VTIP - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, LAUNCH
- Materials Science Engineer
Andrea Hill is an experienced Materials Science Engineer and business development professional with an extensive background in materials research and development (R&D), business development, product development, program management, technical marketing, and start-up development for emerging technologies in the Aerospace & Defense, Space Systems, Biotech, and Energy Industries. As the Associate Director of LAUNCH: The Center for New Ventures of Virginia Tech's LINK + LICENSE + LAUNCH, Andrea provides support for Virginia Tech researchers to help accelerate the advancement their innovative technologies from a cool idea in the lab to a commercial product by leveraging opportunities from federal organizations and commercial sectors.
As a VT and Marching Virginian alum and long-time Hokie sports fan, Andrea enjoys the optimistic energy on campus, from the classrooms and laboratories to the football field. Go Hokies! She enjoys working closely with Virginia Tech's innovative minds to learn more about their research and technologies in order to provide the right combination of resources to accelerate their technological innovations into the commercial sector, with the end goal of benefiting humankind and our world. Andrea resides in the New River Valley with her Hokie husband and four children.
Andrea holds a B.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from Virginia Tech and was awarded the Young Alumnus of the Year Award in 2006 for VT's College of Engineering. In addition, Andrea led a DARPA SBIR project that won a R&D 100 Award in 2007 and a NASA SBIR project that was featured as a NASA SpinOff in 2012.
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator, Innovation and Partnerships
Anna Wehr ‘21 joined the Innovation and Partnerships team in August 2022 as a Project Coordinator. Work includes organizing engagement opportunities for Virginia Tech's corporate partners and alumni, supporting the team's media and communications' work including social media content creation and management, and supervising interns. Having come to Virginia Tech from the performing arts sector, Wehr enjoys infusing her creativity into her work.
Anna found her home in the Hokie Nation. "It's exciting to be part of an institution that is constantly innovating and evaluating how it can better serve its students, alumni, community and corporate partners. People genuinely want to be here at Virginia Tech and that's special." Anna resides in Christiansburg with her dog Penny.
Wehr holds an M.F.A. in Arts Leadership from Virginia Tech and a B.A. in Theatre Performance from the University of Lynchburg.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- CEO of KinergyCare
Art Spivy is the CEO of KinergyCare, a healthcare IT startup that has developed a platform for deploying nonclinical Community Health Workers to provide coaching and care coordination for patients. This platform includes AI based data analytics to profile patient unmet needs and then recommend interventions for the Community Health Worker and physician practice. Identifying and addressing unmet patient needs with a low cost, scalable resource is a big opportunity to improve outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
Mr. Spivy is the founder of a medical record data sharing startup called MedLink and is the co-inventor of one patent and four patent applications in this area. Spivy is the former COO of Entarik, which was acquired by Gravitas, Inc. and where he currently serves a Board Member. Gravitas is launching a smart enteral feeding tube that uses sensors to detect tube placement as well as status of gastric emptying.
Spivy is the co-inventor of one patent and three applications in this area. He has advised many other startups in the healthcare space on strategy, product development and M&A. Spivy has 25 years of experience in in software, platform development, business development and internet/mobile services, including eight years of C-level experience.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Communications and Marketing, Principal Partnerships Office
As senior director of communications and marketing for the Principal Partnership Office within LINK, Brad Soucy plans and oversees communications and marketing.
Prior to joining LINK, Soucy was senior director of the digital project development team in university Communications and Marketing. He joined Virginia Tech in 2015 as a web developer and quickly was promoted to a leadership role on the university's central creative team. Notable projects include launching the current university brand, the Boundless Impact fundraising campaign, and the Innovation Campus brand. Previous to Virginia Tech, Soucy worked for a digital agency and did freelance design and illustration in New York.
Soucy earned a bachelor's degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a master's of fine arts from the School of Visual Arts.
Job Titles:
- Associate Vice President for Innovation and Partnerships
- Associate Vice President of Innovation & Partnerships for Virginia Tech
With over 25 years of experience at the intersection of research and business, Brandy serves as Associate Vice President of Innovation & Partnerships for Virginia Tech. In this role, Brandy leads LINK + LICENSE + LAUNCH, a unit founded to build industry partnerships, commercialize technologies, and start new ventures. While at Virginia Tech, Salmon played a seminal role in working with leaders in the Commonwealth to attract Amazon's HQ2 and launch Virginia Tech's Innovation Campus, leading a cross-functional delivery team to set the vision for the campus and accomplish key milestones.
Brandy believes in the power of teams. "Everything we do at Virginia Tech is thanks to the dedication of talented people who live and breathe our mission of service and our partners who are an integral part of that. Together, we can change the world."
Brandy has a B.A. from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. from Cornell University, and an M.B.A. from Duke University, Fuqua School of Business.
Job Titles:
- Senior Graphic Designer, Principal Partnerships Office
Through this role, Brian is dedicated to art directing and creating beautiful printed materials, presentations, and other digital pieces. When not at work, Brian is getting his hands dirty with art, printmaking, and collage in addition to home projects, such as tending to his backyard chickens.
Brian earned an associates degree, specializing in graphic design from Bradley Academy of the Visual Arts in York, Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director
- Associate Director for Business Development, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute ( VTTI ), LINK
Carl is an Associate Director for Business Development, embedded in the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), the nation's second largest university-affiliated transportation research institute. In this role he raises awareness of VTTI's capabilities and strengths while fostering industry and private partnerships with the institute that support its mission of human and economic growth. His recognized energy and enthusiasm are key to meeting industry partner needs and interests and providing them with philanthropic opportunities, in furtherance of VTTI's commitment to saving lives, time, and money and protecting the environment.
Job Titles:
- MetiStream 's Founder and CEO
Chiny Driscoll is MetiStream's founder and CEO. She has more than 24 years of management and executive leadership experience in the technology industry, having served in a variety of roles with Fortune 500 tech companies. She launched MetiStream in 2014. The company helps customers gain better insight and make better decisions through the use of analytics and big data technologies.
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator With the Principal
- Project Coordinator, Principal Partnerships Office
Chrystal Jones is a project coordinator with the Principal Partnerships Office (PPO). Chrystal's role is a multifaceted one that serves and supports the office in prospect research, prospect and partner visits and meetings, human resource logistics coordination and daily administrative operations. Chrystal is integral to the planning, preparing and coordinating of PPO-level campus visits as well as off campus meetings and engagements. She assists the PPO in research to identify prospective PPO partners on both the corporate and individual side. Chrystal also collaboratively works with the other members of the PPO, the Principal Gifts team, and the office of Innovations and Partnerships team to work toward attaining the overall goals of Virginia Tech.
Within her role with the PPO, Chrystal thrives on the possibility of working to find the next amazing principal partner that wants to work with Virginia Tech in attaining the Presidential Priorities of access and affordability and becoming a Top 100 Global University. Chrystal is a proud wife and mother, and in her free time enjoys working in her yard and house on projects galore.
Chrystal received her Bachelor's degree in Operations Management - Decisions Sciences from Old Dominion University.
Dr. Brett Malone is a triple Hokie is a triple Hokie with 20 years of executive experience in growing engineering, biotech, and software business. Malone learned firsthand what it was like to build a company in Virginia Tech's Blacksburg-based research park, led then by longtime CRC President and CEO Joe Meredith.
As co-founder of Phoenix Integration, a firm that creates software for engineering, Malone helped build a notable company that is still part of the CRC and serving the aerospace industry. Malone has led multiple companies based around the country since graduating from Virginia Tech in biotech, robotics, engineering, and software. He has a broad background working successfully with early stage companies and with related funding sources.
Malone is respected in the regional entrepreneurship community, with engaging ideas on how to best position the CRC to continue its positive impact on the region going forward.
Education
Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Aerospace Engineering
M.S, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Aerospace Engineering
B.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Jennifer Reynolds is an experienced and entrepreneurial executive with more than twenty-five years of experience growing companies in start-up/early stage biotechnology and high technology environments. Dr. Reynolds has a passion for applying science and business expertise to challenging scientific concerns and toward the development, commercialization and support of technologies and services across diverse high-technology sectors. She has experience and skills in corporate and laboratory operations, business development, strategic and financial planning, project management, grants/contracts administration, and resource management.
She and her team at Salamandra provide strategic, technical, and regulatory consulting services to the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Reynolds previously led the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's 60+ company incubation/acceleration program in life sciences, cybersecurity and clean technology and has a deep interest in advancing the commercialization of new technologies within diverse high-technology sectors. Previously, she served in a COO capacity at a molecular diagnostics platform company in MD, growing the company from the ground up. She has also served as a DNA Forensics Expert and Crime Laboratory Director at one of the nation's most prestigious private forensics testing laboratories.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Medical College of Virginia (VCU), Human Genetics
M.B.A., Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland College Park
B.S., Virginia Polytechnic and State University, Biology
After earning his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and operations research at Virginia Tech, Dr. Vinod Chachra served the university in many capacities. From 1972 to 1985, he successfully assumed roles of director of software development, director of computing and information systems, vice provost and then vice president for computing and information systems.
Dr. Chachra was responsible for the creation of VTLS Inc., an international leader in integrated library automation, digital imaging services and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The company provided state-of-the-art library automation systems to more than 1900 libraries worldwide. VTLS was the first spinoff from Virginia Tech and the first tenant of the CRC.
Dr. Chachra has been active in the library profession for more than 25 years. He represented Virginia in the White House Conference on Library and Information Sciences, served on the legislative committee for library networking in Virginia, and is a former member of the White House Conference on Library and Information Services Task Force. He worked with several countries in the design and implementation of national bibliographic information resources and union catalogs. He has written two books, a chapter in a third book and numerous journal articles.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer of Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc
Justice (ret.) Elizabeth A. McClanahan serves as Chief Executive Officer of Virginia Tech Foundation, Inc. (VTF). Located in Blacksburg, Virginia, VTF is an independent nonstock corporation established in 1948 for the sole purpose of managing Virginia Tech's endowment and real estate portfolio. VTF's wholly owned for-profit subsidiary, Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, Inc., is a research park that catalyzes commercialization and industry collaboration.
Justice McClanahan began her legal career in private practice at Penn, Stuart & Eskridge, where she later became a shareholder, director, and management committee member. She was admitted to six state bars - Virginia, District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky - and earned a Martindale-Hubbell AV Rating.
After practicing in the private sector, Justice McClanahan served as Virginia's Chief Deputy Attorney General and on the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Her legal career culminated with her appointment by the Virginia General Assembly to Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.
Before joining VTF, Justice McClanahan served as the President and Dean at Appalachian School of Law in Buchanan County, Virginia, her home county. Justice McClanahan has served as Chair of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia; Vice Rector of her alma mater, the College of William and Mary; Williamson Fellow at William and Mary College of Law; Street Memorial Distinguished Visitor in Real Estate Law at Appalachian School of Law; El Paso Natural Gas Law Fellow at the University of Colorado School of Law; and on the Faculty for the Summer Management Program at Wake Forest School of Business and Accountancy. She is an adjunct professor of finance at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business, where she teaches Legal, Financing, and Ethical Issues for Entrepreneurs.
Job Titles:
- Licensing Officer at Virginia Tech
- Licensing Officer, LICENSE
Emily leverages over a decade of experience spanning academic research, AgTech startups, technology transfer, and innovation consulting to help academic inventors navigate the complexities of intellectual property. She loves spending her days learning about the exciting research at Virginia Tech, and she is committed to maximizing the societal benefit of this research by bridging the gap to commercialization.
Emily holds a Ph.D. in plant biochemistry from Michigan State University and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
Job Titles:
- Content Specialist, Creative Studio
As a content specialist, Emma Leonard supports philanthropy and partnership efforts across a range of creative projects, from print to digital.
Emma is passionate about communicating to the community in an engaging manner. Outside of work, Emma enjoys watching ice hockey and spending time with her dog.
Emma has a Bachelor's in multimedia journalism from Virginia Tech and an Associate's in Arts and Sciences from Virginia Western Community College.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, LICENSE
With two decades of experience in the commercialization of highly technical business opportunities, Grant is Executive Director of LICENSE: Center for Technology Commercialization. In this leadership role, he provides exceptional communication and practical abilities gained through professional success in academic start-up endeavors and mature industry operations.
Grant provides the irreplaceable kind of experience gained through learning on the job. Those jobs ranged from bench-top research assessment to directing FDA-approved pharmaceutical manufacturing. He takes great pride in knowing that his team plays a critical role in the translation of research, from laboratory to accessible technologies in society. When not at work, Grant enjoys woodworking and fly fishing.
Grant earned an M.B.A from The Citadel and a B.S. in biological engineering from the University of Georgia.
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategic Engagement and Partnerships
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Business Development for LINK
- Associate Director of Business Development, Pamplin College of Business, LINK
Jake serves as associate director of business development for LINK: The Center for Advancing Partnerships, embedded in the Pamplin College of Business. In his role, Jake builds strategic partnerships, which benefit the university and its partner companies. A veteran relationship-builder, he loves meeting new people and finding ways to make meaningful connections.
Virginia Tech has become a huge part of Jake's life and he sees his position with LINK as his way to give back to a university that's given him and his family so much. Jake and his wife, Kacy, are raising two young daughters who are hopefully future Hokies. He fills his free time with playing sports, working in his garden, and moonlighting with the ACC Network as a broadcast analyst for Hokie Volleyball home matches.
Jake earned a B.A. in political science from Xavier University.
Job Titles:
- VTC Innovation Fund Member
James Ramey has been a VTC Innovation Fund member since inception. Ramey's responsibilities include deal sourcing, due diligence, deal and closing document review and negotiation, portfolio monitoring, and other day to day operations.
Before joining the VTC Innovation Fund and Middleland Capital, Mr. Ramey was a Vice President at Tyton Partners, a leading M&A advisory firm in the education and ed-tech sectors. Notably, while at Tyton, he led the deal team in the sale of WebAssign, a provider of digital learning solutions in higher education to Cengage Learning, an education and technology Company. Prior to Tyton Partners, Ramey was a Senior Associate at Invest Nebraska Corporation, a sector-agnostic venture capital & development firm specializing in equity and debt financings within the lower middle-market. Prior to Invest Nebraska Corporation, Ramey was an Associate Attorney at Knudsen, Berkheimer, Richardson & Endacott, LLP where he practiced in a wide range of legal fields including transactional law, bankruptcy, estate planning, creditor rights, landlord/tenant, real estate, corporate law and civil litigation.
Job Titles:
- President and CEO of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center
Dr. Joe Meredith has been the President and CEO of the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center (VTCRC) in Blacksburg, Virginia since 1993. The VTCRC consists of over 180 high-technology companies and research centers that employ over 3,000 people in 33 buildings totaling over 1 million square feet of space. The research park was most recently a winner of the 2016 'Best University Research Parks in the South by Southern Business & Development magazine.
In addition to managing the operations, Dr. Meredith facilitates technology transfer from the university, increases the level of sponsored research, and markets the VTCRC to prospective clients. Previously, Dr. Meredith held a variety of management positions for a major defense contractor in research and development, engineering, data processing, integrated logistics support, and marketing. He also is a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College's Program Management Course.
Dr. Meredith is active with numerous boards and has received many awards to include the Professional Leadership Award, named "Business Person of the Year, the Roanoke - Blacksburg Technology Council's Leadership Award. Dr. Meredith is a former adjunct professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department at the university.
As the Foundation's CEO, Dooley provides leadership and management to maximizing the benefit of Virginia Tech's private assets in support of university programs and initiatives. The foundation's real estate portfolio includes properties across the state of Virginia as well as Switzerland. These properties range from innovational, such as the Corporate Research Center and the Virginia Tech Research Center-Arlington, to academic, which include the Steger Center for International Scholarship and the Reynolds Homestead, to recreational, which encompass The Hotel Roanoke and the Pete Dye River Course. The current value of the endowment is $1.14 billion. The Virginia Tech Foundation's assets total nearly $2 billion.
A member of the Virginia Tech community since 1982, Dooley served in various leadership roles with Virginia Cooperative Extension. He was the director of the Northern Virginia 4-H Educational Center, director of the Virginia 4-H Foundation, and associate director of Virginia Cooperative Extension with 4-H and Family and Consumer Sciences responsibilities. He has been an active member of the Virginia Tech community through several committees and special projects and has served in leadership roles with many professional associations/organizations. He also serves on the boards of several organizations, including the GO Virginia Region 2 Council and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce.
Education
Ph.D, M.A., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Higher Education Administration
B.A., Alderson-Broaddus College, Elementary Education
John Newby is the CEO at Virginia Bio, the statewide non-profit trade association for the life science industry. Approximately 300 companies spanning biopharmaceuticals, medical device, med tech, diagnostics, digital health, bioinformatics, agriculture and industrial bio and related fields are based in Virginia, mainly clustered around research universities and medical institutions.Virginia Bio is the sole state affiliate and works closely with key national industry organizations BIO, AdvaMed, MDMA, PhRMA and We Work for Health.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Business Development, College of Engineering, LINK
- Associate Director of LINK
John Ralston serves as the associate director of LINK: Center for Advancing Partnerships in the College of Engineering. In this position, John is responsible for supporting industry partnerships and engagement as they relate to key strategic activities at the university.
John brings to Virginia Tech a wide range of experience forging dynamic partnerships between universities and industry. John enjoys finding partners that can pour the accelerant on LINK + LICENSE + LAUNCH's spark to help create meaningful relationships.
John earned his B.S. in sports and recreation management from James Madison University.
Justice McClanahan is an active member of boards of directors, including the Virginia Chamber of Commerce; the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine; Carilion Clinic; and Delta Dental of Virginia. Justice McClanahan has received civic and professional awards, including Virginia Jaycees Outstanding Young Virginian; the Roanoke Blacksburg Technology Council Ruby Award; Virginia Business Power 500; David M. Young Award, Virginia Oil & Gas Association; Virginia Lawyers Media "Influential Women of Virginia"; Virginia Business Legal Elite; the William Skelton Extension Leadership Award, Virginia Cooperative Extension; and The Top 50 Women Chief Executive Officers, Women We Admire.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Business Development, LINK
With a focus on developing mutually beneficial partnerships, Karin builds strategic relations with companies to support teaching, research, and service at Virginia Tech. She often describes herself as a connector. She likes to connect the dots between people and ideas. At Virginia Tech, Karin helps companies of all sizes navigate and connect across the campus to various university assets, such as talent and technologies. Prior to Virginia Tech, Karin worked in industry where she led marketing and communications efforts for a variety of technology companies.
Karin is not a Hokie by degree, but loves the university and region, having lived and worked in the area for over 30 years.
She holds a B.S. in business administration from Radford University.
Job Titles:
- Intellectual Property Specialist, LICENSE
In addition to patent portfolio management, Katherine facilitates the process from invention disclosure to patent prosecution. She also works closely with LINK to support academic start-up, commercialization, and licensing endeavors.
Be careful when telling Katherine you "need it yesterday" as she's likely to side-eye that letter opener she leaves sitting conspicuously on her desk (don't worry, she never actually uses it-even for mail). Truthfully, though, Katherine's always willing to jump in to get the job done.
Katherine studied Psychology at Campbell University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Corporate Networks
With her focus on strategic projects supporting alumni and industry engagement, Kathleen's role as Assistant Director for Corporate Engagement synergizes corporate and collegiate priorities to provide meaningful and authentic experiences for Virginia Tech alumni, friends, and corporate partners.
Kathleen is a graduate of Virginia Tech's Hospitality and Tourism Management program. She has embraced her passion for hospitality, handling hotel operations, directing food and beverage outlets, and later planning and executing Virginia Tech strategic special events and alumni programming. She's happiest managing logistics, forming processes, and crunching numbers. Add in her customer-centric demeanor and you have a powerhouse aimed at projects at the intersection of alumni + industry engagement for Virginia Tech.
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator With the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative
- Project Coordinator, Commonwealth Cyber Initiative ( CCI )
Kendall Beebe is a Project Coordinator with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI), a statewide initiative to make Virginia a cybersecurity global center of excellence. She assists in the growth and management of the programs that fall under CCI's mission lines: Innovation and Commercialization and Workforce Development.
Kendall is passionate about building programs for students to learn new skills and excel. When Kendall is not in the office, she is with her two-year old Labrador Retriever, Shadow. You can also find her planning her next travel adventure, baking and cooking, hiking with her dog, reading a good book, or enjoying a nice cup of tea.
Kendall holds an M.S. in Sociology with a concentration in Criminal Justice & Social Policy and a B.S. from Longwood University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Foundation Relations
As associate director of Foundation Relations, Lane is responsible for developing and expanding partnerships with foundations in support of academic programs and faculty research. An advancement professional for more than 15 years, she has spent much of her career working with external and internal stakeholders and supporters to establish and strengthen meaningful philanthropic partnerships.
Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Lane served in development roles with various nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education to secure philanthropic support for key programs and initiatives.
Lane earned a B.S. from Virginia Tech and an M.A. from the University of Oklahoma. She is a certified fundraising executive.
Job Titles:
- Developer
- Web Designer
- Web Developer, Principal Partnerships Office
Lauren Shutt is a web designer and developer with a passion for creating engaging digital experiences. She supports LINK's web strategy by collaborating with designers, stakeholders, and writers to manage content and create clean, accessible front-end code that translates into a compelling web presence.
Shutt has been with Virginia Tech since 2016. Prior to joining LINK she worked as the inaugural accessibility developer for the Office of Equity and Accessibility, the web manager for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and webmaster for the Center for Power Electronics Systems. Shutt began her career in web development as the electronic communications manager for the Anchorage School District in Anchorage, Alaska, where she also worked for Title VII (now Title VI) Indian Education. Shutt's freelance clients include many higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations.
Shutt has a B.A. in anthropology from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, an M.A. in anthropology from George Mason University, and a graduate certificate in leading education systems from Harvard. She has also taken graduate courses in American Studies at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany.
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant, Project Coordinator, Innovation and Partnerships
When not at work, Lisa is passionate about fundraising for sports and programs at Blacksburg High School, where her son Ethan was active in both baseball and track. Being competitive in sports and exercise, Lisa is always challenging herself and others in health and fitness! She is looking forward to cheering her son on at the University of Mary Washington, where he is competing in track and studying Computer Science. She considers this her biggest blessing!
Lisa has an A.A. in secretarial science from New River Community College.
Mark serves as the Director of LAUNCH: the Center for New Ventures. In this leadership role, Mark gets to leverage his extensive education and background in industry, academia, and entrepreneurship. His industry experience spans numerous companies and collaborative technology innovation partnerships. Mondry began his career as an engineer in defense electronics and has held legal and executive roles in the medical device industry with companies that include Eli Lilly & Co. and Guidant Corporation.
With deep experience in early stage technology commercialization from technical, business, and legal perspectives, Mark embraces the entrepreneurial mindset and helps others bridge the gap from discovery to market. He himself has experienced the exhilaration of building several early stage companies, including growing a medical device startup to a successful IPO. Mark came to Virginia Tech from the Colorado School of Mines, and still fondly refers to our Blacksburg cattle as "Virginia Elk."
A registered Patent Attorney, Mark earned a B.S. in engineering from Miami University, an M.S. in administrative science from Johns Hopkins University, and a J.D. from the University of Maryland. A true life-long learner, he is exercising his research skills and completing his dissertation for a Ph.D in Business from Virginia Tech.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Business Development
- Associate Director for Business Development, LINK
Megan serves as Associate Director for Business Development in the Washington, D.C., metro area. In this role Megan engages with organizations to discover partnership opportunities with the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus and other university strategic initiatives.
Her proximity to the more than 60,000 alumni and friends of the university as well as the Innovation Campus allows her to extend the reach of the team in meaningful ways. Having previously worked in industry and grown up in the area, Megan is well acquainted with the region. When she is not meeting with organizations or attending industry events, she is racking up the rides on her Peloton and spending time with her husband and son.
Megan earned a B.S. in business administration, computer information systems, from James Madison University and an M.A. in education and human development with a concentration in student affairs from The George Washington University.
Mr. Ken Miller brings more than 32 years of dedicated service to the university, unparalleled institutional knowledge, and deep financial management and accounting operations experience as vice president for finance. In this role, Miller plays a highly visible role as a strategic business partner to the senior leadership of the university, while engaging frequently with the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors.
Miller is responsible for providing primary support to leadership in identifying, obtaining, and allocating the resources needed to achieve the university's mission and long-term objectives of Virginia Tech's strategic plan. Miller provides oversight over the university's accounting processes and will maintain financial relationships with the commonwealth and regulatory relationships with the state and federal governments. He is tasked with enhancing effective business practices throughout the university, including the implementation of transformative new financial and business information systems.
Miller is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Prior to working at Virginia Tech, Miller served as a staff auditor for a national public accounting firm for several years and as a financial manager for the American Heart Association for five years.
Education
B.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Accounting
Nelson Chu joined Kinetic Ventures in 1998, and brings extensive technology, engineering and consulting expertise to the Firm. His investment activities focus on information and infrastructure technologies, enterprise and Internet software, database-related applications, and other emerging software and hardware technologies. He has led a broad range of Kinetic investments including Cardlytics, LogicBlox-Predictix (acquired by Infor), Tower Cloud (acquired by Communications Sales & Leasing, now Uniti Group), BroadWare (acquired by Cisco), VerticalOne (acquired by SONE), FoodBuy (acquired by Compass Group), Instant Financial, Navistone, OPTii Solutions, Kobiton, and ProctorFree.
Prior to joining Kinetic, Mr. Chu was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Atlanta, where he served as an advisor on strategic and operational issues for various computer, telecom, transportation and manufacturing industry clients. Previously, he was a Development Manager with Oracle Corporation, where he led the design, development, and support of products within the Oracle Applications suite of financial products.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Business Development, LINK
Rob Bertin has nearly 20 years of experience litigating patent, trademark, trade secret and copyright cases throughout the United States, counseling clients on intellectual property (IP) and negotiating transactions involving IP. He has represented clients at the center of some of the largest patent portfolio sale and licensing events in the high tech industry, including the Nortel and Kodak transactions.
Rob leverages a technical background to represent large and small companies primarily in high technology industries. Mr. Bertin's IP practice has been recognized in Super Lawyers and is a past chair of the patent, trademark and copyright section of the Bar Association of DC. Involving an array of technologies, Bertin's practice includes representing clients with IP issues in wireless and landline telecommunications devices, systems, and services, computer technology, electronic commerce, medical devices, and various other technologies.
Prior to practicing law, Bertin was an electrical engineer with IBM Corporation's Federal Systems Division, where he designed circuits and packaging for logic, memory, and microprocessor chips. He also wrote proposals and technical studies regarding satellite systems and radiation-induced failure mechanisms in semiconductor devices. He has published papers and has been awarded two US patents for his work in these areas.
Job Titles:
- Portfolio Director, Commonwealth Cyber Initiative
Job Titles:
- Content Writer, Principal Partnerships Office
- Writer
Suzanne Miller serves as a content writer for the Principal Partnerships Office at Virginia Tech. In this role, she works to create powerful messaging that captures Hokie innovation across campus and cultivates relationships to advance the university's mission. Most recently, she worked for the university's College of Engineering, helping to produce their biannual digital magazine and collaborating with departmental communicators on effective, engaging strategies.
Suzanne thrives on helping colleagues find their voice. She treats each project as an opportunity to connect with an audience emotionally and intellectually. Meticulous and thorough, she aims to make every piece of writing that crosses her desk the best it can be.
Suzanne has a B.A. in English and philosophy from Roanoke College and an M.A. in film studies from Hollins University. She is currently working on her M.S. in information sciences at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville.
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator, LICENSE LAUNCH
Job Titles:
- Director of Foundation Relations, LINK
Dr. Xiang-Jin "X.J." Meng studies emerging and re-emerging viral diseases that impact veterinary and human public health. He is widely considered one of the world's leading scientists on hepatitis E virus, porcine circovirus type 2, and porcine reproductive and respiration syndrome virus. His laboratory developed the first USDA fully licensed vaccine to protect against porcine circovirus type 2 infection and its associated diseases in pigs, a major threat to the global swine industry. Dr. Meng also discovered swine hepatitis E virus in pigs, which led to a paradigm shift and the recognition of hepatitis E as a zoonotic disease that can infect across the species barrier.
Dr. Meng has authored or co-authored more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He has been awarded research grants as a PI totaling more than $17 million, and he is also a co-investigator on other awarded grants of more than $28 million. Dr. Meng is a named inventor on 21 awarded and 17 pending U.S. patents, as well as 40 awarded foreign patents.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for Business Development, CALS, LINK
- Associate Director of Business Development With LINK
Zachary Brown serves as an associate director of business development with LINK, leveraging his experience at the intersection of industrial and academic research to build expansive and strategic industry partnerships within the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences and Virginia Cooperative Extension (CALS & VCE, respectively). His primary goal within this role is to elevate the impact Virginia Tech research and education initiatives have on the Commonwealth and beyond.