various technology startups. Smith holds a BSBA in business management and entrepreneurship and an MBA from the University of Arizona. He is a local Tucsonan with a passion for economic development through startup creation and community involvement. He sits on the boards of the Tucson Jewish Community Center and the International Business Innovation Association is a member of groups such as the Tucson Metro Chamber’s Emerging Leaders Council and Tucson Young Professionals.

Teri Willey returned to Indiana in 2018 to join Indiana University as an Executive Director of IU Ventures and to launch and manage the new Indiana Philanthropic Venture Fund. She is a member of the IU Ventures Board and Investment Committee; Dimension Mill/Velocities Investment Committee; a Director of the Venture Club of Indiana, a Director of portfolio companies NERx Biosciences, Diagnotes and Periodic, and an Advisor to OnCode Institute in the Netherlands.

Teri served as Vice President of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory leading a new program for industry engagement, new ventures and intellectual property licensing; Vice President for Technology and Business Development for Mount Sinai School of Medicine; founding Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise, Ltd the technology commercialization affiliate of the University of Cambridge in England; founder and Managing Partner of ARCH Development Partners (ADP), a seed and early stage venture fund focused on university and corporate spin-outs; Business Development for Endocyte, Inc., University of Notre Dame Business School Adjunct Faculty; and Vice President of Start-ups at ARCH Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the University of Chicago, which commercialized technology from the University and Argonne National Laboratory. Her prior experience also includes non-executive board positions with a several early stage companies and technology transfer leadership roles at Northwestern University and Purdue Research Foundation. Teri has been an advisor to policy makers, universities and companies, is a past President of AUTM, a former Bye Fellow of Christ’s College Cambridge in England and a Sagamore of the Wabash.

Kyrsten Woolstenhulme is the Director of Innovation Management at the University of Utah’s PIVOT Center. Kyrsten draws on her combined business and engineering experience to help accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries to commercial products. She collaborates with inventors, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives to shape and execute on sustainable business strategies, foster partnerships within the community, and match potential management teams with promising technologies. Kyrsten also leads or supports licensing deals with new startups being spun out of the University. When not engaging with Utah’s innovation ecosystem, she utilizes her process improvement and project coordination experience to improve office efficiency through special projects. Kyrsten received her Bachelor of Science in Management with an emphasis in Organizational Leadership and a minor in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Utah. She also earned an MBA from the David Eccles School of Business. Kyrsten is a Certified Associate in Project Management and holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification. Prior to her current role, Kyrsten performed in-depth analyses of unmet market needs and trends in life science industries. Her work included conducting a competitive analysis of University technologies, evaluating market opportunity, developing marketing collateral, and identifying potential licensees. Kyrsten also has a background in life sciences research, having completed an undergraduate Merrill Engineering Scholars Fellowship at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. While there, she focused on improving treatment options for patients with lung cancer by studying the mechanisms of drug response and resistance in order to personalize cancer therapies.