Thursday, March 9, 2006

USC Appoints Head of Commercialization Institute

The University of Southern California has named a new director to head the new, USC Mark and Mary Stevens Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization. The university said today that Krisztina Holly, the former executive director of MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, will head the new institute. The institute is focused on commercialization of USC technology, and is expected to have a staff of 25 within two years. USC said that Holly will reach out to venture capital and angel investors locally, as well as work with entrepreneurs and others at the earlier stages of technology transfer. Holly was the founding executive director of MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, which supports MIT faculty and students in technology transfer. The USC Stevens Institute was created through a gift from Mark A. Stevens, a USC alumnus who is a partner at venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.

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