Commercial Development and Entrepreneurship

The Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI) announced the formation of two new business units: Commercial Development and Entrepreneurship. There are three new positions in Commercial Development at the Center for Technology Transfer: Managing Director of Commercial Development, Director of Intellectual Property and Director of Technology Licensing. 

Dr. Leslie Hudson, Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives also announced that Dr. Louis Berneman has been appointed Special Advisor, Strategic Initiatives, and will work with him to design Penn’s new entrepreneurship business unit within OSI.

The newly created positions in Commercial Development will be filled on an interim basis by:  

• Dr. Lawrence J. Botticelli as Interim Managing Director of Commercial Development

• Timothy Raynor as Interim Director of Intellectual Property

• Dr. Robert McGrath as Interim Director of Technology Licensing

The Center for Technology Transfer (CTT) is the home of Penn’s commercialization efforts and over the past decade has built an internationally recognized technology transfer program. While CTT’s mission will remain to bring Penn’s discoveries to the marketplace for public good, the efforts of the OSI Internal Advisory Board have identified a series of opportunities to leverage CTT’s success and bring Penn to the forefront of commercialization.

Moving forward, OSI’s strategy is to strengthen and evolve Penn’s commercialization activities by:

•  Improving the overall decision making process by which Penn creates its intellectual property estate

•   Creating an enhanced revenue stream by licensing inventions via a greater range of channels

•  Creating investment grade technology & companies

The entrepreneurship business unit will be responsible for Penn’s strategy to mature its technology through partnership and innovation with our faculty and to secure the opportunities offered by external partnerships with private equity investors. Dr. Berneman will leverage his commercialization experience and expertise to work directly with Dr. Hudson to shape and define the strategy and implementation plans for this new business unit. “Dr. Berneman is an asset to Penn’s technology transfer efforts and I look forward to working with him as Penn’s efforts in entrepreneurship evolve,” said Dr. Hudson.

OSI was formed in July 2003 to serve as a single portal for the University’s commercialization, corporate alliance and economic development activities. OSI’s mission is to optimize the University’s ability to successfully transfer its technology to the marketplace, foster corporate collaboration and drive economic growth.