January 28, 2010
Two veteran technology executives to lead UW’s New Ventures Group
The UW Center for Commercialization (UWC4C) has announced that two senior technology executives are bringing their expertise to the center’s support for entrepreneurial faculty.
The two will lead the New Ventures Group, which is devoted to working with University researchers to create start-up companies around their innovations. Tom Clement is now director of new ventures-life sciences, and Rick LeFaivre is director of new ventures-technology.
“Dividing this responsibility across two senior technology leaders with complementary technology backgrounds makes a lot of sense given the unique challenges of commercializing both life sciences ventures and engineering technology ventures,” said Vice Provost Linden Rhoads. “The start-up profiles of these two kinds of ventures, including time-to-market, regulatory and intellectual property strategies, are very different, and I felt we would be best served by having two part-time business experts focused on these two spaces versus one full-time individual. I am excited to have Tom and Rick join our team, and look forward to working with them as we identify new venture concepts emerging from the world-class research programs at UW.”
Clement has a 30-year history of medical product development, much of it in senior management positions in medical device companies. Most recently he served as president and CEO at Pathway Medical Technologies, a company he co-founded. He continues to serve at Pathway as chairman of the board. Previous to Pathway, he was responsible for new product development at Heart Technology and the new cardiovascular product group at Boston Scientific.
For the last seven months, Clement has been serving as an entrepreneur-in-residence at UW and has been heavily involved in several key UW initiatives, including the Coulter Bioengineering Program and the new MedTech Discovery Center in Bothell (in collaboration with the city of Bothell, UW Bothell, and others). He is currently chairman of the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association and a member of several UW advisory boards. He received his master’s in Electrical Engineering from UW in 1981.
“I am excited to join Linden and her team to build on the many successes the University has already had in the life sciences venture space,” said Clement. “Having this opportunity to work with our UW inventors and entrepreneurs, and promoting revolutionary new technologies leaves me feeling like a kid in a candy store!”
Rick LeFaivre has more than 30 years of experience as a faculty member (computer science at Rutgers University), R&D executive (Tektronix, Sun, vice president of advanced technology at Apple), and new venture adviser (executive director of the von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism at UC-San Diego, partner at OVP Venture Partners). LeFaivre has been involved with the UW for much of that time as a member of the Computer Science & Engineering Industrial Affiliates program, and more recently as a member of the advisory boards for the College of Engineering, Information School, Institute of Advanced Materials and Technology and UW CLEAN Initiative.
In addition to his traditional focus on information technologies, he has recently been working in the emerging CleanTech space, including serving on the review committee of the PNNL Energy and Environment Directorate. His work in CleanTech led to OVP spinning EnerG2 out of UW in 2008. He earned his doctorate in computer sciences from the University of Wisconsin in 1974. While at UW, he will continue to serve as a part-time Venture Partner at OVP.
“We are very excited to have Rick join UW as Director of New Ventures-Technology given his extensive technology background, his experience with the von Liebig Center at UCSD, and his venture capital experience,” said Matt O’Donnell, dean of the UW College of Engineering. “The more we can expose faculty and researchers to Rick’s expertise the greater translational and commercial impact we will have.”
“As a former professor, I have enjoyed getting back on campus throughout my career,” said LeFaivre. “The research going on at UW is absolutely world-class, and I’m excited to spend more time helping to identify commercialization opportunities.”
