For more than 10 years, Almesha served as the Director for Tech Transfer at JSU. She provides strategic direction and vision for defining partnerships in commercialization and innovation initiatives between JSU and other institutions, funding agencies, and industry stakeholders. She is the PI for the NSF-funded JSU I-Corps Site and an NSF EAGER grant designed to help change the perception of underrepresented minorities in innovation and entrepreneurship. She was instrumental in the development of the newly established Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at JSU.

He was Executive Director of the UK Office of Technology Commercialization where he oversaw a team of staff managing the University’s innovation, intellectual property and startup portfolios. Ian is an advisory board member for the Oak Ridge Institute, chair of IPwe’s Advisory Committee for University Technology Transfer, a PI on two NIH grants, and is a co-founder of Kentucky Commercialization Ventures, a state-funded program to provide IP and tech transfer services to all other universities in the state that do not currently have dedicated IP and tech transfer resources. Ian began his career as a Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and Intellectual Property (IP) transactions attorney. Following private practice, he helped build a start-up company in Chicago, IPXI, that was the world’s first financial exchange for IP and technology rights, which he led through product development, capital raise, proof of concept and growth to 30+ full-time employees and two offices. 

Andy’s activities have taken him from an engineering start-up (where he built a company from two to 14 employees) to academic roles in both university and research foundation settings. Andy manages an office of 25 full time and 4-5 part-time employees that are responsible for all technology commercialization, small business support, incubation, acceleration, and SBIR/STTR activities of the LSU Flagship campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
 
Andy has been involved in the AUTM Valuation Committee as a Member since 2015 and the Chair from 2016 to 2020. He is also involved in the Essentials Committee as a Member since 2016, as well as the Job Task Analysis Committee Chair since mid-2019. Andy lectures on the topics of intellectual property valuation, economic impact, technology licensing, and technology commercialization all over the world.

In this role, her primary responsibilities include outreach and education on matters related to commercialization, along with assessing, managing, and licensing intellectual property developed at KCV Partner Institutions. Megan is excited to be in Kentucky, her husband’s home state, to help advance innovation for the Commonwealth. 
Megan’s work allows her to pursue a lifelong passion: connecting people together to make healthcare and medicine easy. She is motivated by hearing people say “yes, I can help get that to market” and “yes, I have access to the technology I need to live the life I want.” In her free time, she enjoys volunteering with various animal welfare organizations to help pets find new homes. 
 

Doug has 30 years of global forensic accounting and higher education expertise. He performs internal investigations at Stanford University, conducts royalty audits, and testifies as an expert in accounting matters. Doug has 18 years of experience with the “Big 4” accounting firms, and has run a successful forensic accounting practice since 2008. 

Doug joined AUTM in the mid-1990s while performing royalty audits for Stanford, MIT, FSU, and other research institutions. Doug has served on the Finance, Membership, and Audit Committees, and presented royalty audit topics at the Annual Meeting.

Doug has knowledge and skills related to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”) and Generally Accepted Auditing Standards.

Before she made the transition to a career in technology transfer, she pursued an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh which allowed her to become more conversant with the business aspects of commercializing early stage scientific ideas. She joined NYU in 2001 and subsequently cleared her patent bar exam and secured a Certified Licensing Professional accreditation from the Licensing Executive Society. 

Sadhana’s current role involves overseeing all life science related technology commercialization activities as well as running the translational drug discovery unit at NYU. She has been involved in helping graduate students, post docs and faculty members get their startups off the ground by providing early coaching on fund raising and making introductions to a network of early stage angel and institutional investors.  An 'intro to tech commercialization' course she developed since 2014 is now offered as an accredited course at NYU. Through her publications she has highlighted the challenges faced in developing early stage ideas and has shed light on the issues that scientific founders of companies need to be aware of. She has also been involved in developing a knowledgeable and effective workforce capable of translating ideas into the public realm by teaching and lecturing on a variety of topics spanning from patenting, licensing, venture creation to deal negotiation. 
 

He is currently the Director of Physical Sciences and Digital Innovations Licensing and Corporate Alliances at Duke University.  Prior to that, Dan was at the MIT Technology Licensing Office managing a large and sophisticated portfolio of technologies including: computer and information technology, patented algorithms, copyrighted software, digital imaging, video games, machine learning/AI, and cyber security technologies.  Dan has negotiated license agreements with many Fortune 500 businesses and startup companies. He has also assisted in negotiation of IP terms for significant sponsored research agreements. He adeptly counsels inventors and entrepreneurs on how to protect, leverage and transform university-born innovations into commercialization opportunities.  Dan is a Certified Licensing Professional who also co-teaches a course on intellectual property at Harvard University’s Summer School.

He is broadly recognized as a leader in the field of software, AI and data, and is often interviewed and frequently sought to speak at professional conferences and business meetings around the world.   Dan has long served as an active member of AUTM, notably as chairperson on its Software Committee, and has received AUTM’s Volunteer Service Award twice in 2017 and 2021.  Dan is also on the advisory board at FAME, the Fashion, Arts, Media and Entertainment Law Center at Cardozo law school in New York City. He has degrees in physics and political science from the University of Rochester. 

Joy brings important skills and experience to the position with a background in technology transfer for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries. He has managed public-private partnership efforts in technological areas that include several disciplines in engineering, computer sciences, medical devices, data-management, and research tools at several corporate and academic organizations.

Joy is a Registered Patent Agent for the US Patent & Trademark Office. He is also a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR/STTR) reviewer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a Howard Bremer Scholar, conferred by AUTM. Joy earned his Registration as a Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP) from the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals. 

 She is a member of the Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships (OTTCP) Management Team and responsible for the management of IS/IT infrastructure, office space, federal IP compliance, data management and data integrity and associated technology transfer administrative processes.  Supported by a team of staff, she ensures fulfilment of Caltech and JPL IP policies, obligations to sponsors, manages case disclosure and compliance systems, ensures accuracy and conformity of data, and identification and implementation of new procedures and processes.  

Prior to joining OTTCP, she worked for Caltech’s Office of the General Counsel and, before that, many years as a paralegal. 
 

Alice has over 20 years of experience in university tech transfer and business development. She started as a licensing officer with hands-on management of invention portfolios, negotiations of complex deals, and engagement with startup companies. She rose through the ranks of CTL and became the Executive Director in 2014. Prior to joining Cornell, Alice was an R&D manager at BioArray Solutions, a startup biotech company in diagnostics that was later acquired by Immucor. During her five-year tenure there, the company grew from a two-person startup to an enterprise of fifty people. Alice is also an inventor, patent holder, and author of research papers in scientific journals.

 She is a strategic leader and IP licensing professional with over 18 years of experience in IP protection strategy and due diligence, business development and licensing of Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Agriculture innovations.  Prior to Georgetown University, Tatiana was the Associate Vice President of Innovation Ventures (IV) at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey where she led the efforts related to technology transfer and new venture formation, as well as activities focused on management of the intellectual property assets of the university. Some of Tatiana’s career accomplishments while at Rutgers, include the revamp of the University’s patent policy, establishment of a robust and diverse fellowship program that has alumni in technology transfer worldwide, as well as, contributing to successful efforts of launching the university’s gap funding program, TechAdvance.   Tatiana is an active member in various local and national professional organizations, speaks frequently about intellectual property and technology licensing, and has taught a course on commercializing innovation for the Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.  Outside of technology transfer, Tatiana is an aspiring sailor.  Her family belongs to a club where they work to support and grow all sailing related activities from membership to junior education. 
As you may know, the Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) manages the university’s intellectual property, invention disclosures, patenting and licensing activities, research collaboration agreements, material transfer agreements, confidentiality agreements, data use agreements, and copyright and other intellectual property agreements between the university, faculty and other external entities. It also oversees the engagement of the university in the founding of startup companies, and provides assistance to university entrepreneurs in starting their own companies.

Prior to joining LifeArc, she worked for several leading establishments, including The Wellcome Trust and St George’s University of London, working at the forefront of academic translational research and knowledge transfer policy. A proponent for professional advancement in technology transfer, Anji directs the LifeArc AUTM Tech Transfer Fellowship, a programme designed to train and assist scientists to become TT professionals, and she is the skills lead for the UK’s recently launched Innovation Hubs for Gene Therapy. An advocate of equality diversity and Inclusion, Anji cofounded Global Equality, Diversity and Equality in Technology Transfer (GEDITT), an initiative missioned to raise awareness and promote EDI in the TT sector. Anji serves as VP of Communities on the ASTP Board, a member of the BioIndustry Association (BIA) Cell & Gene Therapy Advisory Committee, and the AUTM Equity, Diversity & Inclusivity Committee.
 

She also has experience with the animal health industry when she was a part of the External Innovation team at Elanco, and spent over 15 years in the nonprofit sector promoting and commercializing innovative opportunities from world-class research institutions such as the Salk Institute, The Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  Tari has extensive experience in licensing, building and managing strategic alliances with industry and other academic institutions, and a well-rounded technical background in a variety of therapeutic areas resulting from her Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology from The Rockefeller University and an Honors B.A. from Swarthmore College.  Tari is the current Chair of the Board for the San Diego Innovation Council (SDIC) and official advisor to Founders Corner Venture Capital, LLC in San Diego.