Contact Staff
UM Ventures is a team of professionals with expertise in all aspects of technology transfer, including basic science, intellectual property development and management, technology marketing, and license strategy and negotiation.
Leadership
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James L. Hughes
Senior Vice President and Chief Enterprise and Economic Development Officer, University of Maryland, Baltimore
410-706-1935
Jim Hughes is the Senior Vice President and Chief Enterprise and Economic Development Officer for the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB). He is responsible for UMB’s Office of Research and Development, the chief administrative unit and catalyst for advancing research, technology commercialization and economic development at UMB. Mr. Hughes serves as president of the University of Maryland Health Sciences Research Park Corporation, the management operation for the 14-acre University of Maryland BioPark.Prior to joining UMB in 2001, Mr. Hughes worked for the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) for six years, most recently as Director of Technology and International Business. Before working at DBED, he was Executive Director of the World Trade Center Institute, a public-private partnership dedicated to expanding international trade and investment.Mr. Hughes is a director of several not-for-profit corporations, including Lexington Market, Maryland Global Initiatives Corporation, the Maryland-Israel Development Center, and the University of Maryland BioPark. Mr. Hughes has an MBA from the Columbia Business School and a BA from Davidson College. -
Dean Chang, PhD
Chief Innovation Officer and Associate Vice President for Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, University of Maryland, College Park
301-314-8121
Dr. Dean Chang is the Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Maryland. He coordinates and leads UMD’s innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development ecosystem that 1) helps students and faculty develop their entrepreneurial mindsets to pursue their innovative ideas and inventions, and 2) helps launch and scale startups and social ventures that spur inclusive economic development and impact.
In 2013, Dr. Chang founded the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (AIE) to engage every college in design thinking and lean startup. Before AIE, he oversaw the school of engineering’s technology startup venture programs. Dr. Chang also played a critical role in the founding of Startup Shell in 2012 and STICs in 2017.
Additionally, Dr. Chang is a lead PI and an instructor for the National Science Foundation's I-Corps Hub program and leads workshops for students, faculty, and administrators, as well as professionals and executives from industry, non-profits, and government agencies like NASA and HHS. He has also been an instructor and a coach in the Stanford d.school's Teaching and Learning Studio.
Prior to UMD, Dr. Chang spent 15 years in Silicon Valley where he served as the CTO and VP, Gaming Business of Immersion Corporation. He helped transform the venture-backed, Stanford robotics lab spinout into a publicly traded (NASDAQ: IMMR), world-leading licensor of haptics technology embedded in over a billion devices from companies like Apple, BMW, Microsoft, Samsung, and Electronic Arts.
Dr. Chang holds over 40 patents and received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from MIT, an M.S. and Ph.D in mechanical engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.