Technology Valuation Course Instructors

Steven M. Ferguson currently serves as the Deputy Director, Licensing and Entrepreneurship. Prior to joining NIH Office of Technology Transfer in 1990, Mr. Ferguson served in marketing and management positions in biomedical firms subsequent to being a scientist at the National Cancer Institute. His healthcare experience has also included work as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for a rural 70-bed hospital. Registered to practice before the USPTO and a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP), Mr. Ferguson also holds Master's Degrees in Business Administration (George Washington University) and Chemistry (University of Cincinnati) as well as Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry (Case Western Reserve University). Mr. Ferguson has been an economic reviewer for Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) as well as the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) grant programs and is an instructor for both the USDA Graduate School and the NIH FAES Graduate School where he is also the department chair for the new Certificate in Technology Transfer Program. Mr. Ferguson was also the Susan T. and Charles E. Harris Visiting Lecturer at the Watson School of Biological Sciences at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and has published articles on licensing and technology transfer issues.

Ruben is Sr. Director of Business Development at Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Before Ligand, Ruben was the Academic Innovations and Partnerships Lead at General Inception. Ruben's 12-year corporate life sciences career includes roles in R&D at BD Biosciences Pharmingen, clinical trial design and execution at Biosite (now Abbott), and team leader for diagnostics and Luminex at Chemicon (now Millipore SIGMA). Rubén was a founding member of the Scientific Collaborations and Business Development group, where he developed worldwide collaborations, sponsored research, and licensing with academic scientists to develop research reagents, devices, and biomaterials for use in research and bioprocessing, and early-stage leads for therapeutic applications in a variety of fields. Rubén's 10-year experience in academic technology transfer began with leadership roles at LA BioMed (now the Lundquist Institute), followed by UC San Diego's Office of Innovation and Commercialization, culminating at the University of Southern California. Ruben is also a co-founder and past President of the San Diego Innovation Council.
 

Michael Sharer, Ph.D., MBA is currently a Senior Director at the University of Texas-San Antonio and was previously the Associate V.P. for Commercialization and Executive Director of the Innovation Partners Office at Texas A&M University. He has over 25 years of experience negotiating and managing early-stage IP licensing deals in a wide variety of industries and applications, with both existing companies and new ventures. In addition to a Master’s degree in Business (finance concentration), he has also taken intermediate and advanced IP Valuation courses from the Licensing Executives Society (LES) and the Business Development Academy. He typically creates a discounted cash-flow IP valuation model to support negotiations for every licensing deal he participates in (n > 50). He has served as a member of AUTM’s IP Valuation Committee since 2018, and was a member of the LES Valuation Committee from 2013-2018.


Rick Smith is the Director of Lehigh University’s Office of Technology Transfer. He has been engaged in many aspects of technological research, development, commercialization, and innovation throughout his career. Rick has held technology licensing positions at the Ohio State University, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. Rick began his technology transfer career as a consultant for Innovaro, Inc., a consulting firm located in Tampa, Florida where he managed clients for technology transfer opportunities from universities and federal labs. He has held engineering research and development positions in the fields of spectrophotometry instrumentation, optical networks, and underwater acoustics. As a corporate financial consultant, he drafted business plans and financial forecasts to facilitate the acquisition of growth capital for clients, and was a business analyst for RBC Centura bank. Rick has Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics and Computer Science, and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering specializing in Photonics where he did research for NASA in optical storage technology. Rick also has an MBA in finance and accounting, and a Master of Science in Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies. He has taken graduate coursework in economics, chemical engineering, and law. Rick received his CLP and RTTP certifications in 2014, and is a member of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) where he has been a mentor for the last 5 years. Rick recently completed the VC University certification from the Berkeley Law Executive Education program.

Dr. Ashley J. Stevens has worked in the entrepreneurial world since 1982, when he joined one of the first-generation biotechnology companies, BioTechnica International, Inc. in Cambridge, MA. He subsequently co-founded two biotechnology companies: Genmap, Inc., the first company founded to work on the human genome, out of which emerged Myriad Genetics, Inc. and Kytogenics, Inc. a company that developed novel medical products based on modified chitosans. All three of these companies took academic technologies on their first steps into the marketplace and in 1991, he moved one step up the value chain and entered the then fledgling world of technology transfer. From 1991 to 1995, he was Director of Technology Transfer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center, a teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical Center and one of the US’ Comprehensive Cancer Centers.

In 1995, he moved to Boston University, where, until 2007, he was Director of the Office of Technology Transfer in the Community Technology Fund (which became the Office of Technology Development in 2005) and subsequently was Executive Director, Technology Transfer until his retirement in July 2011. Under his leadership, some 55 new companies were spun out of BU. For ten years he held an adjunct appointment in BU’s Questrom School of Management, where he taught two graduate level courses on the commercialization of early-stage technologies, “Bench-to-Bedside” and Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization.

Debora Rose is a CPA and the Managing Director of Invotex. Invotex is a consulting firm that specializes in royalty compliance. Debbie has been working in the Intellectual Property Consulting world for over 30 years. Arguably, Debbie has personally managed more royalty audits than anyone else in the industry. She has worked with clients and their counsel testifying to both damages in IP infringement matters as well as breach of contract issues revolving around IP Licenses. About 20 years ago Debbie saw the need for a specialized royalty audit firm to work in the complex technology space with clients that were interested in receiving their appropriate royalties while maintaining a positive relationship with their Licensees. This was the catalyst for Invotex. The firm’s practice philosophy is one of polite persistence. Her firm is known for their publications of their royalty audit findings statistics as well as their ability to uncover large underpayments while relationships are preserved. With a dedicated staff of experienced royalty audit experts and resources around the world, Invotex works with some the world’s most prestigious universities and research institutions as well as the world’s largest for-profit licensing organizations.