Business presentation to UAF students and faculty

Submitted by Faith Henry
Phone: 474-7253
01/06/05

Business development specialist Peter Perna will speak to UAF students, staff, faculty and alumni on Monday, Jan. 10, 3-4:30 p.m. in 201 Bunnell.

Perna is the first speaker with the Economic Development Forum, part of School of Management’s Business Accelerator effort. At least one business speaker per month is expected to speak on economic development in Alaska during the spring 2005 semester.

Perna has more than 20 years of business development and technology commercialization experience. Prior to forming Alpine, he served as president and CEO of Science & Technology Corporation in Albuquerque, N.M., where he conceived and implemented new strategies to patent, license, and create start-ups around technologies developed at the University of New Mexico.

Previously, Perna was the founder and executive director of TechLink, a successful technology transfer and commercialization organization in Bozeman, Mont. During his tenure, Perna raised more that $7 million in funding, and developed and implemented novel technology transfer methods. He grew the organization to 20 employees, and helped make TechLink a national model for U.S. Defense Department technology transfer and commercialization.

Perna has extensive experience with technology commercialization. For ZeaGen, a biotechnology subsidiary of Adolph Coors Company, Perna successfully led teams comprised of managers representing manufacturing, research and development, sales and marketing, and regulatory affairs to move technology applications off the lab bench and into the market. He also led efforts to structure international sales and distribution channels for ZeaGen products, with a focus on Europe, China and Japan. For SyntheTech, a Boulder, Colo.-based enzyme process technology company, he focused on developing strategic partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies in the U.S., Europe and Japan.

Perna began his career as a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton in New York. While with Booz Allen, he assisted major pharmaceutical company clients with the development of new strategies to leverage emerging biotechnologies to strengthen their core businesses.

Perna holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Colorado State University, an MBA from Cornell University and a B.S. in agriculture from the University of Delaware.

Contact: Faith Henry, public information officer, School of Management, (907) 474-7253 or fnfmh@uaf.edu.