Tag: technology transfer

Foresight President and COO Announces His Retirement

Posted on by

It is with mixed emotions we announce the retirement of Norton Kaplan, our beloved President and COO. His last day with the company is December 29, 2023.

Norton’s outstanding leadership and operational expertise for more than 14 years have had a lasting effect on our organization. We will remember Norton for his many accomplishments, which include developing the Senior Consultant Service Model, growing the Foresight staff into a powerhouse in the industry, and nurturing the founder’s focus on exceptional value for our customers. On behalf of the entire organization, we would like to extend our gratitude and thanks to Norton for his many years of service.

“I am grateful for the many years of trust and support that I have received from the professional staff, the Foresight Board of Directors, and our many dedicated consultants and customers. I am confident that Alyssa, Konstantin, and the team will continue the good work that Foresight is known for. I will miss my work family and wish everyone continued success,” said Norton Kaplan.

As we transition to a new management team, we welcome back Arendt Oak Speser to the Foresight team. Arendt will take on the role of CEO, effective immediately. We are very excited to have him back and look forward to continuing to serve our clients and partners.

-Foresight Science & Technology Board of Directors

FLC Virtual Meeting- Successful and Engaging in Remote Era

Posted on by

Posted April 13, 2021 By: Reda El Alami

On April 6 – 8, 2021 Foresight Science & Technology attended the 2021 Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) National Meeting which was held in a virtual format. In an increasingly connected, yet remote era the virtual conference was a pleasant and refreshing take on bringing minds together to learn interesting material from industry experts in an inviting format.

The three-day event consisted of several concurring sessions covering topics from ‘T2 for beginners’ to ‘Investment crowdfunding as a tool for T2 initiatives’ and aside from the occasional glitch, the event was well put together and the sessions were properly paced with ample time to answer key questions at the end from attendees.

Hearing from industry leaders and learning trends in specific regions of the country and various labs really made the content interesting as I was not aware that Iowa was seeking to diversify its investments from agriculture to high tech/fin tech; or that North Dakota was becoming a hub for tech funding. Hearing from investors that life science investments are on the rise due to the high risk and extremely high reward on the exit and learning that there is a finite market for tech buyers (ex: phones/computers) but everyone is at one time or another a buyer/user of life science technologies excites investors and compels them to consider riskier investments.

All things considered, the three-day virtual conference was very well done and I would gladly attend any other FLC virtual events in the future.

Exhibit at AUTM 2020

Posted on by

UPDATE: Due to the unfortunate cancellation of the AUTM Annual Meeting, Foresight will no longer be in San Diego during the planned dates. Feel free to reach out to learn more about our services, such as the Original Go/NoGo Report! We look forward to seeing you all at future events.

Foresight Science & Technology will be exhibiting at the 2020 AUTM Annual Meeting taking place March 8-11 in San Diego, CA. If you will be in attendance come by Booth 607 to learn more about Foresight’s Market Assessment reports and celebrate our 40 year anniversary with us!

 

The rundown on AUTM Asia 2019

Posted on by

Posted November 14, 2019 By: Konstantin Izvolsky

On November 5-7, 2019 Foresight Science & Technology attended AUTM Asia-2019 conference in Jerusalem, Israel. This conference provided a great platform for technology transfer professionals from Asia to share the best practices and address the challenges related to the transfer of technologies from the university laboratories to the marketplace. Israel, the location of this year’s conference, is known for its high quality of academic research and dynamic innovation ecosystem. The host nation was represented by the large number of attendees from local universities and technology transfer companies. China and Thailand were also represented by large delegations of technology transfer managers and researchers. Interesting discussions were focused on the analysis of best practices in establishing university-based innovation centers and incubators, improving the efficiency of faculty outreach, comparison of alternative business models for academic technology transfer, including Technology Transfer Offices vs. Technology Transfer Companies. As always, part of the AUTM Asia conference was dedicated to technology transfer career development. The conference also addressed the key international events which affect the global collaboration and technology commercialization, including US-China trade war.  The last day of the conference included very interesting pitch presentations from several Israeli venture funds and incubators, including aMoon- the largest Israeli life sciences venture fund, LabsO2, VLX and Nextar. The conference offered opportunities for networking as well as social events such as the tour of the Israel ecosystem.

Foresight Trains University on Commercialization

Posted on by

On December 13 and 14, 2018 Foresight’s Dr. Konstantin Izvolsky, Director of Consulting and Training, and Mr. Norton Kaplan, President, visited the University of South Dakota GEAR Center to provide Commercialization 101 (COMM 101) training to technology transfer office (TTO) staff, faculty, and graduate students. Foresight’s COMM 101 Course is designed to target the broad audiences with the various levels of technology commercialization experience and help TTO staff, faculties and young entrepreneurs to better assess and market the technologies originating in the university laboratories from the conceptual stage to commercialization. The COMM 101 training assists in technology evaluation and identification of commercially viable technologies, defining the value proposition and appropriate application, interactions with potential commercialization partners.

The training was well received by the USD audience. Over two days, participants were actively engaged in discussions covering various aspects of technology commercialization making it interactive and fun experience. Foresight team wishes all the best to out USD friends and is looking forward to providing more commercialization support to USD and other universities in the future!