Jon Soderstrom will step down as managing director of Yale University’s tech transfer office tomorrow after 25 years in the job.

Jon Soderstrom, managing director of Yale University’s Office of Cooperative Research (OCR), is set to step down from the position tomorrow.
Soderstrom will become strategic adviser for technology transfer and commercialisation in Yale’s Office of the Provost.
The university has launched a national search for a new leader of the OCR, and named associate provost for research, Lisa D’Angelo, as interim managing director.
Soderstrom’s decision to step down follows a 25-year career leading Yale’s commercialisation efforts that spawned more than 75 companies with over $2bn in venture capital and another $7bn in public equity financing based on the university’s intellectual property.
Before joining Yale in 1996, Soderstrom was director, program development and externally sponsored research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for just under two years, having already been a researcher at the laboratory from 1980 to 1985.
Among Soderstrom’s achievements is also a term as president of Autm from 2008 to 2009.
Soderstrom is also a founder and board member of AVX, a joint effort by the tech transfer offices of Yale and the universities of Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Stanford, Chicago, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Washington University to pair entrepreneurs with spinouts.
Soderstrom said: “Over these last 25 years, I have witnessed ideas transform into successful companies, watched scientists become entrepreneurs, and seen passions become tangible impact. The work we do is important, it requires perseverance, and it truly takes a village to accomplish. I will forever be grateful to have been part of that village.”
– Image courtesy of Yale University

Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).