Maria Vanegas and George Coulston have been promoted to senior licensing manager for life sciences and physical sciences respectively at University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute.
University of Pittsburgh’s Innovation Institute has promoted to the rank of senior licensing manager both Maria Vanegas and George Coulston (pictured), licensing managers for the life and physical sciences respectively.
Following the promotions, Vanegas and Coulston will lead their respective teams of licensing managers and associates at the commercialisation hub, while continuing to manage the innovation portfolios accrued during their previous position.
Prior to joining Pittsburgh twelve years ago, Vanegas was a patent liaison for Mayo Clinic Ventures, the investment arm of medical practice Mayo Clinic, having previously taken an internship with the clinic covering tech transfer areas such as patentability, business development and licensing.
Vanegas’s life sciences portfolio at the Innovation Institute spans sub-segments including diagnostics, reagents, vaccines and small molecules.
Meanwhile, Coulston joined the institute in 2016 having gained more than two decades of tech transfer and corporate entrepreneurship experience at industrial foundry and services provider Vesuvius, industrial materials supplier Kennametal and speciality chemicals and materials producer DowDuPont.
Vanegas and Coulston will both report to Alex Ducruet, director of licensing and intellectual property at the institute.
Ducruet said: “As the pace and volume of our activities has increased significantly since the Innovation Institute was formed more than five years ago, we have now taken steps to evolve our organisational structure to better position the Innovation Institute to respond to the demand for our services across campus.
“I am pleased to have such dedicated and talented individuals as Maria and George to fill these newly established roles.”
– Image courtesy of University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute
