From the Lab to the Market: A Commercialization Conference

From the Lab to the Market: A Commercialization Conference was held on Friday, April 24th, 2009, at the College of Business Administration, University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez Campus. Simultaneous videoconference participation was available at the School of Public Health, UPR Medical Sciences Campus.

Mr. Richard Holdren served as keynote speaker, and presented useful insights on opportunity identification and first funding sources. Mr. Holdren currently owns Appraisal & Mentor Group LLC, a top-3 M & A and healthcare valuation firm with over 2500+ completed assignments including over 200 court valuations. His current investment is a 'virtual incubator' with 'space-act' agreement with NASA to commercialize its phase III SBIR companies with matching venture investment. A serial entrepreneur, he has founded or invested in over 26 healthcare start-ups and was named as 2002 Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation Mentor of the year.

The activity was organized by Grupo Guayacán and sponsored by the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Company (PRIDCO). Grupo Guayacán is a non-for-profit organization in Puerto Rico devoted to entrepreneurial development through education. For more than 10 years one of Grupo Guayacán’s roles has been to identify and facilitate the transfer and permeation of this entrepreneurial knowledge by inviting leading entrepreneurs to speak at several networking events and conferences in Puerto Rico.
Videoconference support at the Medical Sciences Campus site was provided by the RCMI Center for Information Architecture in Research.

