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Our Mission 

Many organizations are seeking to create embedded innovative cultures, entrepreneurial growth and sustained shareholder value.

 

Whether it is businesses seeking the next product, service or trend, universities seeking to gain commercial impact from their research and intellectual property portfolio, or government agencies seeking to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem.

 

Arkane Innovation offers the ability to set solid foundations, develop a roadmap and implement a relevant and sustainable strategy.

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                      Mark Crowell                                            Brian Hayes

Who we are

We are practitioners who can address the needs of different types of global clients including startups universities, economic development organisations, government agencies as well as different kinds of industry around the world.

Through a rich history of successful initiatives and deep experience, Arkane Innovation has access to our very practical and implementable expertise in building innovation systems. The drive to create, sustain, and improve innovation, entrepreneurial activity, technology transfer and commercialisation is a key factor for all economies.

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          Gordon McConnell                               Dr. Ian Proctor

Our Team

Mark Crowell

Co-Founder and President

Email: mark@arkaneinnovation.com

Bio: Mark provides advice and consulting services in the areas of innovation, engagement, entrepreneurship and translational research to universities, boards, regional and national governing and development authorities, and private industry.

Mark is also Executive Entrepreneur in Residence at the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, UNC-Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy, and a Senior Innovation Consultant for the World Bank. Most recently, Mark was the Vice President for Innovation and Economic Development at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, where he was responsible for the university’s technology transfer, industry engagement, investment funding, entrepreneurship, and research park operations.

Prior to going to KAUST, he served as founding Executive Director of UVa Innovation at the University of Virginia; Vice President for Business
Development at the Scripps Research Institute; Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Transfer and Economic Development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Associate Vice Chancellor for Technology Transfer and Industry Research at NC State University; and Director of Technology Transfer at Duke University.

Mark was 2005 President of the Association of University Technology
Managers (AUTM), served for five years as Chair of BIO's Technology
Transfer Committee, and was co-chair of the Research Committee of the APEC Life Science Innovation Forum. 
In 2013, Mark received the Bayh-Dole Award from AUTM “in recognition of his lifetime contributions to advancing academic innovations.”

Dr. Ian Proctor

Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer

Email: ian@arkaneinnovation.com

Bio: Ian Proctor has spent his career working at the interface of academia,
government and commerce, gaining a detailed understanding of how to
manage for impact at the interactions of research, teaching/training, and
business development, along with the increasing challenges and
opportunities associated with each of these activities within the academic institutions. Experience in executive roles has allowed him to develop strategic planning and delivery capabilities and to provide required leadership and management to meet challenging priorities, targets and requirements. 

 

Ian worked at University of Manchester Intellectual Property Ltd (UMIP)
developing a track record for managing projects from initial concept through development to the delivery of identified aims and objectives; delivering a number of license agreements with industry which generated returns to the University and has led on the set-up and financing of spin-out companies, across a number of industry sectors, including the medical, advanced materials, energy, oil and gas, and sensors sectors, and has included the design and transfer of new technology through service providers to end users. 

Ian was Managing Director of Technology Commercialization for Dhahran
Techno Valley Company (DTVC), a new company formed by a number of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) and other stakeholders to further the technology transfer and commercialisation agenda in Saudi Arabia. It allowed him to develop, refine and leverage networks in the academic, business and investment sectors – networks which continue to be  critical in ongoing activities in the innovation-based business development sector. Ian was then recruited to King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) as Director of Technology Transfer. 

 

Ian works with different types of clients from the World Bank to UK spin-out companies and with organisations to develop innovation strategies, review IP project portfolios and speak and an act as a panel member at relevant global conferences and workshops.

Brian Hayes

Co-Founder and Chief Consulting and Coaching Partner 

Email: brian@arkaneinnovation.com

Bio: Brian is an experienced senior executive, chairman and non-executive director. He is currently chairman of Bank of Montreal Europe plc. A former Managing Director and board member of Citibank Europe plc, inter alia, he has also chaired a payment technology the company, was chairman of Dublin City University Educational Trust, chairman of a data science company and chairman of an industry/academic research centre (based in University College Cork, Ireland).  

 

As well as being a non-executive director, he is a business advisor to industry and mentors the clients of a variety of Government bodies and Universities, including the Industrial Development Authority which promotes foreign direct investment, Enterprise Ireland which supports indigenous industry, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in the Middle East and Royal Gordon University in the UK. 

 

He was the founder of Citibank’s Innovation Lab and a member of Citibank’s U.S. based Global Innovation Council. He was also appointed by the Irish Government to its research prioritization board. He regularly facilitates strategy, growth and innovation workshops for business and university leaders. 

 

He has a Master of Science in Investment and Treasury and has also lectured on the Dublin City University Master of Science in Investment and Treasury program for a number of years.

Gordon McConnell

Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer

Email: gordon@arkaneinnovation.com

Bio: Gordon has global experience in senior roles, developing innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems, supporting economic development diversification, higher education strategic planning and implementation and research commercialization. He also has significant experience in the development of strategy and implementation of Entrepreneurship Ecosystems during senior roles in four emerging technology clusters in Dublin (Ireland), the Greater Phoenix Area in Arizona (USA), Saudi Arabia and Scotland (UK). He has developed significant teaching & learning programs for universities and has spoken extensively about the interface between innovation and the future of work and the impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution. He has been directly involved as an investment decision maker in over a decade of seed investment rounds through startup accelerator programs in universities across four countries on three continents. This has included assessing and greenlighting hundreds of startups and university spinout projects. Gordon has held senior executive decision-making roles in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University (ASU) and at KAUST where he developed and launched the TAQADAM startup accelerator, as well as in Ireland and the UK., and had Professor of Entrepreneurship roles. 

 

He has developed and launched programs at national level including startup accelerators, innovation for industry and research commercialisation programs for research organisations. Gordon is also a lean startup practitioner who has mentored startups for over fifteen years. His mentoring has covered a range of industries including Healthcare, Construction, Energy, EdTech, Agriculture, Environmental, Food & Beverage, Security & Defense, Media & Entertainment. Technologies these startups have developed include Internet of Things, robotics, drones, consumer products and digital platforms. He has supported startups on their journey including developing robust value propositions, developing sustainable competitive advantage, helping teams develop their business model and go-to-market strategy, pitch practice and curating the development of business plans. In particular he has worked with teams attempting to commercialise outputs from research including academic & student teams, as well as those outside the university system. He has recently acted as an Investment Committee member for the the Serbian Innovation Fund (SIF) and Innovation Fund of Montenegro. He has spoken extensively at conferences in the UK, Canada, USA and Saudi Arabia such as UBI Global, AUTM, Association of University Research Parks (AURP) and the MiSK Global Competitive. 

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