Mary Phillips Ph D

Bridging the mindset and entrepreneurial knowledge gap, my mission is to create an innovation friendly environment that makes it easier for female founders and aspiring female founders to turn science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medical (STEMM) ideas and research into impactful businesses.

Thaena is a female founded company on a mission to research, develop and manufacture products and services that restore a balanced, perturbation resistant, equilibrium to gut microbial ecosystems responsible for maintaining human health and wellbeing. In the year I worked with Thaena, the founders confidently raised over $1M in funding to support this mission. Working closely with the founders and in alignment with their mission, vision and values, I used my experience in microbiome science, technology transfer and IP law, and network to negotiate and close three research collaborations with OSU and UW, and two contract research organizations to provide enablement data to support and grow the IP portfolio, and gather necessary data for regulatory approval. In tandem, I worked with the founders to develop a sustainable business model, provide competitive market analysis and overview of the IP landscape in the dietary supplement space.

Portal Theatre began as an experiment in creative entrepreneurship asking the question "is there a way for young artists and recently graduated theatre students to be independent and create their own art, their own theatre, and perform to their unique strengths rather than pretzeling themselves into a defined role?". And the experiment worked. Our first play in 2014, NoBelles - stories of women in science - was devised by three recently graduated student who were shocked to discover that only 18 women have been awarded a Noble Prize in Chemistry, Physics or Medicine. NoBelles performed in Edinburgh, UK, across Canada and continues to tour in the US at various universities and scientific conferences. Follow on productions include 73 Seconds telling the story of the astronauts who died in the Challenger explosion; and Things I (never) learned in Sex Ed - a satirical account of the messy, emotional things we wish we had be taught before the big event. We are currently working on the next production for 2021 once again telling new stories of Women in Science. For all productions, the actors are active participants in defining the vision and clear purpose of the play. The plays they devise are as much about them as it is about the people they portray on stage and a way to define and hone their art. All actors are actively involved in the business side with bookings, contract negotiations, marketing, budgets and copyright because while it is fun to create your own art, going broke is not an option..

Qualtura Biotech focussed on the research and development of functional microbiome standards useful for the microbiome research community. In collaboration with two academic research partners, Professors Steve Giovannoni and Tom Sharpton, Qualtura's approach leveraged the capabilities of high throughput culturomics to isolate and characterize stable, microbial ecosystems with established metabolomic outputs.

Industry mentor to STEMM women entrepreneurs in the NSF I-Corps program.

Lead coordinator for the identification of large scale research opportunities, direct and facilitate the initiation and preparation of complex interdisciplinary contract and grant proposals to external sponsors. Initiate and nurture partnerships, networks, and alliances between and among faculty at OSU, other institutions, industry, and funding agencies to enhance institutional research competitiveness, and to catalyze new research and institutional collaborations. Design and implement strategic services for faculty and researcher constituents at OSU. Oversee the administration of the OSU Limited Submissions program. For more information about research development at OSU read "Top of Mind"​ article at : http://sites.oregonstate.edu/email/grantsmanship/june2015.html

Collaborating with industry partners and start-up companies to successfully commercialize OSU innovations. Responsibilities included: Managing, supervising and training IP and Licensing team to effectively identify, evaluate, protect, market and license innovations; Providing patent strategy perspective on the drafting of patent applications and patent prosecution; Continually developing tools, protocols and training to Intellectual Property and Licensing team, faculty, students and interns to facilitate invention disclosure triage and market identification; Negotiating contracts and agreements, and managing outside counsel; Coordinating and interconnecting processes between the Venture Accelerator, Industry Contracts and Industry Partnering, and other units within the Research Office and across campus; Serving on the Conflict of Industry committee; Responding to export control concerns

The most successful incubator in the state outside of the Portland metropolitan area, the BEC has a 20 year history of job creation through business counseling, training, support and assistance to over 130 companies creating over 270 jobs. Its 76% graduation rate approaches that of the 80% metric established by the National Business Incubator Association. The BEC offers a high tech focus for technology transfer and commercialization of innovation close to OSU, Hewlett Packard, and ONAMI. Additionally, its focus on cluster development in bio-fuels, energy efficiency, open source software, and nano-technology serves as a nexus for job creation.

Managed a diverse intellectual property portfolio of more than 200 technologies. Evaluated the patentability of disclosures and managed any resulting patent prosecution. Filed in-house patent applications as needed and formulated patent portfolio strategies with inventors. Performed market analyses to determine the commercial value of an invention. Marketed technology to industry and negotiated equitable terms and conditions of licenses with potential licensees. Negotiated terms and conditions of material transfer, sponsored research and non-disclosure agreements. Monitored licensee’s obligations to meet milestones and reporting requirements. Reviewed terms of existing grants and contracts to ensure responsible contracting. Coordinated OHSU inventor’s applications and presentations to committee of Venture Capitalist, Angel Investor and business community for funding from the OHSU BioScience Innovation Fund. Assisted OHSU inventors to start-up their own companies with OHSU technologies.

Assisted in the fundraising efforts of the University by identifying significant donors. Developed donor portfolios and information management systems to provide timely and accurate research data and custom tailored reports for the division staff and the president.

Authored publications in refereed scholarly journals, conference proceedings, and government reports. Developed expertise in the techniques and theories of fluorescence, excited triplet-state and Raman laser spectroscopies, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography. Gained experience in the techniques of site-directed mutagenesis and selective isotopic labeling of proteins. Developed techniques to analyze protein structure-function relationships.

Audit company records. Draft balance sheets and profit and loss statements for clients.