Discovery to Product director search narrows

Three finalists have been selected for director of UW–Madison’s Discovery to Product (D2P) office.

D2P, located within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, provides a front door to entrepreneurs and innovators on campus to help them find and leverage resources, foster collaborations between UW–Madison and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, accelerate the commercialization of campus innovations, and help transform the campus culture to cultivate entrepreneurship, startups and commercialization of innovations. D2P is located at 1403 University Ave.

The finalists are:

Dan Blake, a founding partner and director of investor relations at HealthX Ventures, a venture capital firm located in Madison. Blake previously was a director of the Wisconsin Technology Council and has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Denver.

Andy Richards, chief of staff for the vice chancellor for research and graduate education and interim director of D2P. Richards previously was a senior special assistant to the president for strategic initiatives and chief of staff for the president at the University of Wisconsin System. He has a master’s degree in business administration from UW–Milwaukee and a master’s in public policy and administration from UW–Madison’s La Follette School of Public Affairs.

Laura Strong, founder of Propagate Health, a health care innovation network with an associated venture fund, as well as adjunct faculty in the UW–Madison Masters in Biotechnology program. Strong was a founder as well as president and chief operations officer of Quintessence Biosciences in Madison. She has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from UW–Madison.

“D2P plays an integral role on the UW–Madison campus in helping faculty, staff and students take their aspirations and discoveries to successful commercialization,” says Norman Drinkwater, interim vice chancellor for research and graduate education. “I’m thankful to Nick Tincher, assistant vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer for the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, for leading the search team for the next director of this important entrepreneurial position on campus.”

Drinkwater says the search process is expected to wrap up in February.