Mary Tapolsky is the Director of Licensing at CU Innovations where she leads the team in bringing innovations to patients through evaluation of new technologies for commercial potential, management of patent prosecution efforts and license negotiations.

Mary has over a decade of experience in technology transfer and twenty years of experience in validating the commercial potential of new innovations, validating the viability of product development, and training inventors to de-risk commercial development.

Prior to joining CU Innovations, Mary worked for the University of Louisville in several capacities, including teaching entrepreneurship at the undergraduate and graduate levels and development and management of a spectrum of programs designed to support startups at the university and in the community, including a very successful ten-week program based on the Lean LaunchPad methodology to help entrepreneurs de-risk launching a business.

Mary launched her career in technology transfer at the University of Colorado’s Boulder office and launched her professional career in research and development with experience in both academic and biotech startup environments. She has a doctorate in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is Lean LaunchPad certified, and received the 2017 [GLI] EnterpriseCorp Award for outstanding leadership in the Louisville, KY entrepreneurial community.