The University of Arizona has hired three “mentors-in-residence” to help launch new companies from UA-bred technologies.
Bruce Burgess, Kevin McLaughlin and Mike Sember will be half-time UA employees and help guide UA startups as part of Tech Launch Arizona’s Commercialization Partners program, the UA said Monday.
In its first three years of operation, Tech Launch has helped create 26 startup companies, and the agency has a goal of creating 13 more during the current fiscal year ending June 30, the UA said.
The Commercialization Partners program was launched in early 2014 with a dozen volunteers to help advise teams of Tech Launch staffers and UA inventors.
Burgess will be dedicated to biomedical devices and diagnostics, the UA said. He has 30 years of business experience, having developed numerous medical device, diagnostic and drug-delivery products. He was an executive at Eli Lilly and later was responsible for the growth and acquisition of three early-stage medical device companies.
McLaughlin, mentor for physical sciences and engineering technologies, has more than 30 years of experience in tech commercialization and executive roles, formerly working for Motorola, Cray Research, Silicon Graphics, Cisco Systems and Avid technology. Recently an adjunct lecturer for the UA McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, has been working for nearly a year with Tech Launch license managers and is mentoring several startup teams.
Sember, mentor-in-residence for pharmaceutical technologies, has more than 40 years of both startup and executive leadership expertise, having worked for Marion Merrell Dow, Elan Corporation and Palyon Medical. He has been advising UA startup teams for about six months and was recently chairman of the BioIndustry Organization of Southern Arizona.
