Mark Arnold is the new associate vice president for Discovery to Impact at the University of Texas at Austin.
According to a news release, Arnold’s role in the new position is to connect the campus to innovators and industry. He will be tasked with enhancing the university’s commercialization efforts. He will also oversee technology transfer, intellectual property, licensing, business development, and launch Texas startups.
UT President Jay Hartzell hired Arnold to foster industry and university collaborations and to cultivate a robust research pipeline focused on life sciences, energy, the environment, and deep tech.
Arnold’s appointment comes when Austin seeks to become one of the nation’s top hubs for life sciences.
Arnold will also serve as the managing director of Texas Startups.
“By harnessing our collective expertise and passion, we will shape the future of innovation, galvanize our entrepreneurship programs and offerings, and scale the startup pipeline emerging from UT across the nation and around the globe,” Arnold said in a statement.
Previously, Arnold was the founder and general partner of The Resilience Fund, an early-stage venture firm. He was also vice president of corporate development for Forcepoint, which sold to Raytheon Technologies for $1.9 billion in 2015. He also worked at Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg & Co., and Cisco Systems. He has B.S. and MBA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.
