Biography

Robert Gruetzmacher, Ph.D, CLP is the founder and principal of TechIAConnect & Associates, a business development and technology transfer consulting firm. He has over 36 years of industrial experience working at DuPont in multiple functions across a broad range of responsibilities, life and physical sciences, both hands-on and in senior leadership positions. During the last 15 years of his tenure he provided corporate leadership on extracting value from intellectual capital focusing on intellectual asset management, licensing, technology transfer, IP valuation, negotiation, university collaborations, and open innovation implementation strategies. Following retirement from DuPont he served as an independent consultant for Rutgers University’s Office of Technology Commercialization, managing their physical science, engineering, and IT patent portfolios, seeking licensing and collaborative opportunities with industry.  Some current and past clients include the University of California at Riverside, Syngenta Biotech, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Southeastern Pennsylvanian, the Larta Institute, IdeaConnection, and the Plastic and Rubber Training and Research Institute, ICIPC Colombia. Dr. Gruetzmacher is currently a Startup Development Officer with the National Council of Entreprenurial Technology Transfer (NCET2).

Dr. Gruetzmacher holds a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, and was the recipient of a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship. He is an active member of the Licensing Executives Society (Past Chair of the Latin American Committee), The American Chemical Society, and the Association of University Technology Transfer Managers, He served on the industrial advisory boards of the Larta Institute, and the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. He is the co-founder of ICM Gathering, a community of over 30 companies world-wide that brainstorm and explore novel ways of extracting value from innovation and knowledge-based assets. He is an associate member of the University- Industry Demonstration Partnership (UIDP) and served on their board of directors.