Meet the Winners of the 2024 AUTM Board Elections

Congratulations to the four individuals who have been elected—in one case, reelected—to join the AUTM Board of Directors starting in February 2024. Nearly 25% of AUTM Members voted to elect two Directors, one Treasurer and, for the first time, a designated Industry Representative.

Irene Abrams of Boston Children’s Hospital and Ellen MacKay of Lakehead University will be the Board’s newest Members at Large. Gaylene Anderson of Boehringer Ingleheim will be its first Industry Representative. And Doug Aguilera will serve a second term as Board Treasurer.

Each will serve a three-year term, starting in February at the 2024 AUTM Annual Meeting in San Diego. 

Read on to learn more about their professional qualifications, as well as a few little-known factoids: which of them is a ceramic artist, who can identify with Ted Lasso, who loves going to concerts and who can’t resist books about corporate failures.

Irene Abrams was elected to be a Director. Abrams is the Vice President of Technology Development & New Ventures at Boston Children’s Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital, with an annual research base of more than $500 million. She leads Boston Children’s nationally ranked Technology & Innovation Development Office and is the Managing Director of the Technology Development Fund. Read her bio.

Little-known fact about Abrams: “I’ve had a side career as a ceramic artist – selling my work around the country and teaching at local studios.”  

Doug Aguilera was elected to a second term as AUTM Treasurer. Aguilera is a CPA and Forensic Accountant with more than 30 years of global accounting services expertise, including 18 years at “Big 4” accounting firms. Since 2008, Doug has run a successful forensic accounting practice in Palo Alto, California. Read his bio.

Little known fact about Doug:  “I'm fascinated with the books about FTX, books that have to do with corporate failures and the associated investigations and litigation.”

Gaylene Anderson was elected to be the AUTM Board’s first designated Industry Representative. As Boehringer Ingelheim’s US Director for Strategic Research Relationships, Anderson is responsible for creating partnerships and pathways for external collaboration through internal synergies as well as engagement with external scientific partners. Read her bio.

Little-known fact about Anderson: She feels a personal connection with the television show Ted Lasso. “I've been binge watching and I'm in the last season, and I'm so sad it's going to be over. I'm so late to the game on that, but I wish I had watched it sooner. I'm married to a coach, so it's personal to us.”

Ellen MacKay was elected to be a Director. MacKay is the Director of Innovation Development at Lakehead University and has managed all technology transfer activities and the Office of Innovation, Partnerships and Economic Development for the past 10 years. In 2018, she launched Lakehead’s first business incubator, Ingenuity, which supports businesses through an accelerator program and entrepreneurial skills training. Read her bio.

Little-known fact about MacKay: She loves going to concerts. “The best concert I ever went to was in Central Park in New York City. It was sort of a three-part concert of Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Gavin DeGraw and Matt Nathanson. We got there like six hours early because I wanted to be in the front row, and we were!”