Dennis is currently Senior Director of Technology Advancement & Commercialization at RTI International following his institute positions as Vice President of the Energy Technology Division and Executive Director of Research Product Development Company in Saudi Arabia. Prior to his research activities at RTI he held positions leading large, global R&D organizations focused on technology and product development for PPG Industries and Royal Dutch Shell. Dr. Gilmore has led the successful commercialization of over 200 new products and processes utilized in numerous segments of the aerospace, energy, electronics, automotive, marine, consumer product and construction industries. In these efforts Dr. Gilmore has been a strong proponent of collaboration, technology scouting, innovation and licensing activities on a global basis and has been instrumental in corporate funding and oversight of several research programs at university and government facilities in Armenia, Australia, Belgium, China, England, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and the United States.
Allen Morris, Ph.D., MBA, is the Executive Director of the Commercialization EPI-Center of the University of Louisville. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular biology from Purdue University in 1994 and his MBA from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 2002. Before coming to UofL in 2014, Allen was the Associate Director at VCU Innovation Gateway and a Licensing Executive and Project Leader at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Prior to working in technology transfer, Allen was a postdoctoral fellow in neuroscience at VCU.
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Dr. Jessica Silvaggi is the Vice President of the UWM Research Foundation, where she manages all aspects of commercializing UW-Milwaukee inventions created by faculty, students, and staff. Since 2009 she has helped to grow and manage the technology transfer program at UWM and was the first to form a marketing process for the licensing of their innovations. Her current focus is to develop more industry partnerships to bring exciting new technologies to market and to aid in educating innovators in entrepreneurship. Two of her latest initiatives are the ENGAGE mentor program for supporting the growth and education of new UWM innovators and the BRIDGE grant gap fund for UWM start-ups to hit specific key milestones to attract further investment. Dr. Silvaggi received her B.S. from the University of Connecticut, a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University, and conducted post-doctoral research at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.
Les Nichols serves as Director of the Office of Technology Commercialization at The University of Texas at Austin. The OTC is responsible for support of research faculty who have developed potentially patentable concepts from their research. Through diligent execution of proven processes, the OTC files strong patents and negotiates valuable licenses for their commercial use. Through these efforts, the OTC has provided numerous faculty members the opportunity to experience their technology being used for the benefit of society. To this role Mr. Nichols brings 10 years of direct technology licensing experience along with more than 25 years of experience in industry and technology. His broad range of experience includes senior level sales of a variety of products and technologies to the semiconductor industry and university research areas. He directed his own consultancy specializing in chemical plant process design and optimization, and he was integral in the development and startup of a division of a large diversified energy company that developed the most cost effective means of providing process chemicals to the largest semiconductor manufacturers. Mr. Nichols holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. Kalpa Vithalani is Executive Director of Technology Transfer in the Office of Economic Engagement at Marquette University, setting the strategy for technology transfer to transform University technologies into commercial products and services for public benefit. With almost two decades of broad experience, she manages the life cycle for a large intellectual property (IP) portfolio through evaluation, IP protection, marketing and negotiation of win-win agreements. She is passionate about building strategic alliances with regional and national networks of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors. She is a Board Member of the Wisconsin Technology Council, is an 12-time judge for the WI Governor’s Business Plan Contest, was an Executive Board Member at BioForward. She chaired Milwaukee’s first National NIH SBIR/STTR Conference in 2017. Prior to joining Marquette, Dr. Vithalani served as Assistant Director in the Office of Technology Development at the Medical College of Wisconsin, was a Milwaukee-based entrepreneur and a scientific evaluator for Karolinska Innovations. She received a PhD from Duke University and completed her post-doctoral training at the Cleveland Clinic.
Silvia Patricia has more than 20 years of professional and academic experience at Tecnologico de Monterrey and currently leads the Global Innovations HUBs. Has been founder of the RED OTT MÉXICO (National Association of Technology Transfer Offices in Mexico) and was President from 2017-2020. Currently is President of TRANSFERENCIAP a Pacific Alliance Tech Transfer Network.
Silvia Patricia is an active member of International Technology Transfer Associations as AUTM (Association of University Technology Managers) and LES (Licensing Executives Society) and as a President of Red OTT Mexico, signed more than 20 international collaboration agreements with international allies to develop programs to impulse the knowledge economy in Mexico base on Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer and Tech Base Entrepreneurship.
“Under her management Tecnologico de Monterrey filed more than 500 patents global level in the last 15T years, ranking the university as the leader in Mexico, per the national patent applications in the last 10 years” Has lead the creation of Innovation HUB TEC - CHINA https://ihubtc.com/ as a platform to Create business opportunities, through exchange Talent and Technological scientific Startups acceleration, generating innovations with benefits for Mexico and China. And also creates the Innovation HUB TEC-USA with University of Purdue Foundry To support Binational Startup Creation & Acceleration Foundry”
10 years of experience in managing customer relationships and creating operational excellence internally and externally. Hitesh has been instrumental in onboarding as well as managing some of the biggest customers at Marketsand Markets. He has also worked with Adani Group, leading the electrical equipment & machineries procurement team and the clean energy initiatives team with remarkable success. He holds a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA in Finance & Operations from IIM Ahmedabad.
Growth enabler & seasoned Edtech professional with proven success record of 10+ years in Sales and Marketing roles. Expertise in selling SaaS & KaaS based products, enabling strategic partnerships between institutions and developing MooC and Life Long learning programs in association with International Universities, technology transfer offices, research consortiums, business incubator & entrepreneurship centers across North America, Europe & South Asian Regions.
