Warwick Ventures expands its team
Warwick Ventures has welcomed two new members of staff to its business development team.
Graeme Staniforth and Laura Lane bring a wealth of skills and experience to the team, which has grown steadily since Warwick Ventures was established as a limited company in 2010.
Having worked with a number of UK universities, Graeme is experienced in working at the interface of academia and business.
Throughout his career he has worked on technical and commercial projects aimed at business development, including writing and implementing business plans, managing IPR and drafting technology transfer agreements for both global and small scale companies.
As a Business Development Manager at Warwick Ventures, Graeme is looking forward to using his technology transfer skills to help drive forward the University of Warwick’s commercial activity.
“Warwick contains a wealth of knowledge within its academic community,” he says. “By using my experience in both industrial and university technology transfer and in business strategic management I’m looking forward to being one of the catalysts involved in helping to turn this knowledge into added reputation and commercial wealth for the academic staff, the University and ideally society as a whole.
Laura, who joins Warwick Ventures as a Business Development Associate, read Natural Science at Jesus College, Cambridge and then pursued a PhD in the Chemical Laboratory at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Carol V Robinson FRS. Her doctorate involved using biophysical techniques such as mass spectrometry to solve puzzling structural biology problems.
Following the completion of her studies Laura was keen to work on the commercial aspects of research and development. Working with the pharmaceutical consultancy Black Swan Analysis, Laura gained experience in developing projects for pharmaceutical, biotechnology and university clients.
“As grant funding in large research institutions becomes harder to find, it’s becoming more important for universities to be more self-reliant and maximise the commercial impact of their intellectual discoveries,” says Laura. “I’m looking forward to helping the University meet its goals in terms of managing its IP assets and working to help our academics realise the impact of their research in the wider environment.