Mark Crowell
Executive Director and Associate Vice President for Innovation Partnerships and Commercialization, University of Virginia

Mark Crowell is the University's first Executive Director of UVa Innovation and Associate Vice President for Research. Crowell joined U.Va. after serving as Vice President for Business Development at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter FL. His responsibilities at Scripps included innovation management and commercialization, new business development, bio-pharmaceutical industry partnerships, and venture capital relations. Mark has extensive experience in technology licensing, start-up company formation, seed capital development, innovation-based economic development initiatives and planning, and research campus planning.

Prior to joining Scripps in late 2008, Mark spent 8-1/2 years as Associate Vice Chancellor for Economic Development and Technology Transfer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, after holding similar positions at North Carolina State University (1992-2000) and Duke University (1987-1992). During the past 24 years, the technology transfer programs Mark has directed - UNC, NC State, Duke and Scripps - have helped to launch more than 135 start-up companies and numerous products and services. In North Carolina, Mark served on the Boards of key economic development and entrepreneurial support agencies, including the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, the Research Triangle Regional Partnership, and the Orange County Economic Development Commission.

Throughout his career, Mark has been a leader in a number of major strategic initiatives focused on enhancing innovation-based business development and academic-industry collaborations, including the Carolina North research campus at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Centennial Campus research campus at NC State University. Another highlight includes co-founding a US $10 million seed fund at NC State University (in partnership with the NC Technology Development Authority). At U.Va., Mark works closely with the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, the Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, and other state, regional and local initiatives focusing on economic development. He is also active nationally and internationally in policy matters related to innovation, and has testified twice in the US Congress on legislations related to innovation and small business during 2010-2011.

Mark was the 2005 President of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and was the founding President of the recently launched AUTM Foundation. Currently, Mark serves as Co-Chair of BIO's Technology Transfer Committee and as a member of the Board of Directors of Southeast BIO. He has extensive national and international speaking, consulting, and management experience related to technology transfer and innovation-based economic development, and has been instrumental in forging international research and innovation transfer partnerships on behalf of UNC and of Scripps. His consulting and advisory activities have included a number of US and international academic and policy groups and associations, including the National Science Foundation, the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), the National Academies of Sciences, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and many others. Mark also served on the inaugural Board of the University-Industry Demonstration Partnership, an initiative coordinated through the National Academies of Sciences designed to expand collaborations between university and industry.