Eric Smith

Eric Smith brings with him almost a decade’s worth of technology commercialization experience and a passion for entrepreneurship. He most recently served as the Chief Innovation Officer of Tech Parks Arizona, and prior to that as the Executive Director of the UA Center for Innovation. 

He came to TLA originally in 2016 as the Commercialization Network Manager focused on building and leveraging a network of domain experts and business leaders who consult on university technologies to help reveal their commercial relevance as they are prepared for the market. He also managed TLA's National Science Foundation Innovation-Corps (I-Corps) Site grant program which teaches inventing teams about lean startup methodology and customer discovery. An entrepreneur in his own right, after Eric started, developed and sold his first company, he embarked on a career in various technology startups. Smith holds a BSBA in business management and entrepreneurship and an MBA from the University of Arizona.