Mark Coburn serves as President of Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, an affiliated corporation of Virginia Tech providing technology transfer and commercialization services to the campus. He provides leadership in developing strategies for marketing, licensing and commercialization of intellectual property, fostering corporate collaborations and assisting in the establishment of start-up companies by faculty, staff and students based on intellectual property developed at Virginia Tech.

During his career Coburn spent thirteen years at the University of Southern California and another six years at the University of California Santa Cruz. At USC, he served as deputy director in the research administration office, and at UC Santa Cruz, he was director of sponsored projects/patent coordinator. Coburn also played a founding role in the development of the Monterey Bay Education, Science and Technology Center, part of the reuse of the Fort Ord military reservation, and served as that organization’s director of business planning and development. His most recent assignment from March 1997 to March 2006 was at the University of Rochester where he was Associate Provost and Director for the Office of Technology Transfer.

Coburn has lectured on technology transfer topics in Rochester’s William E. Simon School of Business and Rochester’s School of Medicine & Dentistry. He is a member of the Association of University Technology Managers, Licensing Executives Society and serves as a Vice President and board member of the NewVA Corridor Technology Council.

Mark and his wife Karen (a graduate of Virginia Tech) have their home in Blacksburg with their three children, Matthew, Emily and Nathan.

A.B., Zoology, Miami University (Ohio)
M.S., Technology Management, Pepperdine University (Graziadio School of Business and Management)