Jay Schrankler has been promoted to associate vice-president of technology commercialisation and new ventures at University of Minnesota, the Star Tribune reported today.
Working in its Office for Technology Commercialisation (OTC), Schrankler was appointed executive director for the university’s OTC in 2007, having joined from industrials product manufacturer Honeywell.
He worked at Honeywell for 26 years, during which time he ran the $1.5bn environmental controls business, in addition to other roles.
In 2016, the OTC launched a record 17 spinouts, which Schrankler attributed in part to the launch of the office’s venture fund, Discovery Capital Investment Program, which invests in startups from the university.
The inception of Min-Corps, a development program for entrepreneurial students and faculty members, was also cited as contributing to its success.
Future plans include the launch of Discovery Nexus, a new facility that will house the Venture Exchange, providing working space for spinouts, coaching and mentoring.
The facility will be located near OTC offices in the university’s McNamara Alumni Center building.
He said: “Part of our offices will be there. There is going to be a big meeting and gathering space. We are going to have all sorts of networking events.”
Describing the fund, he added: “It is a matching fund so we only invest if there [are] other qualified investors. We have the outside entities that are investing take the lead or develop the term sheet. It has to be validated on the outside.
“We have invested in five or six companies. More are coming very soon. We have invested around $2m and they have [received] matches of around $13-$14m. So it has got a great leverage in terms of attracting capital for our spinouts.”
– Image courtesy of University of Minnesota
