Owens anticipates Wond’ry job

Vanderbilt University has appointed David Owens (pictured), a faculty member at its Owen Graduate School of Management, as the new executive director of its innovation and entrepreneurship centre, the Wond’ry.
Owens, a professor for the practice of management and innovation, will succeed the outgoing executive director Robert Grajewski on July 1. Grajewski has led at initiative since its launch in 2016.
Grajewski’s achievements include forging links between the Wond’ry and industry partners, and Owens will now seek to add further connections to Vanderbilt’s research centres, working closely with tech transfer office, the Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization.
Owens currently acts as the faculty director for Vanderbilt’s Accelerator Summer Business Institute program and holds secondary faculty appointments in the university’s School of Engineering, School of Medicine and Peabody College for education and human development.
He became a Vanderbilt faculty member in 1998, after completing a doctorate in management science and engineering at the institution awarded jointly with Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business and School of Engineering.
Owens’s resume includes a number of corporate leadership roles, including a spell as global director of product development at toy maker Lego’s Serious Play unit from 1999 until 2002, and then as CEO of consumer electronics accessories firm Griffin Technology between 2007 and 2008.
He has also previously provided expertise to US space agency Nasa, museum and research complex Smithsonian and car manufacturer Nissan, as well as confectionary group Mars, chewing gum suppler Wrigley’s, music instrument producer Gibson and design firm Ideo.