PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

This webinar series is about how companies work or want to work with universities to create value for both themselves and the universities. The ecology of innovation is undergoing a profound change where a collaborative set of activities need to effectively connect academic institutions with the business community. Universities are becoming key sources of discovery and are playing an ever increasing role in how industry innovates. Global competition, rising R&D costs and thus the need to get more products to the market sooner are some factors forcing companies to reach out to research universities for new ideas and capability. Licensing, corporate sponsored research, consulting engagements, venture capital investment, gifts, and employment are just some of the ways used to build strategic relationships between industry and universities, and are becoming a regular part of the developing open innovation environment.

Rob Masson and Burt Kaliski will talk about Embarking on a New Course of Research Collaboration at EMC Research Cambridge. EMC Research Cambridge is the newest research group in the EMC Innovation Network, the company’s global collaboration of research groups, advanced technology groups, and university partners. The group is itself a network, bringing together technical leaders from half a dozen EMC business units in the Boston area as well as RSA Laboratories, the security research group acquired into EMC in 2006. This “virtual team” focuses on a two-fold mission: expanding the company’s knowledge of emerging technologies and strengthening its relationships with the researchers who are pursuing them. The relationships center initially around MIT’s Media Lab but will also include other projects at universities in Boston and Cambridge. In this talk, we’ll explain how this new research group got started, why we believe the model of networking and introduction will be effective, and what we hope to gain through our interactions with some of the top minds in academia.

Rebecca Poon will discuss strategy in Open Innovation in Sigma Life Science, which is the biotechnology business unit in Sigma-Aldrich. They place a strong emphasis in novel products supported by rich biological information and seek to be a leading destination for life science researchers to access broad and in-depth scientific knowledge, market leading products and services to help answer their biomedical research questions. Their R&D and product introduction model is based on open innovation drawing from many different forms of external collaborations and interactions.


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COST: Free, but registration required.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE?: This series is online. You need a computer with web access for the visual/audio. Q&A is conducted by a chat box to the speakers.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE WEBINAR?: These webinars are open to anyone interested in how universities and industry can better collaborate to commercialize R&D. In particular, we invite Global 1000, VCs, angel investors and university officials.

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Burt Kaliski
(Director, EMC Innovation Network)

Bio

Dr. Burt Kaliski is the Director of the EMC Innovation Network, a global, online collaboration among EMC’s core research groups, advanced technology teams, and university partners. Dr. Kaliski joined EMC Corporation in 2006 as a result of its acquisition of RSA Security, where he was chief scientist and vice president of research, leading RSA Laboratories.  Following the merger, he took on responsibility for developing a corporate research program for EMC.  In this role, Dr. Kaliski reports directly to Jeffrey Nick, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at EMC. In 2009, Dr. Kaliski was also given responsibility for the CTO office’s standards and technology leadership programs. Dr. Kaliski’s path to EMC began at the RSA startup that came out of MIT in the 1980s, where he was the company’s first full-time scientist and in 1991 helped launch RSA Laboratories. During RSA Laboratories’ early days, Dr. Kaliski coordinated the development of the now widely adopted Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS).  He later served as chair of the IEEE P1363 working group, which developed a standard, IEEE Std 1363-2000, covering the three main families of public-key cryptography.  He was also the general chair of CRYPTO ’91 and the program chair of CRYPTO ’97 and CHES 2002, and a member of the advisory board for the Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security.  

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Rob Masson
(Director, EMC Research US)

Bio

Rob Masson has been with EMC for over 5 years as an Developer, Architect, Technologist and Director of Research. Robert joined EMC as part of the product management team of eRoom as a Solutions Architect working with partners and customers on novel ways to use and integrate EMC technologies. After three years in that role Rob then joined the EMC CTO Office as a Senior Technologist and manages a team of developers based in Shanghai that does advanced Proof-of-Concept work in a variety of solution spaces. Working closely with many different groups at EMC he and his team identify opportunities to leverage and enhance EMC's product offerings into emerging and disruptive markets. Most recently Rob has been appointed as Director of EMC Research Cambridge in which he manages the relationships EMC has with the Academic community in this area. Serving as a liaison between Researchers and Technologists within EMC he aims to accelerate the adoption of technology and innovation within the organization and enhance on-going research with insight from the companies varied product groups. Rob graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a Bachelors Degree in Computer Science.

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Rebecca Poon
(Business Development Manager, Sigma Life Science, biotechnology business unit in Sigma-Aldrich)

Bio

Rebecca Poon is a Business Development Manager in Sigma Life Science. In her former capacity as a product development scientist, she was responsible for establishing in-house R&D capability in new product lines and product areas and worked cross-functionally with manufacturing and quality assurance / quality control. Rebecca has been a business development professional for over ten years leveraging her technical and industry manufacturing knowledge. She has experience in a wide range of BD projects such as in-and out-licensing and contract manufacturing, with a broad diversity of partners including both universities, pharma and biotech companies. Rebecca’s current responsibility focuses on university relations and the practice of open technology sourcing for innovation. Her role includes leadership in vetting and selecting technologies, chaperoning candidates through different stages of evaluation, to negotiating and closing a contract/license and downstream to the commercialization of said technology. An additional responsibility is the administration of executed contracts through their commercial life cycles. Dr. Poon received a Ph D from the University of California, Los Angeles, and an MBA from Washington University Olin Business School. Rebecca is a past board member of the Missouri Biotechnology Association and a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

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Robert R. Gruetzmacher
(Director of Technology Commercialization, DuPont's Center for Collaborative Research and Education)

Bio

Dr. Gruetzmacher is the Director of Technology Commercialization in DuPont's Center for Collaborative Research and Education. During his career with DuPont, his responsibilities have included research, development, manufacturing, and marketing in the photopolymer imaging products and medical diagnostic businesses. He managed DuPont’s infectious disease diagnostics research group in Boston, co-managed a food quality assurance business venture, and helped lead development of DuPont's technology transfer group and intellectual assets business.

In his current role his responsibilities include managing the unrestricted grants program, leading DuPont’s efforts to find appropriate university partners for sponsored and collaborative research, negotiating agreements and seeks new business opportunities with the academic setting including startups, and advises company-wide on licensing-related matters. Most recently, he has been asked to take a lead in facilitating corporate-wide implementation of an “open innovation” R&D model.

Dr. Gruetzmacher holds a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, and was the recipient of a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship. He has served as a trustee of the Licensing Executives Society and participates in several international forums dealing with topics such as university/company transactions, knowledge management, and the management and valuation of intellectual assets. He has authored publications and is invited frequently to gives talks on these topics. He is a certified licensing Professional and a member of the Licensing Executives Society, the American Chemical Society, the Association of University Technology Managers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is on the industrial advisory boards of the Larta Institute in Los Angeles, the Larta/USDA Commercialization Assistance Program and the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. He was recently elected to the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP) board of directors.

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Val R. Livada
(Senior Lecturer, Sloan School of Business at MIT; Founder Weybridge Partners)

Bio

Val Livada founded Weybridge Partners in 1996 as a network of formal and informal associations of practitioners and organizations focused on the successful commercialization of technology. The network includes business and technology consultants, venture capitalists, academics, entrepreneurs, lawyers, etc in the US and abroad.

Val brings 30 years of consulting experience to his clients. He was a Director at Braxton Associates, an international strategy planning consulting firm, and a Vice President at Pugh-Roberts Associates, a technology management firm established by Prof. Ed Roberts from MIT. Prior to establishing Weybridge Partners, he was the leading practitioner in the area of innovation management for the PA Consulting Group. During his career, Dr. Livada has combined expertise in the areas of strategic planning and organizational dynamics, with a detailed knowledge in the areas of innovation, product development, and R&D management.

Through the years, clients have included Fortune 500-type companies such as: GM, Eli Lilly, Nokia, Hitachi and has recently founded an East Coast corporate venture capital network. Val sits on the Board of Directors for Monarch Antenna, a Delphi Automotive spinout, and Polynova Composites. He is an business advisor to Liquid Bits a 3D animation start-up, Vanguard Solar, a thin film photovoltaic company, LuminZ an MIT spin out in LED lighting, Porticus a voice printing company, and Rapport Inc. a multicore chip company in CA. In addition, he consults to another dozen emerging companies.

Dr. Livada is also active in efforts to stimulate activities between US and European/Far Eastern organizations. In Europe Val has worked with many firms in the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Scandinavia. He has been instrumental in establishing US operations for several established and emerging European companies, including Nokia Research and Pro2Kem. In the Far East, traditionally strong ties to South Korea, Japan and Taiwan are now being expanded into China.

Val received his undergraduate degree from MIT and his MA/ PhD from Tufts University. Currently he is Senior Lecturer, on Corporate Entrepreneurship, at the Sloan School of Business at MIT where he also served as Reaserch Affiliate and Guest Lecturer for the last 15 years. At MIT, Val is leading a joint research project, with the Wharton Business School, on Corporate Venture Capital, is a Catalyst at the Deshpande Center, and a consultant to the Cambridge University/MIT Institute on various aspects of Innovation and Corporate/University partnerships.