Cengiz Tarhan will step down from his role as managing director of UCL Business at the end of this month, 25 years after he established tech transfer office.
Cengiz Tarhan (pictured), the managing director of University College London’s wholly-owned commercialisation company UCL Business (UCLB), will retire at the end of this month.
Tarhan established UCLB in 1993 and over 25 years remained personally involved in many spinouts and licence agreements.
UCLB was initially known as UCL Biomedica but rebranded after its merger with internal university department UCL Business in 2007.
Tarhan’s personal achievements include the flotation of polymer coating developer PolyMasc, which became the first spinout ever to list on Aim in 1995, and the sale of healthcare software Map of Medicine to diversified media company Hearst in 2008.
During his tenure, UCLB also helped launch the $70m UCL Technology Fund, which invests in the university’s spinouts. Global University Venturing recently interviewed David Grimm, one of the fund’s managers, for an in-depth look at how the vehicle approaches deals.
UCLB’s recent successes include genetic medicine developer Orchard Therapeutics, which filed to raise approximately $173m in an initial public offering earlier this month after winning Deal of the Year at this year’s GUV Awards for a $110m series B round.
Tarhan will be replaced in an interim capacity by Anne Lane, currently UCLB’s executive director, effective November 1. Lane has held the position of executive director since 2003.