Entrepreneurship

Selected client projects and JFA results

For Start-up and Early-stage Companies

• Developed partnering alternatives for start-up food safety company, including identification of potential partners for applications research, commercial testing, scale-up, and customer marketing; also assessed financing alternatives and potential exit scenarios for review by Board of Directors.

 

• Developed financing and development roadmap for early-stage pharmaceutical company, including intellectual property plan, business and technology risk assessment, and milestone-based financing plan.

 

• Delivered expansion strategy and implementation plan for agricultural biotechnology company Chromatin, Inc. to establish operations in Canada; also developed business development strategy and implementation campaign for commercial partnerships in corn, soybeans, and canola

 

• Provided interim executive services (as interim VP Finance and Business Development) for ZelleRx, a start-up oncology company.  Resulted in business plan and investor presentations, $400,000 in clinical and development support in an equity-for-service deal, and intellectual property license for firm’s cell therapy platform.

 

• Serving as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at EnterpriseWorks Chicago, the University’s on-campus incubator for new ventures.Featured leader of faculty workshops on entrepreneurial finance, value proposition, channel-to-market, and venture validation.

 

• Directed student consulting teams’ assessment of commercial potential of UIC faculty inventions, across numerous healthcare and engineering disciplines. Projects included developments in: water treatment, anti-microbial therapeutics, maternal health, cancer diagnostics and therapeutics, and specialized medical devices. Recommendations presented to Illinois Ventures and the UIC Office of Technology Management.

 

• Co-developed commercialization assessment program for faculty invention winners of the UIC Chancellor's Innovation Fund Proof of Concept Award.

For University of Chicago

• Co-developed launch plans for and co-led implementation of Chicago Innovation Mentors, a team mentoring initiative co-sponsored with Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and iBIO.  Co-authored successful grant funding proposal supporting the program.

 

• Initiated portfolio review of University of Chicago research and intellectual property for major pharmaceutical company, resulting in funding of oncology research program.

 

• Read more at:  "Fostering a New Entrepreneurial Spirit" at University of Chicago.