Exec. Dir. and Chief Innovation and Corporate Officer, Office of Innovation and Corporate Relations

Executive Director and Chief Innovation and Corporate Officer, Office of Innovation and Corporate Relations

Position Summary

The University of Oklahoma is seeking an experienced, dynamic, and visionary leader to craft and implement a framework for supporting the University of Oklahoma’s objectives of enhanced technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, regional economic development, and partnerships with private sector corporations and investors.

The Chief Innovation and Corporate Officer (CICO) is a senior-level administrator responsible for creating and managing the new Office Innovation and Corporate Relations (OICP) that integrates the university’s offices and efforts in technology commercialization, entrepreneurship, and corporate partnerships for sponsored research and education. Reporting to the Vice Presidents for Research and Partnerships at the OU Norman and OU Health Sciences Center Campuses, the CICO will stand up the new OICP with the synergistic goals of:

• Enhancing OU’s ability to engage strategically with private sector companies interested in research and educational partnerships and growing private sector sponsored research at all three of OU’s campuses.
• Working with the Governor’s office, state and local chambers of commerce, the Innovation District, entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders to help attract new companies into the Norman, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa metro areas to enhance local and regional economic development.
• Enhancing the university’s management of Intellectual property and commercialization of technologies in order to facilitate corporate and private sector engagement and enhanced licensing of OU technologies.
• Working with faculty, staff, and students to grow the local entrepreneurial community on the OU campuses and surrounding communities to enhance the university’s ability to launch new companies based on OU Intellectual Property.

The CICO will work closely with the university’s Office of Advancement and with select offices in the State of Oklahoma to build productive relations between OU faculty, staff and students and private sector corporations and to facilitate the establishment of strategic research partnerships in key areas of mutual interest. In addition, the CICO will have expertise in negotiating Intellectual Property (IP), and will serve as the university’s senior IP officer. In this capacity, s/he will work closely with the office of legal counsel, the research offices at the Norman and HSC campuses, and others as appropriate to ensure smooth and timely negotiation of the university’s position relative to potential new IP created through research partnerships with industry. In addition to a focus on research partnerships, and working with OU Online, the CICO will ensure that companies approaching the university through the OICP portal will have access to all that OU has to offer when it comes to online workforce training and development.

In addition, the CICO coordinates technology transfer for the entire university and is responsible for managing all OU technology transfer and commercialization operations. He or she oversees a portfolio of hundreds of pieces of intellectual property, including patents and commercial copyrights, and it is expected that under his or her tenure, invention disclosures, new issued patents, and new royalty-generating licenses will all increase significantly over current numbers. He or she will build productive relations with OU faculty, staff, and students to facilitate the process of disclosing new inventions, evaluating the potential for, and patenting of new IP as appropriate, and negotiating the licensing of OU IP to third parties.

The CICO leads a staff of professionals including individuals with PhDs, JDs, and MBAs and is responsible for organizational planning, hiring, and evaluation of this staff. The position reports to the OU-Norman and OU-HSC Vice Presidents for Research and Partnerships.

Professional Requirements

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or higher in a scientific, business, or other related discipline (MBA, JD, PhD) with at least five years of relevant experience.
• Knowledge and experience with intellectual property, technology transfer, and licensing.
• Demonstrated ability to comprehend scientific and technical systems as well as business needs. Track record of creativity, flexibility, and initiative in planning, launching, and executing projects and products for commercial markets.
• Knowledge of federal, state, and higher education institutional rules and regulations.
• Collaborative mind-set and congenial nature to network and work effectively with faculty, staff, students, administrators, outside companies, and other external partners.
• Strong negotiating skills and knowledge of industry practices, with an ability to participate in, advise and oversee negotiations, drafting, and execution of agreements.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively – to present ideas, both in writing and orally, in an understandable, non-technical manner, with internal and external constituencies. 
• Ability to function successfully in a matrixed, collaborative environment.
• Excellent oral/written communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with conflicts of interest issues in an academic environment.
• Industry research experience.

For more information:

https://hr.ou.edu/Jobs/Executive-Talent-Search

About the University of Oklahoma

Created by the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a doctoral degree-granting research university serving the educational, cultural, economic, and health-care needs of the state, region, and nation. The Norman campus serves as home to all of the university’s academic programs except health-related fields.

The OU Health Sciences Center, which has academic and clinical programs in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and across the state, is one of the most comprehensive academic health centers in the nation with seven professional colleges, the state’s largest clinical group practice OU Physicians, and research centers such as the NCI designated Stephenson Cancer Center and the Harold Hamm Diabetes Center. The OU Health Sciences Center is closely affiliated with the non-profit OU Medicine health system, which includes OU Medical Center, the Children’s Hospital, and OU Medical Center Edmond, and provides essential clinical services across adult and pediatric specialties. Both the Norman and Health Sciences Center colleges offer academic programs at the Schusterman Center, the site of OU-Tulsa.

OU enrolls almost 32,000 students, has more than 2,800 full-time faculty members, and has 21 colleges offering 172 majors at the baccalaureate level, 156 majors at the master’s level, 81 doctoral-level majors and 54 graduate certificates. The university’s annual operating budget is $2.05 billion. The University of Oklahoma is an EO/Affirmative Action institution http://www.ou.edu/eoo/. Individuals with disabilities and protected veterans and are encouraged to apply. 

The University of Oklahoma is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Protected veterans and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.