Northwest Meets Southwest - UA leaders visit Seattle

Office of Corporate & Business Relations, August 13, 2013
Home to Microsoft, Amazon.com, Costco, Starbucks, Nordstrom's, and many other companies that exhibit technological and management innovation, Seattle is also rich in enthusiastic University of Arizona alumni, many having ascended to significant executive positions. This summer a group from the University of Arizona visited Seattle to host an event called “Northwest Meets Southwest”, an evening of networking and presentations by University leaders.
The goal was to strengthen and expand connections between UA alumni living in Seattle and the University of Arizona. Developed by the creative folks at the Eller College, the UA team included Nancy Smith, Director of Corporate Relations and pictured above: Andrew Comrie, Provost; Jeff Goldberg, Dean of the College of Engineering; Hosts Robert and Diana Murray; Tammy Farris, Associate Director of Development for Eller College; Len Jessup, Dean of the Eller College for Management; and David Allen, Tech Launch VP/Executive Director.
This event allowed plenty of time for informal networking and the discussions identified specific steps for building stronger linkages between the UA and these northwest corporations.
Company Visits
As evidenced by the steady stream of new company inquiries, word is getting out that the University of Arizona is “ready for business” with the establishment of Tech Launch Arizona. Interest has been sparked by the re-engineering of our technology transfer practices, and the introduction of new offerings such as the new Proof-of-Concept program, Arizona Choice (the new IP terms offered to company research sponsors), a new Promotion and Tenure (P&T) program that rewards faculty for their commercialization efforts, to name a few catalysts for the increased queries we have received. In recent weeks we’ve met with long time partners interested in the changes we’ve made. If it has been awhile since your company explored IP licensing, sponsored research, talent linkages, or other collaborations with the University of Arizona, please contact us(link sends e-mail) so we can schedule time to explore possibilities.