U of T medical school starts entrepreneur-in-residence program to accelerate research commercialization

The University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine has launched a new entrepreneur-in-residence program to advise faculty on commercializing their research and bringing healthcare innovations to market.

Jarrod Ladouceur, the industrial partnerships officer at the University of Toronto (U of T), said the program is being funded with a portion of a $250-million donation from James and Louise Temerty in September 2021. The donation was the largest in the university's history and Meric Gertler, U of T's president, said it will be "transformational" for healthcare research.

Ladouceur says the entrepreneurs-in-residence will be business leaders who have the experience, resources and networks to help commercialize research-based startups. The entrepreneurs will stay at the school for one-year terms, he added.

“Examples might be serial entrepreneurs that have helped commercialize research-based startups in the past, investors, some medical professionals that have commercialization experience,” he said. “In some cases, we're looking for senior executives that have experience bringing new technologies to market within major corporations.”

During their terms, the entrepreneurs will work with faculty for up to 200 hours to identify commercialization milestones that they want to achieve. For example, they might develop a pitch deck to raise money for a start-up, Ladouceur said.

The current four entrepreneurs-in-residence are:

• Dr. Martin Croteau, an angel investor and a member of the founding team of Slipstream Data, which was acquired by Blackberry.
• Ran Manor, the director of innovation at Baycrest Health Sciences.
• John Haslam, the president and founder of HEARD Consulting International.
• Vigen Nazarian, an angel investor, cofounder of four companies and an advisor for several public and private organizations, including the McMaster Innovation Park, the University of Toronto Innovation Cube accelerator and Protagenic Therapeutics.

Laudouceur said the program will target faculty who are already involved in commercializing their research — such as licensing their technology — and are looking to accelerate the process.

“They’re not necessarily Elon Musk or anything. But they understand the value of commercialization and it’s something they are motivated to do. It’s not something they’re exploring,” he said.

The university will add four more entrepreneurs to the program in the next year once they better understand the needs of faculty, according to Laudouceur.

Proposals to work with the entrepreneurs-in-residence were due at the end of January. The first meetings with faculty will begin in late February or early March.

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