Rochester Institute of Technology picks Plourde

Wayne Plourde has been appointed director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

Plourde joins from the University of California, where he was a senior intellectual property officer. RIT’s press release did not specify which campus Plourde worked at, but an employee with the same name and rank recently left UC Davis’ Innovation and Technology Commercialization office.

Plourde has worked in academia and industry, where he has worked for Valeant Pharmaceutical, Goodwin Proctor and Pfizer. He has a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry and a law degree.

At RIT, Plourde will be responsible for overseeing RIT’s intellectual property assets and managing campus-wide entrepreneurial programmes.

Plourde says: “Intellectual property is about economic development, and RIT is positioned to meet the technology demands—and what I mean by that is—the licensing and technology transfer demands of the 21st century. I see a lot of room for growth for the team and a university like RIT with endless growth possibilities.

“It is critical in an academic setting because that is the way you drive revenue back to the university and the researcher’s lab, those two entwined entities, and under the main auspices of economic development, you’re driving revenue back to the community and the region. Technology can help create jobs. It can raise the university’s profile, attracting talent and driving the economy forward.”