TEC Team
High-Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization is a center in the
College of Management at North Carolina State University whose primary focus is
educating business and technical graduate students in entrepreneurship and innovation
so that they understand how to turn technologies into successful businesses.
To facilitate this educational process, the TEC team consists of
· Faculty
· Executives-In-Residences
· Commercialization Analysts.
Faculty
Our faculty is focused on teaching and researching technology management
& commercialization, high technology entrepreneurship, championing and new
venture creation.
Dr. Angus Kingon
Dr. Angus Kingon is a leading materials science professor who holds a joint
position in both the College of Engineering and College of Management. Dr.
Kingon is the Executive Director of Technology Commercialization Programs in
the College of Management.
Dr. Stephen Markham
Dr. Steve Markham is an associate professor and Director of the Center for
Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) in the department of business management at
North Carolina State University. Dr. Markham's research focuses in technology
management and organization behavior, particularly champions' influence upon
technological innovation.
He and Dr. Angus Kingon lead TEC's research into the resource and knowledge gap
between scientific research and appropriate project sponsorship that can
transition laboratory science into the commercial marketplace. The resulting
methodology that was created is our core teaching process called the "TEC
Algorithm".
Dr. Ted Baker
Dr. Ted Baker is the
newest member of the TEC team. Known for his research in
entrepreneurship, with a focus on bricolage, Dr.
Baker comes to NC State from the University of Connecticut and the University
of Wisconsin, Madison where he was the director of the WAVE Program.
Dr. Baker has taken
the role of lead instructor for the TEC sequence of courses and has contributed
greatly to the ongoing evolution and refinement of the TEC Algorithm.
Roger Debo
Mr. Debo is the Managing Director of TEC. Mr. Debo is an instructor in the TEC
course sequence and manages the course
sequence and commercialization clinic.
Russell Thomas
Russell Thomas holds a joint professional position as both a faculty member in
Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (TEC) and Director for
Executive Programs. As a faculty member in TEC, he is an instructor and the Director
of Business Development engaged in mentoring commercialization teams and
reviewing student deliverables, researching technology commercialization and
high tech entrepreneurship, and building new relationships with technology
sources and other complementary organizations involved in the field.
As Interim Director of the recently created Executive Programs, Russell is
responsible for developing the program's strategic plan and is currently
beginning plan implementation. Executive Programs has just launched its first
program, "Management of Technology Executive Series," which is
offered as a multi-module program that facilitates a company's development of
its technology strategy and product platform strategy.
Russell's expertise is teaching and facilitating the processes that allow
organizations and technologists to traverse the "Fuzzy Front End" by
building effective business cases for new technologies. His experiences include
a variety of fields such as color process control, non-invasive acoustical
fetal heart monitoring, intellectual property management software application,
and many others. He has consulted for both "high tech turnaround
projects" and Fortune 500 firms.
Prior to joining the College of Management, he gained strong operations and
budgeting experience by directing the replenishment operations of two
distribution centers with annual purchases valued at over $250 million. In
addition to forecasting and maintaining the official merchandise budgets and
inventory plans valued in the hundreds of millions, he also was responsible for
forecasting annual sales figures for four hundred store retail chain.
Russell has a Master of Technology for International Development from North
Carolina State University focused on technology commercialization and a B.S.
degree in Economics from Northern Illinois University. Currently he is the
president of the Carolinas Chapter of the Product Development and Management
Association (PDMA).
Executives-In-Residence
Our Executives-In-Residence are a group of
professionals that mentor and help guide the graduate student teams through the
complex issues involved in assessing technologies, writing business plans and
starting a company. They include CEOs, business development professionals,
product developers, serial entrepreneurs, attorneys, CPAs, venture capitalists
and consultants. All of our executives have extensive experience in creating
and managing high-technology business ventures.
Commercialization Analysts
Our Venture Creation Executives
are professionals that have extensive experience in assessing technologies and
analyzing industries and markets. Typically these analysts have senior level
experience in multiple start-up companies.