Peter Donnelly has joined Stony Brook University as the new Director of the Office of Technology Licensing and Industry Relations in the Office of the Vice President for Research. In this role, he will provide the strategic vision and drive to build and lead creative institutional efforts to actively develop markets for science and technology commercialization. Working closely with faculty and students, as well as professional organizations, private sector entities and other institutions, Donnelly will promote entrepreneurship and innovation across disciplines to present executable goals for maximizing overall technology commercialization and industrial relations for Stony Brook researchers.
Donnelly has built a career in technology innovation and entrepreneurship. He has a passion for pursuing the translation of research into public benefit and embedding innovation in organizational culture. His experience includes entrepreneurial, corporate, academic and government ventures in many disciplines (life sciences, technology and physical sciences) and industries. His areas of experience include evaluating and building innovation projects and portfolios, founding and leading technology-based startups, and building results-oriented teams.
Prior to joining Stony Brook University, Donnelly was the Deputy Director of the Office of Technology Development and Commercialization at Argonne National Laboratory, where he led identification, development, portfolio management and commercialization of promising early stage technologies in energy, materials, high performance computing and life sciences through partnership with Argonne scientists, industry and the innovation ecosystem, including entrepreneurs and venture capital. In a second technology commercialization role at a research institution, Donnelly was the Associate Director of the University of Iowa Research Foundation, where he was also adjunct MBA faculty focused on innovation. In the AD role, he focused on building innovation portfolio value, investing technology acceleration funds into high ROI projects, intellectual property assessment and development, and building a startup program. The majority of the UI portfolio was in life sciences.
Between Argonne and the University of Iowa, Donnelly led the Greater China consulting practice in innovation and product development for Accenture in Shanghai for two years. He had broad responsibility for innovation and product development consulting for Global 2000 corporations in Greater China. In addition, he led a major Accenture initiative to build a sustainable innovation pipeline that delivered significant revenue and embed innovation within corporate culture. Projects included life sciences, clean tech, cloud computing, mobile platforms, big data and analytics, consumer goods, retail, banking, transportation, digital production and channel management.
Donnelly also has extensive startup experience. He was the CEO of Intronn, an early-stage biotech firm pioneering RNA trans-splicing therapeutics (HDL and LDL cholesterol, Hemophilia A, monoclonal antibodies). The company raised venture capital and grants totaling $20 million and had two pre-clinical programs with a significant first-mover patent portfolio (40+). He led the successful sale of the company. Donnelly was also a co-founder and COO of Jax Holdings Inc, a startup company based on proprietary, one-way imaging of transparent surfaces utilizing thin-film technologies. With the executive management team, he raised $30 million in venture capital and grew the company to $10 million in revenue and 26 employees. In addition, both independently and as a Portfolio Manager for the Maryland Technology Development Corporation, he has been engaged as a consultant by the founders of more than 50 technology startups.
Prior to these posts, Donnelly had rigorous early professional development in strategy, analysis and execution with Intel and The Boston Consulting Group. At Intel, he joined a skunk works project in the mobile semiconductor product group charged with reducing the design cycle of notebook computers and expanding sales of microprocessors in this market. With the Boston Consulting Group, a top-tier international strategic management consulting company, Donnelly worked on a diverse range of strategy projects for leading international corporations.
Donnelly earned an MS in Biotechnology and an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and an MA in Applied Economics from the University of Michigan. He has a BA in Economics, Political Science, and Psychology from Claremont McKenna College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
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