The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation said recently that Paul Kedrosky has joined the foundation as a senior fellow.
Kedrosky will be responsible for exploring new programming opportunities for Kauffman in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation, and capital markets, Kauffman said. Kedrosky most recently served as executive director of the William J. von Liebig Center, which catalyzes the commercialization of technologies from the University of California, San Diego. He is currently a venture partner with Ventures West, Canada’s largest institutional venture capital firm. He also currently serves on the board of Marqui Corporation, a marketing automation software firm; and Dabble DB, a hosted data management company.
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte has appointed Carl Mahler as director of the school’s office of technology transfer. He succeeds Ruth Burnett, who served as acting director for the past year.
Mahler joins UNC-Charlotte from Carnegie Mellon University where, since 2002, he has served as director of intellectual property at the school’s Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation. Prior to that, Mahler was director of research commercialization operations at Case Western Reserve University and head of University Technologies Inc., the school’s tech-transfer corporation.
UNC-Charlotte also said that Brad Fach has joined the staff as a technology development associate. He holds an MBA and MS in biotechnology, and is a registered US patent agent.
Michael Nichols has been appointed vice president for research and economic development at the University of Missouri, the school said last week. He will begin his appointment on Dec. 1. Nichols succeeds John Gardner, who resigned earlier this year to accept a similar position at Washington State University.
Nichols has served since 2006 as director of the office of technology management and industry relations for the University of Missouri-Columbia. Nichols has a prior association with UM dating to 1978, when he served on the research faculty at what is now called the UMC Dalton Research Center. He holds an MS in biology from California Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in biomedical sciences from UMC.
Dutch molecular genetics R&D firm KeyGene last week said that it has appointed Wim-Jan Koot as manager of intellectual property and IP commercialization. He will start in his new position on Dec. 1.
KeyGene said that the new position is part of the company’s focus on expanding its IP position around its molecular genetics and plant biotechnology research programs. Koot will join KeyGene from NV Organon, where he most recently held the position of senior director of global research alliances. Koot holds a PhD in chemistry from the University of Amsterdam.