ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCIALIZATION AND INNOVATION RESEARCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Founder and CEO of Caliham Group
Adam Bates is the founder and CEO of Caliham Group, a market expansion services company based in Thailand. He is also a lecturer of the International Business program at Mahasarakham University and the Program Director of the Business Accelerator in Kolkata, India. Prior to his move to Asia, Mr. Bates was the Director of the University of Texas - Korea Innovation Program where he was responsible for commercializing Korean innovations in the United States, Mexico, Germany, Thailand, and Singapore.
Cam Houser has guided entrepreneurship communities in 30 countries across five continents. His work-designing and delivering entrepreneurship and innovation programs-helps universities, corporations, and governments support the people who solve problems, create jobs, and propel economies. Over 15,000 entrepreneurs and innovators achieving 10 exits and raising $187 million in capital have participated in programs led or designed by Cam.
He is the Founder and CEO of Actionworks, a training company that helps founders and innovators leverage the entrepreneurial mindset. The methodology is based on a decade of experience in the field and insights generated from an AI trained on business literature. His clients include Apple, Ariel Corporation, and Texas Executive Education at the University of Texas.
Cam is best known as the founder of 3 Day Startup, an entrepreneurship education organization running short-format programs in hundreds of ecosystems. During his 10 years as Founding CEO, he scaled the program to 250 universities (Harvard, Stanford, MIT) and led the effort to translate the model to help over 20 corporations (Daimler, KPMG, Dell).
In addition to founding and running companies, Cam is an internationally recognized entrepreneurship expert and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, including visiting professor stints at Universidad Rosario (Colombia) and the University of Southern Queensland (Australia).
He holds a BA from Davidson College and an MBA from the University of Texas.
Job Titles:
- Business and Technology Consultant
Christy Lauridsen is a business and technology consultant committed to working with governments and firms to overcome innovation hurdles and promote economic growth, education, and employment opportunities in the developing world. Currently with McKinsey & Co. in Silicon Valley, Christy formerly served as a Sr. Business Development M&A Specialist at IBM, where she was also designated a Master Inventor. She has worked with multiple international innovation programs and in public-private collaboration settings in research, engineering, and business roles. Christy holds a Master of Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government where her policy research focused on innovation in Colombia. Christy also earned a M.S. in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas and a M.S. in Computer Science from Columbia University.
Job Titles:
- Chief Learning Officer of the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology
Dr. Cliff Zintgraff is Chief Learning Officer of the San Antonio Museum of Science and Technology (SAMSAT), a museum and STEM Center in San Antonio, Texas, USA. He assumed this role after leading a merger between SAMSAT and nonprofit SASTEMIC as its Executive Director. At SAMSAT, Dr. Zintgraff is leading education efforts, helping define strategy for a museum in partnership with Port San Antonio, the Kelly Air Force Base redevelopment board. He is building cross-sector partnerships and educational experiences that serve local and city-wide organizations, including many underserved students in the immediate area of Port San Antonio, with the aim of transforming the lives of students, families and communities by placing them on the path to STEM careers.
Job Titles:
- President, Solving Organ Shortage
Mr. Landes founded and led Landes Bioscience, publisher of 50 peer-reviewed life science journals, for 20 years. He is president of the nonprofit Solving Organ Shortage and currently serves on the board of directors and scientific advisory boards for several organizations, including Quantitative Insights, Oncoceutics, p53 Therapeutics and the Georgian Telemedicine Association. He has experience in technology commercialization and has invested in 20 early-stage life science companies in the US, Europe and Israel. Mr. Landes earned a BS in biochemistry from the University of Chicago, an MD from the Medical College of Wisconsin and trained in surgery at the University of Minnesota
Emma is an internationally recognized social entrepreneur and international development professional. She is the founder and Head of the Global Distributors Collective, a collective of over 200 last-mile distribution organizations operating worldwide. She is a co-founder and former Executive Director of Pollinate Group, a multi-award-winning social enterprise that distributes life-changing products to underserved communities in India and Nepal through a network of women entrepreneurs. Emma is a Trustee at Ashden and has also worked with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), focusing on development finance and innovation. She is an experienced facilitator, including facilitating the SDG Bootcamp at INSEAD Business School.
Job Titles:
- Founder
- Technology Commercialization Expert
Erik Azulay is a technology commercialization expert specializing in startups and international market strategies. He has worked as a technology analyst for numerous organizations including the state of Texas' Emerging Technology Fund, the U.S. Department of State, the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the World Bank and has served as a commercial reviewer on numerous National Science Foundation SBIR panels.
A serial entrepreneur, Erik started up and ran a transportation/logistics company based in the Russian Far East port of Vladivostok, handling everything from live tigers to oil drilling platforms. Later he set up the Technology Commercialization Center for the Ministry of Education in Kazakhstan, and founded and operates the Nexus incubation center and startup hub for the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India.
Erik has worked on commercialization projects in Hungary, Mexico, India, Chile, Korea, Portugal, Israel, Kazakhstan and Egypt, as well as technology transfer and commercialization strategies for countries of the Former Soviet Union. He has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas. Erik speaks Russian and Spanish.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Executive Chair of Essmart
Jackie specializes in facilitating sustainable innovation processes, and in the development and dissemination of socially impactful solutions to underserved markets. She has facilitated numerous programs on developing sustainable and socially impactful solutions, including as an Adjunct Professor at INSEAD and at UNLEASH, a global innovation lab for youth to develop solutions that address the Sustainable Development Goals.
Jackie is co-founder and Executive Chair of Essmart, a social enterprise that distributes 300+ life-improving technologies to rural India by connecting them with local retail shops. An engineer by training, she has designed socially impactful technologies in 11 African countries and India.
Jackie has a BS in mechanical engineering from Harvard and an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge. She has been featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and is an Echoing Green Fellow. She has been an expert contributor both on National Public Radio in the US and in the Economist and has taught courses at Harvard and at MIT.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Director
- Retired Finance Executive
Linda Wheeler is a retired finance executive of a multi-national Fortune 500 corporation where she was responsible for accounting and regulatory compliance. During her 23-year career with this corporation and its predecessors, she was involved with operation start-ups, domestic and foreign joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions. Linda was also the leader of a process improvement program utilizing workforce teams to analyze, streamline and incorporate best practices in operation and support business segments.
Since retirement, Linda has served as a volunteer advisor to small business entrepreneurs. She has sponsored a free community English language school and educational scholarships for young women in Mexico. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from West Texas A & M University.
Saquib is an experienced professional with a specialization in innovation, technology development, and public advocacy. He has worked with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and NITI Aayog, Govt. of India, to promote innovation and entrepreneurship across India in multiple domains. Saquib has assisted startups and incubators in developing business strategies and supporting them from the ground up through various initiatives.
During his tenure, Saquib was part of a MoD delegation to the UK to explore collaboration areas between the two government innovation agencies. He also formulated a budgetary scheme of $64M to support defense startups and MSMEs in India. Saquib was the founder of Adavor Labs, a health-tech startup that utilized IoT and machine learning to monitor indoor air quality. He also has experience running an e-commerce business.
Saquib has been recognized for his contributions towards achieving the Prime Minister's Award for excellence in Public Administration '21 and enjoys helping startups with technology development and refining their pitch decks.
Malika is a Chartered Accountant by profession. She worked with one of the leading global consultancy groups for six years in the field of auditing and assurance services and has experience in the energy, manufacturing, pharma, and services industries.
She is the co-founder of the Labhya Foundation, a non-profit organization working with children from low socio-economic backgrounds to provide them with social and emotional skills, so as to improve their decision-making ability and future quality of life.
Labhya Foundation proposed, designed & is ensuring the effective implementation of the world's largest social and emotional learning interventions, namely the ‘Happiness Curriculum' and ‘Anandam Pathyacharya' with the Governments of Delhi and Uttarakhand respectively. In her free time, Malika likes to doodle and volunteer for different projects.
Manya Jha is the co-founder of Morphedo, a product engineering company, caters to research, design, and manufacturing requirements of businesses to engineer smart electronics and electromechanical products. We work closely with R&D and new product development teams of firms ranging from Startups, Govt. to big companies helping them build better products.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder of Science for Society
Nidhi is the co-founder of Science For Society - S4S Technologies. S4S Technologies is a near-farm gate food processing platform converting farm losses to value-added products for F&B Industry-saving time, cost, and energy for them. S4S is working with over 2,700 women farmers and serving over 1 million customers.
She is the winner of the Women Transforming India Awards by NITI Aayog in collaboration with the United Nations (UN). She has also been listed in Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia and Winner of Unilever Young Entrepreneur Award 2019 by Unilever and the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. She was also named ‘Emerging Innovator of the Year' at the inaugural edition of Economic Times Women Leadership Awards (ETPWLA).
Nidhi holds a bachelor's in Chemical Technology from the Institute of Chemical Technology.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Director at Aloe Ecell
Nimisha the Co-founder and Director at Aloe Ecell. She has been recognized as one of the top 51 Women Entrepreneurs of Tier-II cities of India by CWE HUB and has more than 4 years of entrepreneurial experience with various National and International start-ups where she has worked as National Marketing Head at Silicon Valley Success, USA, Business Development at Big street Mart, India, Founder at Doc-On-Door and Secret Eye, India. Regional Coordinator at Madad, Udaan, India, National Head at SNCC, Netherlands, Technical and Project Manager at Vidhyant, India.
She has also received various recognitions for her work from top-notch companies like Google, Microsoft, TCS, Government of India, State Government of Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh in her early years as an entrepreneur.
Preksha is a keen learner and likes to explore new things. She has an eye for designing and was also the creative head for her college's commerce department. She also enjoys baking in her leisure time.
High-impact technology leader with leading U.S. and international IT organizations, including Microsoft and Amazon. Rick has deep experience in global online/cloud service delivery and a passion for delivering solutions that optimize the engineering experience and improve the end-to-end process resulting in increased efficiency, productivity and client satisfaction. He successfully led a diverse team of Technical Program Managers, Engineers, and Operations staff in Amazon's Mergers & Acquisitions group to successfully integrate three high-profile acquisitions valued at over $10 billion. Rick now specializes in nurturing and developing the leadership abilities of entrepreneurs, helping them navigate the complexities of the business world. He helps startups craft compelling pitch presentations that effectively communicate their unique value propositions, increasing their chances of securing funding and partnerships for sustainable growth and long-term success.
Sameer is an innovation expert, whose core experience is in designing and implementing innovation programs for early-stage ventures, corporate, and universities. He has designed and led start-up programs as an organizer across India, and South Asia. He also led innovation programs as a trainer in Dubai, Germany, U.S., and most recently in China where he was a facilitator for Unleash, an innovation program for 1000+ entrepreneurs working on SDGs.
Sameer is also a business generalist, with a unique combination of work experience. He has worked as an entrepreneur, a corporate employee, a U.S. government employee, mentor, incubator director, and most recently as an independent contractor. As an independent contractor, he led AISEA, an accelerator program for social ventures by IIT Hyderabad, a renowned institution in India.
He spearheaded Nexus as its first employee, for the U.S. government for two years, before starting up on his own again. Prior to Nexus, Sameer was the co-founder and managing partner of Galaxy Exports, a manufacturer of home décor products. The startup currently clocks over $500k in yearly revenues.
Sameer is a post-graduate of Delhi School of Economics, and a qualified Company Secretary (CS).