Luca Escoffier graduated in law from the University of Parma, Italy, in 2001. He then earned a Master of Laws in Intellectual Property Law in 2003 (World Intellectual Property Organization [WIPO]). After some years spent in law firms and in an Italian nano-biotech company, he moved to Seattle in 2008 to work as a visiting lecturer at the University of Washington where he also earned a certificate in business administration from the Foster Business School (2010). Between 2008 and 2010, he was one of the editors of the RCLIP IP precedent database, the largest collection of Asian intellectual property (IP) cases in the world. He has been a fellow of the Stanford-Vienna Transatlantic Technology Law Forum since 2006. He was one of the four experts in IP law who had been selected as fellows of the Institute of Intellectual Property in Tokyo in 2009 to write a report on knowledge transfer activities in Europe and Japan, and in 2014, one of the Minerva fellows at the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation (Tokyo) tasked with the drafting of a detailed analysis of the Japanese technology transfer system and about the challenges and opportunities for European small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Mr. Escoffier is a Singularity University alumnus (GSP10), and from 2010, he has been working as an external licensing manager for the University of Trieste, Italy, and as CEO of Usque Ad Sidera LLC (Seattle). Since 2011, he has been the CIO and then advisor to Qurami (Rome), a leading Italian start-up involved in the time-saving business, and from 2012, one of the cofounders of Impact HUB Trieste, Italy, a coworking space and accelerator based in Italy, which fosters social innovation. In 2014, he cofounded Innoventually (Italy), a one-stop source for innovation (and first open innovation-focused Italian company) where every step of the innovation path is handled either by Innoventually or by one of the partners operating from three different continents. Having worked for companies, as cofounder, CEO, consultant, and for universities as licensing manager, and as a scholar in three continents, Luca Escoffier is widely recognized as one of the most knowledgeable tech transfer experts from Italy. Mr. Escoffier is also the Project Manager of a new Tech Transfer Helpdesk that will be launched from 2016 by the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation in Tokyo. Beside being the author of several dozens of articles on IP and technology transfer, he is also the coauthor and coeditor of Nanotechnology Commercialization for Managers and Scientists (Pan Stanford Publishing, 2012), and Commercializing Nanomedicine: Industrial Applications, Patents, and Ethics (Pan Stanford Publishing, 2015).
Adriano La Vopa is a physicist with an International Master in Nanotechnologies (IMN). He worked in a scientific park as leader of innovative projects based on technology transfer of new materials and technologies, mainly consulting Italian enterprises. He managed a start-up involved in amorphous metal casting, a technology transferred from the space sector, as technical business development and production manager. He worked as consultant, partnering with several consultancies, mainly focusing on technology transfer and brokerage; his clients were mainly SMEs seeking to improve their competitiveness by means of innovation and new technology acquisition and implementation. He has been a regulatory affairs manager for LG Electronics, representing the company at the main discussion tables of consumer electronics trade associations and at the European Commission. He is currently employed at Philips where he works in different innovation domains, helping teams in adopting open innovation and its tools.
Phyllis (Phyl) Speser is a founder and CEO of Foresight Science & Technology, a global consultancy in technology transfer, commercialization, and intellectual asset management and supply chain formation with offices in the United States, Great Britain, Chile, and Singapore. She is the author of the best-selling textbook The Art and Science of Technology Transfer (John Wiley and Sons, 2006) and has supported commercialization of technologies across the breadth of science and technology, working for major corporations, SMEs, universities, government agencies, foundations, and research institutes around the globe. During her career of over 35 years, she has taught intellectual property at the SUNY Buffalo Law School, political science at the Universität Mannheim (Germany) and SUNY Buffalo, and archaeology at The American University in Washington, DC; been a multiple federal research and development (R&D) award winner on projects involving artificial intelligence and other advanced methods applied to problems of transitioning and commercialization technology; and a lobbyist (Small Business Innovation Research, Small Business Technology Transfer Research, Stevenson-Wydler amendments, Archaeological Resources Protection Act amendments, point on federal budget for the science community for 10 years, and other legislation and related regulations). She also has been instrumental in the development of technology transfer programs such as the New York State Centers of Excellence as an advisor to Governor Hugh Carey. Dr. Speser is a member of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia, the Association of University Technology Managers (where she was a vice president and member of the board of directors), the Licensing Executives Society (where she was chair, Strategic Alliance Committee), and a member of the Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals. She served two terms on the Board of the Technology Transfer Society and is a recipient of that Society’s Certificate of Appreciation (1991). She also was chairman of its Task Force on National Technology Transfer Policy (1989–1991), and received Best Paper, Annual Meeting (1987). She was a gubernatorial appointment to the Board of the Washington Technology Center from 1994 to 1997. Her PhD and JD, cum laude, are from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and she holds a Registered Technology Transfer Professional certification from the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals. She is a recipient of the Rhododendron Award from the school districts of Port Townsend, Washington, and Mendocino, California, for work in science education and is a founder of the Northwest Natural Resources Group, a foundation supporting sustainable forestry.
Daniel Satinsky is the vice president for business development at Foresight Science & Technology. Among his responsibilities for the company, he leads Foresight’s activities in development (spinning up) and sale of small R&D companies that are based on university, research hospital, government, and nonprofit lab early-stage technologies. He has been instrumental in the initiation and development of three start-up companies and has acted as a business development and market entry consultant to a number of established companies. He has been particularly active in innovation and technology transfer in the Russian Federation. He is a recognized authority on the Russian business environment, particularly on efforts there to build the knowledge-based technology sector. He has authored or coauthored innovation-related articles published by the Woodrow Wilson Center Press, The New York Academy of Sciences, World Trade Executive, and the Thunderbird International Business Review. Mr. Satinsky holds a BA (summa cum laude) from Michigan State University’s James Madison College, a juris doctor degree from Northeastern University Law School, and a Master of Law and Diplomacy degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. For more than 10 years, he served as the president of the board of the U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce of New England. In addition, he is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, a member of the Boston Committee on Foreign Relations, and an associate of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.