VU tech transfer leadership

As VNC reported earlier this week, Vanderbilt University is recruiting a leader for the newly created position of assistant vice chancellor for technology transfer and commercialization, with Korn Ferry's Atlanta's office doing the search. A source tells VNC the University is in discussion with several strong candidates, but that later-arrivers are welcomed, up to a point. VU's office of tech transfer and enterprise development has been led quite a while by Chris McKinney (left). Good chance the new AVC will be inplace by 1 July 2011. VU OTTED has made a visible push the past decade, but increased Administration emphasis on leveraging campus IP -- consistent with global trends -- is likely to benefit city, society and University.

Newsbits: Taxation, VU entrepreneurship and more

In today's roundup, Mike Devlin of Pharos discusses the imminent loss of capital-gains status for carried-interest earnings, Chris McKinney discusses entrepreneurism, a Baker Donelson IP attorney in the spotlight, and more...here.

VU tech-transfer earnings

The City Paper or NashvillePost reports on the mission of Vanderbilt University's Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development, which earned $11 MM in licensing revenue in the year ending June 30, 2009. Previous VNC OTTED coverage here.

VU moves to accelerate commercialization

Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development Director Chris McKinney (left) told us he's "jazzed" about numerous entrepreneurial initiatives underway on the VU campus, helping faculty and staff convert intellectual property into products for end-users -- while, on the big stage, Vanderbilt's principal investigators continue to churn out inventions and innovations through sponsored research in basic sciences. McKinney said initiatives reported in our latest story have been under consideration for years, and now VU is "steppin' on the gas" in a more visible way. The new program does not imitate those of peer institutions, said McKinney, although his staff have examined many such. Here are links to similar programs at Stanford, MIT, Duke, Maryland, Minnesota, Harvard and Washington.