Technology commercialization work with start/up & early stage companies and projects to close funding, commercial partnerships, international alliances & joint ventures. At times will help recruit Board Members, Executives, Senior Technologists from my network for client companies..

EDUCATION | BA, MA, MBA (Reading, writing, arithmetic)

HOW TO GET STARTED | A name University is best, Stanford, University of California, University of Chicago, MIT, etc. but hard work and focus on learning is the most important, with a commitment to continuous improvement. Start to work - that is the hardest. Focus, but be opportunistic, if you really want to work on solar but connect with a good energy storage project, then work on that. A love of science and technology is important. Read all you can about clean tech and especially the process to move from a lab phenomena to ramp up to commercial manufacturing and revenue growth. My recent reading includes "Open Innovation" by Henry Chesbrough is a good introduction to the process of successful commercialization of innovation, "Clean Tech Revolution" by Ron Pernick & Clint Wilder is an excellent summary of various domains in Clean Tech and summaries of many companies in the various domains, "The Knowing-Doing Gap" by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton is a good overview of how to turn knowledge into action.

MUST HAVE TRAITS | Love learning, love technology, love markets, like people, self starter, optimist, high energy, opportunistic, focused

how I got started | I got bored with executive recruiting and decided to get into business development when nanotechnology looked hot in 2000 - big Federal funding for the National Nanotechnology Initiative. Reached out through my network and started working with nanotechnology materials & coatings projects and the applications focus included better catalysts to clean auto exhausts, thin film solar cells, fuel cell membranes, water purification membranes, etc.

why this job?| Combination of concern for the environment, interested in learning about a wide range of technologies & markets, a lot of freedom to work on what I want and how I want, and high value add (compensation for work).

why I love this job!| Control over who I work with, what I do, and when I work. Meeting smart, committed, intelligent people. Puzzling out a good business strategy.

my typical day| On line from 7AM to 10PM, respond to immediate client needs - usually follow up on funding, customer, or competition questions & concerns. Then a couple of hours for on-line research, mostly solar, ocean energy, and water at present. Then phone or face time meetings with clients or investors. Then check various linked-in groups, CleanTech, University of Chicago Alumni, etc. for interesting business leads. In the evening very often attend investor or clean tech forums, seminars, symposiums, often two or three per week in Silicon Valley.

what they are | Unreasonable and/or unrealistic entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, customers, need to rapidly learn new technologies and markets, feast or famine nature of work, willingness to cold call, ability to hear NO 100 times until you get to YES.

all about growth | Can start with a science, business, or social science degree, first job is often the key, finding a good mentor helps a lot to accelerate your career. Growing global need to commercialize technology and as regions, industries, countries want to move up the value chain in manufacturing and services. Many opportunities. Ladder can be finance - VC, private equity; or government - national labs, department/program managers (NSF, DOE, etc.), university technology commercialization organizations, large corporate business development groups, etc. Or law - especially intellectual property. Or marketing or sales.

my website| http://www.usnano.biz