The University of Washington has become the latest school to bring in an entrepreneur to head its tech transfer activity. The appointment of Linden Rhoads as vice provost of the UW TechTransfer, the university’s tech transfer unit, may signal a shift in how the state’s largest public university goes about commercializing its cutting-edge research. Unlike her predecessors, Rhoads does not come from the academic ranks. And she is the first true entrepreneur to lead the office, which over the past 26 years has helped create more than 235 companies but has also garnered in some quarters a reputation for being bureaucratic and combative in dealing with potential licensees. In an interview posted on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s web site, Rhoads offered some interesting comments on her perception of UW’s tech transfer shortcomings and her plans for addressing them. Here are a few excerpts:

Question: There has always been some criticism about how tech transfer is handled at the UW. Are you aware of that perception and how are you going to change it?
Answer: “I experienced it first hand on the other side when I was trying to complete a license deal. Tech transfer [offices] sometimes have a reputation as being obstructionist. What we want to do is make the University of Washington one of the best universities to do business with in the nation. And we are not going to rest until we do that.”
Question: What have been the limitations in the past? Why hasn’t more research been spun out of the UW?
Answer: “I think it would be maybe in terms of the experience of interacting with the office of technology transfer…. Particularly with a startup … you are running to market and time is of the essence and you have a limited window. You really need this unit to be responsive. And ‘responsive’ means a very different thing to entrepreneurs and early stage venture capitalists than it historically does to university personnel. So that is one of my challenges, to help them understand exactly what it means for us to be responsive and understand that we have to help these companies to operate on startup time.”
Question: What does your appointment mean for the direction of the TechTransfer unit?
Answer: “Obviously the university decided it was time to go with someone who had experience with entrepreneurship as well as a focus on intellectual property law. But I think that is a brave departure, and it shows that they are really thinking a little bit outside the box and are really dedicated to creating a new climate.”

Go to: Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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