Get to Know AUTM's New Board Chair and Learn Which 2024 Initiatives He's Most Excited About

Andrew J. Maas, JD, LLM, RTTP
AUTM Board Chair
Associate Vice President for Research – Innovation and Ecosystem Development, Louisiana State University



As we roll off an amazing Annual Meeting, I want to share a few insights with the AUTM community. For those of you who were in San Diego for the Meeting, thanks for being part of the second largest convening in the history of the organization. For those of you that were not there, we missed you and hope you can engage with the AUTM community in other ways during the coming year.

The Annual Meeting and other AUTM events are great opportunities to connect with old friends, make new friends and explore topics that you may not have time for during your day-to-day activities in your office.

Speaking of connecting, as the new AUTM Chair I want to share with you a little about me so we can connect on a more personal level. It might surprise you, but I was born and raised in Colorado. I have skied since I was three. My commitment to higher education is backed up by my own collection of academic degrees (B.S. in Engineering from Brigham Young University, M.S. in Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and two degrees from University of Akron—a J.D. and an LL.M. in Intellectual Property), but my wife says I’ve now reached the limit.

We have five kids. Two are currently in college (one majoring in Biophysics, with plans to go to medical school, and another majoring in Construction Management), and the other three are still living at home (a high school junior, a seventh grader and a fourth grader). Needless to say, we are always busy, but we would not have it any other way. In my free time (ha!) I enjoy yard work, skiing (when I can get back to the mountains), soccer and volunteering at our church.

Now that you know a little about me, I hope you’ll feel comfortable reaching out at any time—you’ll find my contact info at the end of this column.

Getting back to AUTM business. I wanted to share a few thoughts about AUTM as an organization and you as a tech transfer professional who is part of the AUTM community.

Your voice is important. Over the last several years AUTM has started to hold “listening sessions”—meaning Members talk, and leadership listens. These sessions are intended to allow smaller groups of individuals to provide feedback to the organization and help guide and direct the activities of AUTM to best suit your individual needs. Over the next 12 months, we will be conducting new listening and ideation sessions to help us develop the 2025 – 2027 AUTM Strategic Plan (view the current Strategic Plan here). I encourage you to participate in these sessions, which will be conducted by independent strategic planning facilitators and will be held in-person at each of our Region Meetings and at several virtual listening sessions throughout the year. This is a great opportunity to share your candid thoughts about how AUTM can best support you and the tech transfer profession. Let your voice be heard and make plans now to participate.

We are already ramping up for the next Annual Meeting. The 2025 AUTM Annual Meeting—where we will celebrate the Association's 50th Anniversary—will be in Washington, DC, next March and is shaping up to be the BIGGEST Annual Meeting EVER. You do not want to miss it. The portal is already open for educational session and panel topics for next year (I know it might seem early, but producing an amazing conference really does require year-round planning). We appreciate that many of you moderated or participated in panels at this year’s Annual Meeting, and  I know others have expressed interest in being more involved in AUTM activities—moderating a panel at AUTM Annual is a great way to start! We are better when we work together, and having lots of different Member perspectives makes us all better. So send in your topic suggestions and mark your calendar to be in DC from March 2 to 5, 2025.

No promises, but we are also working to ensure the 2025 Annual Meeting experience includes making our collective voice heard by policy makers in Washington, DC. We hope to provide an opportunity for many of you to participate in Congressional visits. Many of you already do this with your employers, but how awesome would it be if multiple institutions from the same state visited your federal delegation together with the same message: Strong IP rights are important to us and will strengthen our local and national innovation ecosystems. Watch for more details later in the year.

Lastly, I want to invite to you to connect with the AUTM Board. We are here to help support you as AUTM Members. While we all have busy “day jobs” (Is that even a thing anymore?), we are an amazing community founded on the idea that sharing and engaging helps develop and grow the next generation of technology transfer professionals. We want to hear what’s on your mind.

And now that you know me a little better, I hope you won’t hesitate to reach out to me directly if there is anything I can do to help you. You can connect with me on LinkedIn or email me directly at [email protected].

Thanks,



Andrew J. Maas
AUTM Board Chair, 2024-2025