PCI - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Legal Affairs
Job Titles:
- Accountant
- Financial Analyst
Job Titles:
- Associate Vice Provost for Research and Managing Director
Dr. Dibling heads the licensing and corporate contracts teams at the Penn Center for Innovation. His teams are responsible for working closely with faculty, staff and students to evaluate, protect and commercialize Penn inventions and discoveries, and to support engagement with industry.
Dr. Mohanraj manages a portfolio of life sciences companies, partnering with Penn faculty, researchers, and staff to build startups around innovative medical devices, therapeutics, and diagnostic technologies.
Prior to joining PCI Ventures, Bhavana was the Director of R&D for Biorez, an early-stage regenerative medicine company, where she developed implants for the sports medicine market. Her interest in entrepreneurial ventures developed during her time in academia, where she co-founded a startup based on a drug delivery system to improve orthopedic tissue repair.
Bhavana graduated with a B.S. and M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Technology
Job Titles:
- Assistant General Counsel
Denene joined Penn's Office of General Counsel in 2012 and began working as part of the Corporate Alliances team at PCI in 2013. Denene provides legal support to the Corporate Alliances team in managing various industry and not-for-profit alliances at Penn.
Denene's responsibilities include drafting/negotiating legal terms of research and development alliances; managing contractual, licensing, and technology transfer obligations associated with existing industry alliances; and providing legal counsel and advice to Penn faculty and staff associated with alliance programs. Denene has expertise is negotiating and managing transactions across many aspects of translational research, including early stage bench research, pre-clinical research, and clinical research and development. Denene is honored to partner with and to provide legal support to various translational research facilities at Penn, such as Penn's cell processing, manufacturing, and process development facilities.
Denene received her undergraduate and law degrees from Temple University. Before attending law school, Denene was a research technician in neuroscience and neuropsychology laboratories.
Job Titles:
- Associate General Counsel
- Associate Director, Legal Affairs at the Penn Center for Innovation
- Member of the National Association of Colleges and University Attorneys
Elizabeth ("Liz") Lai Featherman is Associate Director, Legal Affairs at the Penn Center for Innovation, as well as an Associate General Counsel of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Featherman is a member of the National Association of Colleges and University Attorneys (NACUA) and ChIPs. She is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Corporate Contracts
Job Titles:
- Senior Intellectual Property Paralegal
Job Titles:
- Revenue Distributions Analyst
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- Associate Director of Programming at Pennovation Works
Jaime is Associate Director of Programming at Pennovation Works. She acts as the community's relationship manager, develops entrepreneurial seminars and workshops, manages the Mentor-In-Residence program, and coordinates events with JPOD @ Philadelphia and 76 Forward.
Jaime graduated from Temple University where she received her B.A. in Film and Media Arts. She also earned a certificate from the Temple's Fox School of Business - Innovation & Entrepreneurship Institute.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of the Corporate Alliances Team
- Executive Director, Corporate Alliances
Jim is the Executive Director of the Corporate Alliances team at PCI and has worked in technology partnering, licensing and commercialization at Penn since 2008. His team leads business development, strategy, negotiation, execution, alliance management and oversight of large, innovative and mutually beneficial strategic alliances for Penn with many corporate, non-profit and foundation partners.
Jim and his team pioneer and build innovative translational alliance programs with the goal to align fundamental inventions with teams of scientists and business people to develop innovative and impactful technology solutions for some of society's biggest problems and challenges. The alliance program partnerships have generated significant basic research, manufacturing development, clinical trial funding and licensing revenue to Penn, and resulted in the creation of multiple start-up companies based in the Philadelphia area and elsewhere that have collectively raised substantial equity financing and in numerous cases have gone public. These partnerships have resulted in the approval of two transformative new products with many other products under active development.
Jim received his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from The University Chicago and a B.A. (double major) in Biology and Economics from The University of Virginia. He is also a registered U.S. patent agent. Prior to joining Penn, Jim worked for a biotechnology company in the Philadelphia area working in a business development and intellectual property management capacity.
Jay is responsible for PCI's financial operations, including finance strategy, metrics and controls, and reporting of financial results.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operations Officer & Executive Director, IP
Job Titles:
- Executive Administrative Assistant to Associate Vice Provost for Research & Managing Director & Deputy Managing Director
Job Titles:
- Penn 's Chief Innovation Officer
Dr. Swartley heads the team at PCI. He leads the outreach to faculty and all commercialization activities, as well as collaborations with industry and the investment community on a local, regional, and national basis.
Job Titles:
- Associate General Counsel
Job Titles:
- Financial Analyst
- Senior Accountant
Job Titles:
- Senior Business Systems Analyst
Job Titles:
- Chief Marketing, Communications, and Programs Officer
Laurie is responsible for the implementation and execution of PCI's services and partnerships within the University and leads PCI's branding, marketing, and communications with internal and external stakeholders.
Job Titles:
- Administration and Finance Officer
Job Titles:
- Intellectual Property Compliance Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Administrative Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Intellectual Property Compliance Manager
Job Titles:
- Director of Licensing and Corporate Contracts
Mr. Poisel is responsible for managing PCI Ventures, including transitioning technologies into start-up companies, assisting the principal investigators with funding strategies including grant applications, as well as mentoring the developing companies.
Prior to UPenn, Michael made investments in enterprise software and business services for NewSpring Capital, Apax Partners and GE Capital spanning more than ten years in private equity. He began his career in manufacturing operations for General Electric/Lockheed Martin and participated in the successful completion of several commercial and government satellite programs.
Michael graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, holds an M.S. in Systems Engineering from The Moore School of Engineering of the University of Pennsylvania, and has an M.B.A. in finance and entrepreneurial management from The Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Program and Compliance Manager
Michael joined Penn in 2018. As the Program and Compliance Manager for the Alliance group, Michael works to ensure Penn is meeting its obligations to partners under its active Alliance programs. Working closely with Penn investigators, alliance managers/licensing officers, and other groups within the Penn Center for Innovation, Michael supports alliance management and partner relationships for alliance programs.
Before joining PCI, Michael worked for seven years as a professional Japanese translator and interpreter, specializing in legal and business issues. Working closely with clients and attorneys, Michael helped to both support legal representation of U.S. clients in Japan as well as develop and manage U.S. and Japanese business relationships.
Michael also lived and worked in Japan for five years and has a B.A. in East Asian Studies from Dickinson College.
Job Titles:
- Human Resources and Operations Manager
Job Titles:
- Director, IP and Operations
Job Titles:
- Director, Penn Medicine Co - Investment Program
Job Titles:
- Senior Intellectual Property Paralegal
Bob joined PCI in 2019, and has been involved for more than 20 years in commercial biotechnology at firms of varying size and culture. He is knowledgeable about intellectual property strategy from the inventor's perspective. Bob's range of technological experience includes molecular design, synthesis, pharmacology, gene therapy, and drug development. He is the inventor of veledimex, the first clinical transcriptional activator for gene therapy.
Bob received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago and was an N.I.H. postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (E.T.H.). Bob is PMP certified.
Job Titles:
- Director, Special Business Projects
Job Titles:
- Marketing & Communications Manager
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- Financial Administrative Coordinator
Job Titles:
- Director of Innovation & Technology
Job Titles:
- Senior Intellectual Property Paralegal
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Licensing, Physical Sciences and Engineering
Job Titles:
- Program Director, PCI Fellows and I - Corps
Job Titles:
- Accountant
- Financial Analyst