Christian leads and oversees the centre's commercial strategy in particular the development, growth and maintenance of partnerships with industry and the commercialisation of INFANT innovations. He has more than 15 years experience in strategic and operational innovation management, research commercialisation, IP management, business development and industrial-academic research collaboration in food and life-sciences in UK and Ireland and is bringing this experience and expertise and support Infant’s mission to have significant economic societal impact.
Christian joined INFANT in July 2016 and leads the Centre commercial strategy in particular the development, growth and maintenance of partnerships with industry and the commercialisation of INFANT innovations to the market.
Previous to this role, Christian worked for Enterprise Ireland’s Research & Innovation Division to maximise the commercialisation of public funded research and supporting market-led industrial-academic collaboration in lifesciences and food sectors. In particular he led the development of a number of nationally significant strategic innovation centres for the food and healthcare sectors such as the Dairy Processing Technology Centre and Health Innovation Hub Ireland. He was also a senior commercialisation manager leading the EI spin-out portfolio of High Potential Start-Ups (HPSUs) in lifesciences and food.
Prior to joining EI, he was the Manager of the UCC BioInnovation Centre, a bioincubation facility for start-up biotechnology companies and the life sciences & food IPR portfolio hub of the UCC Technology Transfer Office.
Before taking this post Christian worked for as the Business Development & Alliances Manager for one the BBSRC Research Institutions, IGER (UK), with responsibility for commercialisation and strategic business development and was co-founder of an agri-food diagnostics start-up.
Career Profile:
- 2006-2016 Senior Commercialisation Executive, Research & Innovation, Enterprise Ireland
- 2004-2006 Commercial Manager, BioInnovation Centre & BioTransfer Unit, UCC
- 2000-2004 Business Development & Alliances Manager, BBSRC Institute for Grassland & Environmental Research, UK
- 2000 PhD - Biotechnology, University of Manchester, UK
- 1996 MSc (Eng) -Biochemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, UK
- 1995 BSc - Biotechnology, NUI Galway, Ireland