Title: “An alternative pathway:  Entrepreneurship.” 

This talk will describe how scientists and clinicians can make an impact at scale, starting a company to commercialize an idea.

Stephanie Marrus is Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the leading life science/healthcare entrepreneurship center in the US. Her mission is to help start companies from UCSF science and technology and to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the University.  Since joining in 2012, she has developed a robust suite of programs and classes that have contributed to a vibrant entrepreneurial community at UCSF.  These efforts have resulted in startups that have raised hundreds of $ millions in seed funding and venture capital.  She is Senior Lecturer and Course Director for UCSF’s signature entrepreneurship class, Startup 101. During a 30-year plus business career, she has worked with over 1000 companies in science and technology based industries as member of the management team, business consultant or mentor.  Many of these companies have their technological roots at Berkeley, Stanford, UCSF, MIT and Harvard.  She has had roles as CEO, COO and VP Business Development for public and private venture capital backed companies, led partnering and M&A transactions, headed corporate development, strategy, marketing, communications and investor relations.  Her background includes ten years in Boston tech companies.