Loren Peterson, Concordia’s new entrepreneur-in-residence, is an experienced entrepreneur. Concordia University Wisconsin’s Batterman School of Business has contracted accomplished health care entrepreneur and venture capitalist Loren Peterson to serve as the university’s first Entrepreneur-in-Residence.
Peterson began over the summer to hold regular office hours at Concordia, making himself available to support the university’s process for evaluating technologies for commercialization. In the new role, he also assists with business development and patent commercialization activities; meets with faculty innovators to discuss commercialization and new venture formation; and, where appropriate, provides coaching and mentoring on enterprise launch, fundraising, market entry and other topics pertaining to the creation of new entrepreneurial ventures.
“I am truly excited to have someone with Loren’s caliber helping us to build our entrepreneurial ecosystem at Concordia,” says Batterman School of Business Dean Dr. Daniel Sem. “His coming here is one more important step in our university’s efforts to integrate entrepreneurial thinking into everything we do, and for us to become a leader in the business of health care and health care innovation.”
The Entrepreneur-in-Residence supports a strategic move towards creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem at Concordia that crosses all of the university’s academic schools, and involves faculty and students. Sem says he’s confident the move will lead to more CUW startups, more collaboration, more patents and more commercialization of patents.
Peterson is an entrepreneurial advisor and founder of EAS-MKE, LLC, a consulting firm that works with institutions of higher education on strategies and tactics for developing and commercializing innovative research, often through the formation of new companies established for this purpose. He brings extensive operational experience with small- to medium-sized business, and has successfully financed and grown several drug development companies.
Prior to forming EAS-MKE, Peterson was a managing director and CFO for Venture Investors, LLC, a leading venture capital firm in the Midwest, focused on making seed and early stage health care and technology investments. Earlier in his career, he worked for 15 years as a CPA and another 17 years as an executive in the pharmaceutical and drug development industry, which includes serving as president, CEO and director of Milwaukee-based ZyStor Therapeutics from 2003-10.
— This story is written by Kali Thiel, director of university communications for Concordia University Wisconsin and Ann Arbor. She may be reached at kali.thiel@cuw.edu or 262-243-2149.
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