Negotiation Course Instructors

Alan Bentley has served as the director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization since 2011. Previous technology transfer experience includes directing the licensing operations at the Cleveland Clinic and the University of Virginia Patent Foundation. He is active in several professional societies, and serves on a number of corporate and community boards. Alan has been a registered U.S. Patent Agent since 1999, and is a Certified Licensing Professional.

Hina Mehta, joined Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation, in 2022 as Director for University Programs for the Commercialization Division. In this role, she participates in the development and execution of the Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) grant programs, and serves as the lead for promoting and managing the CCF’s university-focused programs. Hina has extensive experience in technology commercialization and was, during her tenure as Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at George Mason University, successful at engaging with and supporting commercialization-minded research faculty. At Mason, she also mentored faculty-led teams participating in customer discovery programs such as NSF I-Corps and ICAP. Prior to Mason, Hina worked in biomedical research, in strategic consulting and co-founded a startup. Hina is passionate about community service, serves on several innovation and entrepreneurship committees, and volunteers for nonprofit community organizations. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, and an MBA from the University of Maryland.

Brian Shedd is Executive Director for the newly formed Office of Innovation and Commercialization at UT Permian Basin. He supports all of the faculty, staff, and students at UTPB in their innovation and research commercialization goals as well as interfacing with the external business community to develop partnerships, collaborations, and form new companies. The office also runs the UTPB Incubator and the future Makerspace which will have leasable space for companies and facilities for prototype manufacturing.

Brian comes to UTPB after having been the Director of Technology Commercialization at the University of Houston for the past 3 years. Prior to that he worked in technology transfer roles at LSU and UCLA. He founded and ran a private consulting company focused on the nexus between university technology transfer and small business. Brian earned MS and PhD degrees from UCLA in Mechanical Engineering, and BS In Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado, and a BA in Physical Science from Southwestern University.

Ursula Vosylius joined Kite Pharma, a Gilead company in 2019 and is an Executive Director and Head of Alliance Management.  She is a seasoned alliance management professional and licensed attorney with over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.  Her strengths include problem solving and collaborating for value-creation.  In her current role, Ursula manages a portfolio of US and Global alliances ranging from discovery research to commercial products.

Before joining Kite, Ursula held various roles within Corporate Development, Finance, and R&D at Amgen; with her focus most notably in Alliance Management.  Her legal experience spans both the biotechnology and aerospace industries and was preceded by her first research role in San Diego at Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

Ursula is passionate about the environment and was the former Legal Committee Chair for the Sierra Club, Angeles Chapter from 2007 through 2016 and biotechnology advisor to B Revolution Capital during this period. She received a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and a Juris Doctorate from Pepperdine University, in Malibu, California.