Following a national search, biotech entrepreneur Peter N. Allison, JD, has been appointed senior director for technology innovation at the Arizona Health Sciences Center at the University of Arizona.
Allison, who joined AHSC Feb. 2, will provide leadership in connecting AHSC research faculty and programs with commercial partners.
“I am excited to welcome Peter Allison to the UA in this important role. He brings a combination of skills and experience that will support opportunities to rapidly transform AHSC’s scientific discoveries and emerging new technologies into diagnostic and therapeutic product solutions,” said Joe G.N. “Skip” Garcia, MD, UA senior vice president for health sciences.
Allison will support AHSC and UA efforts to expand sponsored research and research service agreements in areas of strength related to applied clinical diagnostic, therapeutic and other health-related technologies. Working with UA faculty researchers and business partners, he will inventory and position AHSC intellectual property for translation into commercial applications.
“The University of Arizona always has been a national leader in cutting-edge technology. As such, it is an important economic engine for job creation in the state of Arizona for the 21stcentury,” said Allison. “It is an honor to be associated with this prestigious institution.”
Allison was president and founder of IDM LabTrack™ Inc. and IDM AgriTrak™ Systems LLC in Scottsdale. In 1998, he founded and continues to serve as managing director of Biogenesis Investment Group LLC, and BGS Funds I and II, a health-care investment company providing funding to early-stage biotechnology, medical device and diagnostics companies. He served as the managing member of IDM Technologies LLC Fund I and formerly was a director of the BioAccelerator Fund I LLC.
He has more than 30 years of experience in business management, venture capital and debt and equity placement. His background covers a broad spectrum, including real estate investment and development with more than 1 million square feet of commercial space—ranging from shopping centers and warehouses to apartment and office buildings—in the Seattle metropolitan area prior to the move of IDM Technologies Group’s headquarters to Phoenix in 2010. He also is active in oil and gas technology and production in Texas with Petexas Inc., founded in 1993. His 25-year investment banking career has included more than $200 million equity and debt placement and more than $1 billion in mergers and acquisitions activities. He also has served in several national advisory capacities.
A frequent college speaker and lecturer, Allison was a keynote speaker at the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health in March 2014, discussing how public health policy translates into actual health applications and future applications of predictive and preventive health.
He has served on many academic boards, including the University of Washington School of Public Health at the School of Medicine in Seattle and the Gonzaga University (Spokane, Wash.) Board of Regents. He currently serves on the boards of BioAccel and the Phoenix Symphony in Phoenix.
He received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Washington and holds a Juris Doctor (law) degree from Seattle University.
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The Arizona Health Sciences Center (AHSC) at the University of Arizona is a network of health-related organizations and activities unique in the state and region. Arizona’s academic health center, AHSC is based on the UA campus in Tucson and maintains a growing presence on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. AHSC reaches across the state of Arizona and well beyond its borders to provide health-care education, research, patient care and service for Arizonans and their neighbors. For more information, please visit the AHSC website at http://ahsc.arizona.edu