Today at Brown

Katherine Gordon comes to Brown from Harvard, where she helped commercialize new technologies. Katherine Gordon, the new managing director of Brown’s Technology Ventures Office (TVO, formerly known as Brown Technology Partnerships), will lead the University in developing, transferring, and commercializing technologies developed by faculty researchers. 

“The Technology Ventures Office is the crucial link between Brown faculty and external partners,” says Vice President for Research Clyde Briant. Such partners, he adds, will include the financial community, entrepreneurs, companies, and Brown’s partner hospitals. “Katherine brings vision and a knowledge of best practices to the important work of translating Brown’s research into products that can benefit society, the Rhode Island economy, and the University.”

“The vibrancy of Brown’s research community provides many avenues for product development,” Gordon says. “It’s a privilege to work on ways to turn Brown research into solutions for real-world problems.”

The investment in TVO is Brown’s latest step in expanding resources to help faculty in the commercialization process. It follows the springtime launch of the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE), a cooperative effort among Providence, the state, Brown, business and economic development officials. RI-CIE supplies expertise to the state’s college and university faculties, as well as to researchers and entrepreneurs who want to launch new companies in Rhode Island.

At Harvard, Gordon oversaw development and commercialization of new technologies from a number of areas at Harvard Medical School and Dental School and had responsibility for establishing and negotiating licensing relationships, comprehensive research alliances, and start-up companies. Previously, Gordon consulted at early-stage biomedical companies on strategic planning, operations/management, and fundraising. She founded and ran Apollo BioPharmaceutics, a biotechnology company that developed neuroprotective compounds for Alzheimer’s disease and ophthalmic indications. She began her career at Genzyme Corp. Gordon earned her Ph.D. at Wesleyan University and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale.