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CMU's tech head goes to Redleaf
Wednesday, March 22, 2000 By Ken Zapinski, Associate Editor/Business
The man responsible for turning Carnegie Mellon University research into money-making ideas is switching sides.
USInterns.com, a Web site that matches students searching for internships with companies looking for interns, needs its own space, Chief Executive Officer Steve Higgins said yesterday. Incorporated in September, USInterns has seven employees and is outgrowing its share of the iVenture Labs building.
USInterns -- like the incubator itself -- is the brainchild of Henry and Tommy Wang, two twenty-something former Carnegie Mellon University students. The two are using Pittsburgh Direct Technology, the Web consulting company they founded with fellow CMU grad Anthony Ma, as a platform to build iVenture Labs.
-- Ken Zapinski
Mark Coticchia, director of CMU's technology transfer office, is becoming a senior director of Redleaf Group. The venture capital firm provides start-ups with cash and business assistance in exchange for stakes in the companies. Coticchia's move was reported yesterday on PG Online.
"This is an opportunity for me to continue my work in creating and incubating new companies," said the 42-year-old Brentwood native. Among the responsibilities in his new job is securing licenses for technology from universities around the world for Redleaf's portfolio companies. He will leave the university May 1.
The transfer office allows private corporations to use CMU-developed technology in exchange for licensing fees, equity stakes or some combination of compensation. The office collected $30 million for 1997-98 school year, the most recent year for which figures were available, Coticchia said.
"It's a loss for the university and the field," said Louis P. Berneman, the technology transfer director at University of Pennsylvania and president of the Association of University Technology Managers.
Redleaf is targeting CMU and 24 key universities around the world as sources for cutting-edge technology, said Redleaf co-Chief Executive Officer C. Lloyd Mahaffey. "We're thrilled to have Mark joining the team," he said.
Coticchia joined the technology transfer office at its founding in 1993, eventually becoming director in 1997. He was a co-founder of Lycos Inc., the Web content company that has its roots in search-engine technology developed at CMU.
He recently arranged the sale of Grand Illusions Studio, which developed interactive question-and-answer technology for the Web, to Westwind Media.com Inc. for stock in the Colorado company.
McKinsey & Co., the consulting company, took the CMU tech transfer office to task in an in-depth look at the region in 1997, saying it wasn't doing enough to capitalize on CMU's resources. Coticchia criticized the report for using out-of-date figures, and CMU President Jared Cohon called that part of the report "totally off base."
Outgoing Provost Paul Christiano, who supervised the tech transfer office, praised Coticchia's work. "The TTO has grown in size, stature and effectiveness under Mark's direction," he said in an e-mail.
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