Jan Cobbenhagen Jan Cobbenhagen (1963) is active in the business and academic communities. He holds both CEO and supervisory positions. His current responsibilities are: CEO of Maastricht University Holding B.V., the strategic venturing firm that holds equity in all strategic companies of Maastricht University. CEO Univenture B.V., the corporate venturing firm of Maastricht University that invests in spin-offs from Maastricht University, helps them to grow and achieve a successful exit. Full professor in Entrepreneurship, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, teaching courses on Entrepreneurial spirit, Commercializing Science and Technology and Business Models Founder and Academic Director of Maastricht Centre for Entrepreneurship, Maastricht University Co-Founder, Co-owner and chairman of the Advisory Board of Smart Capital Network (SCN) B.V., a private equity firm, investing on behalf of 40 business angels Member of the Valorisation Advisory Committee (Knowledge transfer from Universities) to the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation & the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Member, Supervisory Board, MECC Maastricht B.V. (convention and exhibition centre) Vice Chairman, Supervisory Board MAASTRO Clinic for Radiotherapy Member, Supervisory Board, StudiJob B.V. (employment agency of Amsterdam University) Previously, he was Programme Leader Innovation Management & Innovation Policy at the research institute MERIT (Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology), Founder and Managing Director of BioPartner Center Maastricht (Life Sciences Incubator), Managing Director of Smart Capital Network B.V., Associate Professor at the University of Liège (Belgium) and visiting professor at the Carlos III University Madrid (Spain). Jan holds a Bachelor degree in Hotel Management, Master s degrees in Business Administration and Quantitative Economics and a Ph.D. in Business Administration. His passions outside of work are traveling (preferably by cruise ship) and photography. E: j.cobbenhagen@umholding.nl W: www.maastrichtuniversity.nl
Paul Van Dun Paul Van Dun has degrees in law (KU Leuven), tax sciences (FHS Brussels) and business administration (KU Leuven). After having held positions at KPMG and a private equity company, Paul joined KU Leuven Research & Development, the technology transfer unit of KU Leuven, where he is currently General Manager. He coordinates the activities in contract research, patenting, licensing, spin-off creation and regional development. He is also Managing Director of the venture fund Gemma Frisius Fund, Board Member of the Fondation Fournier-Majoie pour l Innovation, Chairman of the Centre for Drug Design and Discovery and Board Member and President of several high tech companies. From 2006-2010, he was elected Vice President of ASTP (Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals, The Hague). E: paul.vandun@lrd.kuleuven.be W: www.lrd.kuleuven.be
Stefan Lux Stefan Lux studied mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen University. He worked as a research assistant at the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering in the field of gear manufacturing technologies. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1997, he worked at a Swiss company (production and distribution of cutting tools, 500 employees) for 11 years as Head of Product Development and Custom Tools. From 2004 to 2009, Stefan was a member of the board. In 2008, he obtained an "Executive MBA for Technology Managers"-degree from RWTH Aachen University and University of St. Gallen (HSG). Stefan joined ETH transfer in September 2009 as Technology Transfer Manager. Partially, he supports the ETH Innovation and Entrepreneurship Labs (coaching of young entrepreneurs / foundation of spin-off companies). He is a member of switt (Swiss Technology Transfer Association) and ASTP-Proton (Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals). E: stefan.lux@sl.ethz.ch W: www.ethz.ch
Robert Marshall Robert Marshall provides training, consultancy and coaching on negotiation, conflict resolution, technology transfer and communications for a range of private and public sector clients. Previously Director of Research & Business Services at the University of East Anglia and Head of Technology Transfer at Cambridge University, his career began in industry. He has many years of practical experience in successfully negotiating contracts and agreements, as well as in strategic development, business process design and managing large teams and budgets. Robert trains senior civil servants, business leaders, academics and administrators worldwide. His clients include universities, industry bodies and major international corporations. E: robert@robertmarshall.co.uk W: www.robertmarshall.co.uk
Pascale Redig Pascale Redig is Sourcing Manager Global Pharma R&D at Janssen Pharmaceutica. After obtaining a Master s degree in Biology, she started her Ph.D. research at the University of Antwerp on plant physiology and biochemistry. In parallel, she obtained a Master s degree in Biotechnology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). After qualifying for her Ph.D. in 1996, she started working as a researcher at the biotech startup company Plant Genetic Systems, currently Bayer BioScience NV, in Ghent. In 2001, she joined the tech transfer office of Ghent University where she was responsible for legal and contracts. During her stay there, the office developed into a mature organisation. In 2006, she came to Antwerp to head the new tech transfer office that started at the university there. Being a relatively small tech transfer office, she was actively involved in patenting, industry-academia interactions and spinout ventures. In June 2012, she returned to industry and took up the position of Sourcing manager Global R&D at Janssen Pharmaceutica where she is part of the team responsible for sourcing, negotiating and contracting with biotech, CRO and academia for services and collaborations in R&D discovery. E: predig@its.jnj.com W: www.janssenbelgium.be/en
Benedikt Sas Prof. Dr. Benedikt Sas is teaching several courses related to Business and Management such as introduction to Corporate Management, Innovation and Research Management, Intellectual Property and Project Portfolio Management at the University of Ghent. In addition, Benedikt Sas is currently acting as the Chief Business Officer for Food2Know. He obtained his Ph.D. at Ghent University and attended several management courses at Vlerick (University of Ghent) and Templeton (University of Oxford). Benedikt Sas has years of industrial experience with regards to R&D, Corporate Management and Business Development, in an international setting. He started as Chemistry Manager at Kemin Europa NV in 1996, became an R&D director in 1998 and afterwards worldwide VP Research. From 2001 till 2008, he held the position of President of Kemin Pharma, after which he moved back to his alma mater Ghent University as a Senior Business Developer. Benedikt Sas has a significant track record of bringing new products and technologies to the market, finalizing registrations in different regions for multiple business sectors and of closing strategic alliances or licensing deals. He also provides training to Ph.D, post doc and junior business developers on business development, licensing and spin-offs. He is often asked as a consultant or invited to an advisory board for industry, governmental or legal bodies e.g. the Courts of Commerce. Since he started at University of Ghent, he engineered several large international research projects and platforms, spin-offs and licensing deals. He is still involved in industry as member of the Board of Advisors of several companies or as a consultant to both industry and ministries. He is an inventor on more than 20 approved & commercialized patents and author of peer-reviewed papers. As mentioned above, Prof. Sas is currently managing Food2Know. This Centre of Excellence for Food Science, Nutrition and Health, groups more than 35 research labs, spread out over six life science faculties (bioscience engineering, pharmaceutical sciences, veterinary sciences, sciences, psychology and medicine & health sciences) of the University of Ghent and related Colleges, the National Institute for Agricultural & Fishery Research (ILVO), the University of Antwerp and the University of Brussels (VUB). Food2Know is the preferred gateway for companies or ministries to get direct access to top experts or to high tech equipment for routine analyses, scientific or business advice, or for elaborate research projects. Food2Know is committed to identify and analyze incoming requests, which are then forwarded to the bestpositioned research group(s) in the consortium. Besides regional or national related activities, Food2Know also has a strong international focus. Food2Know promotes and guarantees top level science. Several members also are active in various boards and working groups of governmental organisations such as Courts of Commerce, FAVV, FOD, EFSA etc. E: benedikt.sas@ugent.be W: www.ugent.be
Jeff Skinner Jeff is the Executive Director of the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. He also directs a variety of MBA entrepreneurship electives and co-curricular student activities at the school. He is visiting lecturer on Technology Transfer at University College London and at the Graduate School of Economics in Barcelona. Prior to this, as Commercial Director at University College London, he conceived, built and ran UCL s Technology Transfer division - including the creation of two early-stage seed funds and separate units managing consultancy, collaborative research and new venture creation. Working alongside research students and academics, he has cofounded over thirty technology-based spinouts that have, in aggregate, raised over 30 million first round finance and returned over 20 million to UCL. He is past President of and remains closely involved with the leading UK & European tech transfer associations, PraxisUnico & ASTP-Proton. He talks, trains and consults widely throughout Europe in the field of technology commercialization. He chairs the Professional Recognition panel for the worldwide Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP). Before joining UCL, he was Technical Marketing Manager at Hoechst Celanese Corporation in New Jersey and prior to that, Photonics Research Manager at General Electric. His first degree was in physics and he holds a Ph.D. in thin-film photonics (UCL) and an MBA (with distinction) from London Business School. E: jskinner@london.edu W: www.innovation.london.edu
Bram Wijlands Bram Wijlands, M.A., is Head of Technology Transfer at RWTH Aachen University, Germany. At the same time, he is also Deputy Director of the Research and Career department. Having obtained a Master s degree in Linguistics (focus on Technical Communication) and Political Sciences at RWTH Aachen University, Bram started his professional career as fundraiser for a German non-profit organisation in 2001. He then worked as a consultant for European networks at a consultancy company in The Netherlands. Meanwhile, he also held a position as research associate at the chair of technical communication at RWTH Aachen. In 2006, he joined the Technology Transfer Office at RWTH Aachen University where he has been successful in building up a new structure and developing new models to manage activities in the fields of industry corporation, innovation scouting, intellectual property management (patenting) and intellectual property valorization (licensing, spinoffs, contract research). E: bram.wijlands@zhv.rwth-aachen.de W: www.rwth-aachen.de