Vinay Tannan directs RTI Commercialization, a corporate strategic initiative focused on extending the impact of RTI’s technologies by intentionally moving them to the marketplace. The RTI technology portfolio consists of intellectual assets and products developed through the course of ongoing research endeavors. They extend across a range of business sectors, including health care, energy, drug discovery, education, and environmental sciences. The RTI Commercialization team manages an internal investment fund to advance these technologies and drive them forward through various business models, including industry partnerships and new startup company formation.
Prior to joining RTI, Tannan was director of licensing at Wake Forest Baptist Health, overseeing a broad portfolio of technology innovations and licensing initiatives across the medical center. He has over a decade of technology innovation and commercialization experience, a deep knowledge of intellectual property as a U.S. patent agent, and a keen interest in entrepreneurship, having co-founded a health IT company and raised venture capital funding in the Research Triangle region in North Carolina. Tannan serves on the board of directors for the Council for Entrepreneurial Development and the board of advisors for the joint biomedical engineering program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.
