Entrepreneurs In Residence
Successful technology-oriented entrepreneurs are encouraged to devote part of their time interacting and helping student entrepreneurs. Students wanting help and advice concerning their technology commercialization ideas should email an Entrepreneur-In-Residence to schedule an appointment.
One of the Murchison Chair of Free Enterprise programs to help the building of entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial culture at UT Austin is the Entrepreneurs-In-Residence program. Through this effort, successful technology-oriented entrepreneurs are encouraged to devote part of their time interacting and helping student entrepreneurs get started on the path of commercializing their ideas. Current members of this group include:
Dr. David C. Bonner – Chairman and CEO of Regenetech®, Inc.
Dr. Bonner has been Chairman and CEO of Regenetech®, Inc., an adult stem cell company, since 2005. He is also co-founder of a consulting firm which makes a practice in rapid innovation techniques, including those regarding intellectual property and roadmapping. He was Chief Technology Officer at Cabot Corporation, and he had business responsibility for a multi-national plastics business unit of a chemical company as well as technology commercialization and engineering project management of a number of chemical plant installations. Dr. Bonner was an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at TexasA&MUniversity and holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California-Berkeley. He received his B.S.Ch.E. and M.S.Ch.E. degrees from UT Austin. He is a registered Professional Engineer (Texas) and was named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate of the University of Texas in 2001 and has also served on several National Academies Committees and Boards. Dr. Bonner has had global licensing experience and has led several start-up ventures, including a medical device venture (BioFilm® Wound Care Dressings) and one of the early spin-out companies from UT Austin (DTM Corporation – a rapid prototyping company).
Dr. Lisa Brannon-Peppas – Research Professor in Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Lisa Brannon-Peppas is a Research Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Prior to joining the University, she founded and served as President of Biogel Technology, Inc., a privately held, multimillion dollar company founded in 1991. Biogel specializes in research and development of polymers, biomaterials, and systems for drug delivery.
Dr. Brannon-Peppas’ research contributions have been made in the areas of biomaterials, controlled drug delivery, drug targeting, biodegradable materials and structure-property relationships of polymers. Her current research focuses on understanding and developing targeted drug delivery systems to treat cancer while avoiding undesirable side effects from the drugs. These targeted delivery systems may not only be used to treat a variety of cancers but also to image these cancers more accurately. She is an internationally known expert in the fields of biomaterials and drug delivery. In this capacity she has served as a member or chair of numerous panels of federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.
For her research and entrepreneurial achievements she has been included in the Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Engineering, International Who’s Who of Women, and American Men and Women of Science (among others). In 2002 she received the Leading Light Award, given by the Women and Hi-Tech Organization, for “Outstanding Contribution to the Health, Life Sciences or Ag-Science Industry”. She has held many leadership positions in leading professional organizations. From 1997-2000 she served as Director of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Dr. Brannon-Peppas earned a PhD and MS in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, and BS in Chemical Engineering from Rice University.
Technology Focus: Structure-Property Relationships of Polymers, Tissue Culture Systems, Biomedical Engineering, In vitro/In vivo Correlations, Mass Transfer in Polymer Systems, and Membranes for Bioseparations
Business Areas of Interest: Biomaterials, Drug Delivery, Drug Targeting, and Biodegradable Materials
Dr. Bob Bridge – CEO, Zilker Labs
Bob
Bridge has worked for five high-tech start-up companies, the last three as founding
CEO. He has extensive experience in company creation and in raising venture
capital financing. Currently he is CEO of Zilker Labs, Inc., a company offering
advanced power management ICs. Prior to Zilker Labs, he founded two storage
technology startups: FlowEngines, Inc., which closed a $1.3M seed round in 2000,
and Copan Systems, Inc., which closed a $12M series A in 2002. Prior to Flow
Engines, Bob was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Austin Ventures. Earlier experience
includes VP of Marketing at Agere, the Network Processor IC company acquired
by Lucent Microelectronics (which then reused the Agere name when they spun
out of Lucent). Prior to Agere, Bob was a VP and General Manager for Communication
ICs at Cirrus Logic. He joined Cirrus through its acquisition of Crystal Semiconductor,
where he was a member of the initial Marketing team. Bob worked at Motorola,
AT&T corporate headquarters, and AT&T Bell Labs (doing switching system
architecture work) before Crystal Semiconductor. Bob was also a charter member
of the original IEEE 802.3 committee that first standardized Ethernet. He earned
a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas, and BA in Computer
Science from Rice University. Bob can be reached at bob.bridge@zilkerlabs.com
or (512) 658-2240.
Technology Focus: Communication systems and Semiconductors
Other Topics: Raising money from venture capitalist
Mr. Michael Davis - Founder & President, Davis Law Group, P.C.
Michael Davis is Founder & President of Davis Law Group, P.C. He serves as General Counsel for various technology clients. During his 18th year legal career, he has represented numerous clients, and several have obtained large investments of venture capital. The Austin Business Journal named Mr. Davis as one of Austin’s 3 best attorneys in the field of "Technology/Intellectual Property" law (Best of Business Law 2004). He is a past President of the Austin Intellectual Property Law Association. Before attending law school, he received his bachelor’s degree from MIT’s school of engineering and worked in the fields of electronic instrumentation, automated control systems, and computer programming.
From 2002-2006, Mr. Davis served as General Counsel of StarCore, a joint venture (co-owned by Freescale Semiconductor, Infineon Technologies and Agere Systems) that developed and licensed digital signal processor technology. Before Mr. Davis founded Davis Law Group in 2005, he was a Partner at the large multinational law firm of Haynes & Boone, where he practiced for 7 years (1998-2005). Previously, he was a lead attorney for IBM at the Somerset PowerPC Microprocessor Design Center, which was a key strategic alliance between IBM, Motorola and Apple.
In 2004, Gov. Rick Perry appointed Mr. Davis to the Texas Product Development & Small Business Incubator Board, which governs up to $45 million in economic development incentives for products and businesses in the fields of semiconductors, nanotechnology, biotechnology and biomedicine. Currently, Mr. Davis is Vice Chair of the Board.
Mr. Davis has served as mentor and judge at several venture capital events and competitions. He was founding Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Austin.
Mr. Davis is a registered patent attorney. He has personally drafted or supervised several hundred original United States patent applications. In patent matters, his experience covers business methods, software, Internet, video/audio standards (e.g., MPEG, JPEG, Dolby AC-3), digital & analog circuitry, microprocessor design & semiconductor manufacturing. For 4 years (2001-2005), he wrote the weekly patent column for Austin Business Journal.
Dr. Kay Hammer – Co-founder Evolutionary Technologies International, Inc.
In 1991, after ten years in the software industry, Kay Hammer (PhD English Linguistics, University of Iowa, 1973) co-founded Evolutionary Technologies International (ETI) to productize the results of a three-year research initiative to build a development platform for automating data integration across the enterprise. ETI was the first spin-out from MCC, which was itself the first for-profit, industry-backed computer research consortium in the U.S. Hammer served as CEO of ETI until December, 2005. She is the author of Workplace Warrior (Amacom, 2000) and over forty articles on the topic of software integration, as well as co-author of Fundamentals of Software Integration (forthcoming, Jones and Bartlett).
Dr. Norman Kaderlan – President, Technology Innovation Group, Inc.
Norman Kaderlan, Ph.D. is President of Technology Innovation Group, Inc., an international organization that assists corporations, universities, research institutes and regional governments in transforming knowledge into wealth using science and technology as drivers of economic development. Working as participant advisors with communities and companies to accelerate the growth of knowledge-based enterprises and economies, its mission is to connect innovation to societal needs internationally. Recently, Dr. Kaderlan has worked on projects in Poland, Romania, South Africa, Jordan, and Kazakhstan. He also is editor of InnovationMatters, an electronic newsletter covering innovation and technology transfer and commercialization for international subscribers.
Dr. Kaderlan also serves as Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) where he designed and taught “The Enterprise of Technology,” a graduate course that is cross-listed in the Colleges of Engineering, Natural Science, Pharmacy, Law, and Business. Prior to that, he was Associate Director of Non-Degree Educational Programs for UT’s IC2 Institute; he was also Director of the Austin Technology Incubator, an internationally recognized facilitator of new venture technology companies.
As a management consultant, Dr. Kaderlan has assisted clients ranging from new ventures to Fortune 500 companies. An active speaker and trainer, he developed and presented management seminars and workshops for corporate clients and associations. He has more than twenty years experience in successfully managing a variety of entrepreneurial organizations and programs at the local, regional, and national level. He is author of two books and numerous articles in national periodicals.
Dr. Kaderlan holds a doctorate in management from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a B.S in Life Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Richard Lebovitz – CEO Commerce Matrix, Inc.
Richard
V. Lebovitz is CEO of Commerce Matrix and a manufacturing expert working in
the areas of manufacturing design strategy and the practical implementation
of Lean Production techniques. He has led projects in the United States, Argentina,
Japan, Chile, Brazil, India, United Kingdom and Germany that involved converting
to LEAN manufacturing and mass customization. Mr. Lebovitz was the founder and
CEO of Austin based Factory Logic Software, Inc., which he started in 1997.
He built Factory Logic into a leading provider of software that models the Toyota
Production System. Factory Logic won the Shingo Prize for Manufacturing excellence
in 2001.
Prior to founding Factory Logic, Mr. Lebovitz was a partner in Management and Technology Japan (MTJ) for 7 years. MTJ was founded in 1984 by the manufacturing partner at Japanese Management Association. MTJ specialized in total conversion from a traditional manufacturing approach to LEAN/flow manufacturing. Mr. Lebovitz has worked extensively in the auto industry as well as personal products, food, textiles, consumer goods and heavy machinery. He has taught seminars on LEAN manufacturing and guest lectured for graduate courses on manufacturing.
Before joining MTJ, Mr. Lebovitz was the Director of Business Development for Teknekron Advanced Automation Systems. This was a start-up company funded by Teknekron Corporation. He was recruited to help create the company to develop mass customization manufacturing systems that would make use of new sensor technology and advanced control theory being developed at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) and UC Berkeley.
Mr. Lebovitz received a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. While at UT, he was named an Outstanding Student and was a recipient of the Student Leadership Award in engineering. He is married with 2 children and lives in Austin, Texas.
Technology Focus: Real-time Enterprise Computing, Production Scheduling and Control, Manufacturing Execution Systems, and Control Theory
Mr. Mark Murdock, JD – Attorney
Mark Murdock is a technology attorney with over 35 years of experience.
Mark was an attorney with IBM for 30+ years, where most of his time was spent advising clients in the technology and product development, research and development, and manufacturing sectors of the company. The last 20 years of his career were spent at the IBM facility in Austin where, as Senior Site Counsel, he was a lead attorney in the historic PowerPC technology development and licensing alliances between IBM and Motorola, Apple and several major European computer companies.
After retiring from IBM , Mark joined Thompson & Knight, L.L.P. for 5+ years. Thompson & Knight is a large full-service Texas and international law firm. While there, Mark worked closely with early stage technology, biotech and life sciences companies in Austin in the development of their business plans, the building of their teams, boards and advisory boards, and their introduction to key angel and equity capital investors.
Mark has been involved with the Idea To Product (I2P) Program at the College of Engineering for several years, and has been a judge in both the annual UT I2P competition and the international I2P competition. Additionally, Mark has had a long term involvement with both the New Venture Creation Class as well as the MOOT CORP Program at The McCombs Graduate School of Business for several years, both in connection with the Wisdom Cluster, as well as with judging MOOT CORP and being on the MOOT CORP Advisory Board. For several years, Mark has also been involved in the business mentoring program of the Austin Chapter of the Rice Alliance, which is a part of Rice University.
Mark is the founding President of Texchange-Austin and has served as statewide President and Chair of that organization. (www.texchange.org) Among his many community-based activities are his membership on the advisory boards of local early stage technology companies and his participation as a lecturer for the IC2 Institute in its Graduate School offering: “The Enterprise of Technology-From Mind to Market”.
Mark has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech University and a law degree from The University of Texas at Austin.
Jerri Paul earned a BS in 1995 in mechanical engineering. Upon graduation she entered UT's innovative joint degree program in engineering and business and completed an MS and MBA in 1997. Ms. Paul used her unique skills at the Atomic Energy Center, France; Chrysler Motor Company; and Ford Motor Company before returning to Austin to provide consulting and mentoring to several start ups. She finds time to be active on many civic, professional, and educational boards and committees.
Mr. Bruce Thornton – President, Founder, CMS Technology, Inc.
Bruce
Thornton is President* of CMS Technology, Inc. CMS is involved in business development
consulting and separations technology licensing. He is also Chairman* of Landscape
Depot, LLC- Manufactures soils, mulch and horticultural mixes.
A partial list of Mr. Thornton’s past positions include: President*, Advanced
Aromatics, Inc.- petrochemical manufacturing, President*, Living Earth Technology,
Inc. (now division of Republic Services Group NYSE)- mulch, compost, soils,
and green waste recycling, Technical Manager, Arco Chemical- Process, environmental
and energy engineering manager.
* Also Founder of these companies
Mr. Thornton has been president and CEO of public or private companies for over 20 years. He has founded five separate companies and either sold or merged three of them. Mr. Thornton and his business partner now do business development consulting and angel investing in the petrochemical and forestry products areas.
Mr. Thornton has broad business area skills and is an expert in low cost startups, strategic planning and entry-level marketing strategies. He is currently writing a book, Successful Entrepreneurship, which is a practical guide to low cost venture development.
Education: BS, Chemical engineering, 1970, UT Austin
Technology Focus: Molecular separations, kinetics, combustion and energy generation, plant operations, project management and plant scale-up
Business Areas: Petroleum refining, petrochemical manufacturing, energy generation, solid waste recycling, and natural and organic fertilizers
Dr. Dennis Wilson – CTO, COB, Founder Nanotechnologies, Inc.
Dr.
Wilson is co-founder of Nanotechnologies and co-inventor of the company’s
proprietary process. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Texas in 1977. Prior to starting Nanotechnologies he was a professor
in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Austin
where he taught courses and conducted research in thermal fluid sciences. Dr.
Wilson also has four years of technology management experience as founder and
President of Applied Sciences, Inc. and five years as CEO and more recently
CTO of Nanotechnologies, Inc. He also served for three years as Director of
Special Projects at the Institute for Advanced Technology where he was responsible
for high-risk / high-pay-off research in hypervelocity physics. He has authored
over fifty technical papers, four patents and has over twenty-five years of
experience in basic research within academia, government and industry. He is
also a technical advisor to the President’s Council of Advisor for Science
and Technology.
Former Entrepreneurs-In-Residence include:
Neil Iscoe – Director, Office of Technology Licensing, University of Texas at Austin
Joel Serface