Linden Rhoads, a longtime Seattle tech chief and former vice provost of commercialization on the College of Washington, will be a part of the UW’s Board of Regents.
“Linden’s distinctive lived experiences and deep dedication to College of Washington will make her a devoted and efficient regent,” Gov. Jay Inslee stated in an announcement.
Rhoads will take the seat of outgoing regent Invoice Ayers, CEO of Alaska Air Group. She begins her six-year time period on the 11-member board Oct. 24.
Rhoads has deep ties to the UW spanning greater than 20 years.
“I really like the UW,” Rhoads informed Startup on Wednesday. “I bleed purple.”
From 2008 to 2014 she led the tech switch and commercialization efforts on the UW at an workplace now generally known as CoMotion. Throughout that point the UW greater than doubled the variety of spinouts shaped yearly.
Rhoads additionally helped launch The W Fund, an early-stage fund that invests in spinouts from the UW or different Washington state universities and analysis establishments.
Rhoads stated she’ll use classes from that have in her new position on the Board of Regents, which supervises, coordinates, manages and regulates the college.
“A big a part of the mission of the college is to help its world class researchers in bringing impression to the world by means of innovation,” she stated.
Rhoads’ personal private story offers a degree of appreciation for schooling. She used monetary support to get by means of faculty herself, and her grandfather was a professor in a group faculty system.
She additionally has three kids going by means of faculty at the moment, and has served on the board of the state’s Committee on Superior Tuition Cost and School Financial savings.
Rhoads stated she deeply understands the challenges dad and mom face in saving for faculty tuition, and in addition the need from college students who need to research high-demand topics comparable to pc science.
“My coronary heart is with these college students,” she stated. “I definitely perceive the extent to which the innovation financial system wants us to be graduating youngsters with these levels.”
Ed Lazowska, a longtime UW pc science professor and former chair of the pc science division, stated Rhoads’ appointment will “present a serious increase for UW’s entrepreneurship and for UW’s relationship with the startup and tech communities.”
The UW has spun out various high-profile startups lately, together with Icosavax, Zap Vitality, OctoML, and others.
The UW is understood globally for its analysis prowess. It ranked No. 17 worldwide and No. 3 amongst public universities within the 2022 Tutorial Rating of World Universities.
Previous to becoming a member of the UW, Rhoads launched Seattle Ventures, serving management and investor roles at a number of affiliated startups. Early in her profession she was director of enterprise growth for Seattle firm Mobile Technical Companies, which supplied software program for mobile phone firms, and was a founding investor in wi-fi companies startup Terabeam, which was acquired in 2004.
Rhoads, who has a UW legislation diploma, has served on boards of the Henry Artwork Gallery and the Buerk Heart for Entrepreneurship.
Inslee additionally introduced the re-appointment trial legal professional Blaine Tamaki to the Board of Regents.