Executive Director, New Venture Development

The Executive Director of New Venture Development is a key leadership role in the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization (CTTC) at Vanderbilt University, responsible for leading the CTTC New Venture Development team in their efforts to advance entrepreneurship and new venture creation and support programs across campus. This position reports directly to the Assistant Vice Chancellor and works closely with the CTTC unit directors of Licensing, Industry Collaborations, and Operations and their staff, as well as key university partners and external stakeholders to build and enhance the entrepreneurship ecosystem on campus and in the community.

The Executive Director of New Venture Development supervises the activities of a diverse team with responsibilities for: evaluating and readying startup opportunities for commercializing Vanderbilt technologies; engaging with aspiring faculty and staff entrepreneurs to facilitate the formation and launch of new ventures at Vanderbilt; and assisting with the capitalization and growth of recently launched Vanderbilt-affiliated new ventures, including those that are not principally based on patentable technologies (such as data science, AI and software products). This position is responsible for driving continuous development and improvement of programs contributing to the commercial success of portfolio ventures, as measured in part by capital investments in Vanderbilt startups, recruitment of management, products on the market, ROI to Vanderbilt, and capital exits. This position is further responsible for developing strategies that support entrepreneurship on campus educationally, operationally, and financially, and for coordinating with other administrative offices and schools to ensure the Vanderbilt innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem remains robust and provides comprehensive support for new venture creation on campus.

About the Work Unit:

The mission of the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization (CTTC) is to provide professional commercialization services to the Vanderbilt community, thus optimizing the flow of innovation to the marketplace and generating revenue that supports future research activities, while having a positive impact on society.

We accomplish this by serving as an efficient and effective conduit for the transfer of promising intellectual property to industry, contributing to regional economic development by licensing locally and supporting new venture creation, and building and expanding translational research collaborations between academia and industry. CTTC coordinates activities with a plurality of other units across campus to achieve these goals, including within the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Innovation (the office to which it reports) the VUMC Brock Family Center for Applied Innovation

The CTTC New Ventures team provides on-campus support to faculty, staff and students entrepreneurs from all disciplines for assessing viability of new venture opportunities, provides assistance with new company creation and launch, assists with identifying and securing governmental resources to support planned and existing new ventures, contributes to building the regional entrepreneurship ecosystem and to the pursuit of federal grants for such purposes, educates the Vanderbilt community regarding SBIR funding and other available sources of funding, supports translational research by pursuing proof-of-concept funding for technologies commercialized via new ventures, tracks progress of new ventures launched and in process, reports entrepreneurship-related metrics to Vanderbilt and the state of Tennessee, and manages existing portfolio of equity positions in Vanderbilt-affiliated companies.

Key Functions and Expected Performance:

Strategy:

• Develop a vision and goals for the New Venture Development team in collaboration with leadership and other stakeholders
• Coordinate with other Vanderbilt administrative offices and schools/departments to ensure the Vanderbilt innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem is optimally supported
• Develop policies and procedures to facilitate entrepreneurship across campus; standardize services, processes, resources, and practices to improve efficiency
• Manage the recruitment, retention, training and supervision of New Ventures team
• Ensure effective operations of the department through assessment of market and industry trends, internal SWOT analyses, program development, process improvement, and coordination/integration of processes with other departments
• Inform executive management regarding program performance and recommendations improvement
• Design and implement initiatives to support growth for New Venture Development and CTTC as a whole
• Analyze and evaluate ongoing department programs to identify areas where adjustments/improve