Terri Butler
Terri Butler is Technology Commercialization Manager for the Office of Intellectual Property Administration and Washington State University Research Foundation. She has been in the position since 2006, focusing on the Spokane campus as it experiences rapid growth and an increased focus on research. Terri also maintains links into entrepreneur networks and advisors in Spokane and Seattle who can assist the university in bringing research to market.
Terri brings to the position more than 20 years of experience, both in academia and in industry. Starting out in neurobiology research at the University of Chicago, she subsequently held positions in biopharmaceutical sales at MGI Pharma, R & D management at 3M, and market development and regulatory affairs management at Bioenergy, a small biotherapeutic start-up company in Minnesota. She has an impressive track record as a scientist whose work translates into commercial applications, holding 12 patents in pharmaceutical/nutritional products and polymer processing. Her education includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering and Materials Science from the University of Minnesota.
Having worked in both small companies and large companies, inside academia and outside, Terri finds her roll in “bridging the gap” between the university and the commercial world very rewarding. She is motivated to bring the university’s leading-edge ideas to the world. Finding development partners who can use the university’s research and perhaps, in turn, influence future direction of the research such that it will solve relevant world problems, is satisfying and, she believes, creates a winning situation for both academia and business.
