Interview with Jeff Skinner, Executive director at London Business School

Jeff Skinner, Executive Director, Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, London Business School, explains what it takes to make it and how value is build in the biotech industry. Jeff Skinner was in Copenhagen to lecture at the Copenhagen Spin-outs conference in October 2012 and we interviewed him after his lecture.

Jeff Skinner is the Executive Director of the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at London Business School. He also directs a variety of MBA entrepreneurship electives and co-curricula student activities at the School. He is visiting lecturer on Technology Transfer at University College London and at the Graduate School of Economics in Barcelona. Prior to this, as Commercial Director at University College London, he conceived, built and ran UCL’s Technology Transfer division - including the creation of two early-stage seed funds and separate units managing consultancy, collaborative research and new venture creation. Working alongside research students and academics he has co-founded over thirty technology-based spin-outs that have, in aggregate, raised over £30 million first round finance and returned over £20 million to UCL.

He is past President of and remains closely involved with the leading UK & European Tech Transfer Associations (PraxisUnico & ASTP). He teaches and consults widely throughout Europe in the field of technology commercialisation. He Chairs the Professional Recognition panel for the worldwide ‘Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals’.

Before joining UCL he was Technical Marketing Manager at Hoechst Celanese Corporation in New Jersey and prior to that, Photonics Research Manager at General Electric. His first degree was in physics. He holds a PhD in thin-film photonics from University College London and an MBA from London Business School.