Director of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization

The Director of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization has oversight for the Office of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer and the Iowa State University Research Foundation, Inc.  The director provides successful management of innovations and corporate engagement, and ownership, protection and licensing of inventions to established companies and new ventures, and supports and creates opportunities for economic development. The director embodies forward-looking agile leadership, demonstrates strategic thinking abilities and creates a vision in support of the university's mission to implement industry funded research agreements, and to transfer and commercialize technology arising from its research enterprise, resulting in the expanded use of university intellectual property in industry and entrepreneurial ventures. The director works collaboratively with senior administration, faculty and staff researchers, and research centers and institutes to facilitate technology commercialization. The director proactively seeks out and establishes innovative research and commercialization partnerships between the university and corporate partners. The director should focus not only on commercialization of academic intellectual property, but also to catalyze innovative capacity through proactive engagement and educational outreach to researchers on impactful science that spurs economic development.  The director is engaged with peers at other universities, aware of current national and international trends in intellectual property and licensing, and engaged in managing adoption of best practices at the university.

The director oversees an annual budget of approximately $4 million, is responsible for leading an operations team of twenty professional staff, establishing and executing policy decisions related to intellectual property, and creating a winning attitude and inclusive work environment. 

Specific duties are to:

• Successfully grow and lead innovation management, corporate engagement, protecting and licensing inventions to companies, new venture creation and incubation, and economic development.
• Build strong, productive relationships among industry, including the Iowa business community and ISU faculty, staff and administration through the receipt, protection, marketing and licensing of ISU technologies and support the creation of start-up companies using ISU technologies. Provide leadership in the coordination of technology transfer activities with the ISU Research Park Corporation, the Ames Economic Development Commission, the Iowa Department of Economic Development, and other local and regional business development agencies.
• Provide licensing, intellectual property and transactional expertise and guidance for driving technology commercialization.
• Provide the vision necessary to increase the number of licenses and agreements, including leading efforts to propose and execute policy and assure compliance with legal obligations pertaining to ISU intellectual property.
• Promote and encourage collaboration on university-wide strategies to develop and enhance outreach activities to corporate partners that foster a robust research commercialization ecosystem.
• Provide leadership and guidance to staff review, negotiate, and execute license agreements, confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements, center memberships, memoranda of understanding and research agreements; and provide oversight of staff on the compliance for these agreements, and enforcement of intellectual property rights.
• Provide leadership to staff who receive and review invention disclosures, market technologies and obtain patent protection for selected technologies.
• Provide leadership to engage the ISURF board in furtherance of the ISURF mission.
• Prioritize work that reflects the resources of staff, provides value to ISURF and Iowa State University, and is in alignment with the University mission.

This position serves at the pleasure of university administration and is exempt from certain P&S policies.