Truman to Lead PNNL’s Commercialization and Business Engagement Efforts

Rosemarie Truman, founder and former CEO of the Center for Advancing Innovation in Bethesda, Maryland, has been named director of innovation impact at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Truman will bolster PNNL's commercialization, business engagement and economic growth activities. She also will create new startup and entrepreneurship initiatives and capabilities that are designed to boost job creation, create new markets for ideas and products, and maximize the potential impact of valuable federal investments — all ultimately acting as a catalyst for economic growth.

Truman has more than 20 years of experience developing institutional strategies for innovation and technology transfer in several industries, including but not limited to high tech, life sciences, private equity, financial services, energy, aerospace and defense business sectors. Over the course of her career, she has provided strategy consulting services for more than 100 companies and clients — including more than 50 global/U.S. Fortune 100 companies — in 15 countries and 24 states.

"Increasing the commercial impact of PNNL's science and technology programs is an essential part of our mission," said Malin Young, PNNL's deputy director for science and technology. "Rosemarie has an impressive track record of forming novel public-private partnerships to drive technology commercialization and creating first-of-a-kind platforms for entrepreneurial advancement, which will serve PNNL and the nation well."

In 2012, Truman founded the Center for Advancing Innovation, a global public-private partnership whose mission is to accelerate and increase the volume of technology transfer, the movement of knowledge and discovery to application and commercialization. Previously, she served in leadership positions at IBM, RHT Consulting, PRTM, Oracle and other leading technology, investment and consulting firms. She began her career in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

At CAI, Truman conceived and launched the National Institutes of Health Startup and NASA Startup Challenge initiatives, which together resulted in 21 partnership and/or collaboration agreements, as well as the launch of over 33 startups. Her efforts were recognized by the White House and national media, and the initiatives received awards from the Secretary of Health & Human Services, the Federal Laboratory Consortium, the General Services Administration and others.

In addition to her role at the CAI, Truman was the director of the DC-Metro area Founder Institute, which provides training to entrepreneurs to assist them in launching startups. She will serve as a keynote speaker at the annual R&D 100 Conference in November in Washington, D.C., where the 2016 R&D 100 Awards will be presented.

"In this role my goal will be to accelerate the commercialization of promising PNNL inventions in order to create outsized economic impact in the form of new markets, knowledge-based jobs and more," said Truman. "In addition, I seek to architect, engineer and establish new paradigms and innovative platforms that will galvanize entrepreneurial ecosystems to drive self-sustaining, demonstrable economic growth." For more of Truman’s thoughts on commercialization watch this video.

In its history PNNL has:

  • Signed 846 licenses with companies and organizations covering a multitude of technologies and software innovations,
  • Won 83 Excellence in Technology Transfer awards — more than any other national laboratory — from the Federal Laboratory Consortium, and 98 R&D 100 Awards for innovation,
  • Created or enabled 179 companies based on PNNL technologies and employees, which together currently employ more than 1,500 people,
  • Performed nearly 1,300 technology assistance projects for companies nationwide, and
  • Increased small business access to national laboratory expertise and technology through leadership in the Tri-Cities Research District and national programs such as DOE's Small Business Vouchers Pilot.