USC, UCLA Vice Provosts, Krisztina Holly And Kathryn Atchison, Join Entretech Board

March 19, 2007

First Time USC, UCLA, Caltech Join Efforts to Catalyze High Tech Industry Across Greater Los Angeles  

PASADENA, CA (March 22, 2007) -- Entretech (www.entretech.org), a leading business development organization supporting high technology companies throughout Greater Los Angeles, today announced the appointment of two new board members, Krisztina Holly, Vice Provost and Executive Director of the USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, and Kathryn A. Atchison, Vice Provost of Intellectual Property and Industry Relations, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at UCLA.  Holly and Atchison join 10 other Board members deeply rooted in the local business and technology communities, including Fred Farina, who represents the Office of Technology Transfer at Caltech.          

"We're honored to have these two extremely talented women join our board of directors," said Stephanie Yanchinski, Executive Director of Entretech.  "To our knowledge, this is the first time three world-class universities have decided to combine resources in support of high-technology growth in Greater Los Angeles.  This joint effort also signals a vital new phase in Entretech's expansion."    

John Morris, Past Chairman of the Tech Coast Angels and Managing Director of GKM Ventures, stresses how important this will be not only for Entretech, but also for the development of the high tech industry in Los Angeles. "With this Board expansion Entretech moves to the next level in its ability to recruit resources across the region with the full support of its leading universities." He further notes that "the willingness of the three universities to work together marks a new era of technology industry growth, and improves the ability of Los Angeles to attract the management and capital necessary to build winning companies."

  Entretech was established seven years ago by a partnership between Caltech and the City of Pasadena to assist high tech entrepreneurs grow their businesses.  "Entretech's mission has always been to support seed and early stage technology companies," says Al Schneider, Entretech's Chairman. "Ms. Holly and Dr. Atchison will expand our geographic coverage to support start-up companies affiliated with USC and UCLA, and help chart Entretech's future."

"Since I moved back to Los Angeles from Boston last year and joined USC, I have continued to be astounded and energized by the abundance of innovators, the excitement for new companies, and the entrepreneurial spirit in this city. By joining the Entretech Board, I look forward to further supporting an environment in Southern California that stimulates, inspires and empowers innovators to make societal impact with their ideas," said Holly. "I'm honored to join such a notable group of Board members, who have already shown tremendous leadership in this quest."

Atchison added "It's with great pleasure that I join the Entretech Board and join forces with a highly motivated team of individuals with various technology and business expertise.  UCLA is a leading research institution, and I look forward to sharing the products of our research to better serve the local technology community." 

Randy Churchill, Director of Business Development, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and coordinator of the PwC/National Venture Capital Association's MoneyTree Report, concluded "Although often not recognized as a technology hub, Southern California is now the second largest area attracting venture funding in the country, behind only Silicon Valley.  In particular Los Angeles is home to hundreds of emerging technology-based companies across all sectors."

About Krisztina Holly

As Vice Provost and Executive director of USC Stevens Institute for Innovation, Krisztina Holly oversees the university-wide resource designed to harness and advance the creative thinking and breakthrough research at USC for societal impact. Through educational programs, community-building events, and showcase opportunities, USC Stevens develops the innovator as well as innovations. USC Stevens identifies, nurtures, protects and transfers the exciting innovations from USC to the marketplace, and in turn, provides a central connection for industry seeking cutting-edge innovations in which to invest. From the biosciences and technology to music and cinematic arts, USC Stevens connects faculty, students and the business community to create an environment for stimulating and inspiring the process of innovation across all disciplines.

Holly previously served as the founding Executive Director of MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation, a highly successful and visible program that has supported MIT faculty and students engaged in scientific and technological innovation through grants, symposia, mentoring, and other means. In the first three years, the Center provided $5M in grants, engaged over 250 faculty and students and more than 100 investors and entrepreneurs, and spawned nine start-up companies that raised $40M in capital from top-tier venture capital firms.

Holly began her career as an innovator and entrepreneur at MIT, where she and two teammates invented and patented "The Stylus," a pre-Web electronic shopping tool, and wrote a business plan for it that won MIT's campus-wide entrepreneurial competition. The resulting company was acquired in 1996 by Artisoft, Inc.  Holly later joined start-up engine Direct Hit Technologies, which was acquired by Ask Jeeves in 2000 for $500 million.

About Kathryn A. Atchison

Kathryn Atchison is Vice Provost of Intellectual Property and Industry Relations at UCLA.  A long-standing Professor at UCLA, Atchison has extensive experience in teaching, research, research administration, and management of individual and institutional conflicts of interest.  She is working with UCLA's Office of Intellectual Property (OIP) by improving open communication with faculty, initiating a student internship program, and consolidating industry ,sponsored research with OIP to enable better service to industry.

In her role, Atchison helps strengthen UCLA's intellectual- and industrial-property relationships and fosters new ones, with an eye toward making the products of UCLA's research programs available, and thereby enhancing economic development in the local region, state, and nation.

About Entretech

Entretech (www.entretech.org) is the leading non-profit association empowering entrepreneurs to build new businesses through capital, education, people, and strategic partners.  It supports high tech companies in Greater Los Angeles with critical and practical business development resources and connections.  Recently expanding its geographical reach to cover the entire region, Entretech also has formed a closer relationship with the Pasadena Angels and Tech Coast Angels.  Since its inception nearly seven years ago, Entretech has worked closely with the technology transfer office at Caltech, the Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, the Keck Graduate Institute, UCLA, the NASA Commercialization Center, the Business Technology Center, LARTA, the LAEDC, the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership, and the Cities of Pasadena and Monrovia.  Entretech is positioned to work with communities and cities to build Los Angeles into a significant cluster of advanced-tech development.  Entretech operates from an office on the Caltech campus.

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Media Contact:                                     
Jamie Brown                                                
626/791-5755                                         
brownlink@earthlink.net                             

Entretech:                                                                      
Stephanie Yanchinski        
Executive Director
626/356-9933 
scy@entretech.org