Cornwell Named Associate Vice Chancellor For Commercialization

Brett Cornwell has been appointed associate vice chancellor for commercialization for The Texas A&M University System. He previously served as the system’s director of commercialization services.

In his new role, Cornwell will direct the Office of Technology Commercialization. The OTC commercializes the intellectual property of the Texas A&M System and creates new companies that develop products and services around system-developed technologies. The OTC obtains intellectual property protection for system inventions to create licensing opportunities for industry partners. Services provided for spin-out companies from the OTC include market assessments, business plan development and the development of venture pitches.

“The dynamic evolution of our commercialization projects will move to even higher levels thanks to Brett’s remarkable abilities and experience. He has been a very strong addition to our team and in his new position will only increase his service to the system and to the state of Texas,” said Dr. Brett P. Giroir, vice chancellor for research.

Cornwell brings with him 18 years’ experience in technology transfer and two years’ experience with small companies as sales and marketing manager. He has led a number of international technology commercialization benchmarking and training projects including projects with CONACYT in Mexico, Innovisa in Portugal, The University of Otago in New Zealand, and ProTon in Europe.

He was a program coordinator for the NASA Mid-Continent Technology Transfer Center (MCTTC) for 10 years and served as the deputy director for three. At MCTTC, his experience and knowledge was used to write marketing studies for new technologies, outreach to companies, and define market opportunities and barriers for potential licensees.

Cornwell holds an MBA from Texas A&M University and a BBA in marketing from Baylor University.