Dartmouth has announced appointments to two new leadership positions to enhance Dartmouth’s commitment to promoting entrepreneurship and supporting technology transfer from academic research to the private sector for the benefit of the public.

The newly established Office of Entrepreneurship & Technology Transfer will oversee several existing offices, including the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network, Dartmouth Regional Technology Center, and Technology Transfer Office. It will serve as a resource for the Dartmouth community on entrepreneurship, intellectual property, and technology commercialization, and will coordinate with leaders and faculty at all Dartmouth schools and units to support their investigators, promote a culture of entrepreneurship, and help streamline activities and tap new opportunities. This new structure follows the recommendations of two faculty committees led by Martin Wybourne, interim provost and vice provost for research.

The Office of Entrepreneurship & Technology Transfer will be led by Tillman Gerngross, professor of bioengineering at Thayer School of Engineering and biotechnology entrepreneur, who has been appointed associate provost of Entrepreneurship & Technology Transfer. Trip Davis ’90, technology entrepreneur and administrator at the University of Virginia (U.Va.), will serve as the executive director.

In consultation with the provost, Gerngross and Davis will form a steering committee of leaders from across Dartmouth to oversee the Office of Entrepreneurship & Technology Transfer. They also intend to form a faculty advisory council and a commercial advisory council.

Davis will move to Hanover in June to take on his new role as executive director. Since February 2011, Davis has served as the president of the Darden School Foundation at the University of Virginia and senior associate dean for external relations at U.Va.’s Darden School of Business, where he earned his MBA in 1994. Also at U.Va., Davis served as an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship and co-faculty director of the Galant Center for Entrepreneurship at the McIntire School of Commerce from 2007 to 2011. Previously, Davis was an entrepreneur and executive in travel technology and was named one of the top 25 most influential executives in the travel industry in 2002 and 2007 by Business Travel News. Davis co-founded his first venture, Green Room Productions, in 1995 in San Francisco with Dartmouth classmates Eric Butz ’90 and Greg Waldbaum ’90.

About Dartmouth College  

Dartmouth College is a private Ivy League research university located in Hanover, New Hampshire.