Rose Ritts, executive director of the Office of Licensing and Ventures, is leaving Duke after holding the position for nine years.
Since Ritts began as director in 2006, the OLV has become one of the most successful technology transfer offices in the country. Under her leadership, licensing agreements—which turn innovations by Duke researchers into marketable products—made by the OLV have risen from 35 per year when she joined to more than 150 so far in 2015. She will take the role of Executive Vice President of Innovation at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health System in Philadelphia beginning Nov. 1. OLV Managing Director Barry Myers will serve as interim executive director while the University searches for a new director.
“When I joined Duke, this was a new start-up,” Ritts said. “Now it has a national reputation, and I’m moving on to the next start-up.”
Ritts noted that when she started as director, the OLV generated a revenue of about $3 million per year—a figure which increased to more than $37 million in 2015. She added that her team originally comprised four or five people but has since expanded exponentially.
According to an annual survey by the Association of University Technology Managers, Duke moved from the bottom 25 percent of technology transfer offices in the United States to the top 10 percent since 2006. In collaboration with other administrative units at Duke, the OLV has established many partnerships with organizations outside the University to promote the translation of research into practical use.
“We’ve built an amazing team and showed we have an engine that can translate what researchers do,” Ritts said.
Myers—who also serves as director of emerging programs for the Duke Translational Research Institute and program director of the Duke-Coulter Translational Partnership Grant Program—will fill the position as the administration searches for a new director.
“Dr. Ritts created and staffed OLV resulting in a nationally ranked office whose rise and accomplishments are one that many universities strive to emulate,” Myers said in a press release. “In addition to her accomplishments in tech transfer, Dr. Ritts enabled our efforts in the DTRI-CTSA Pilots and the Coulter Translational Research Partnership providing much needed value and success to these incredible Duke initiatives.”
Ritts said she enjoys being part of the early stages of projects and building organizations. She added that this influenced her decision to take the position at Thomas Jefferson University, a place that has not experienced as much success in making licensing agreements as Duke has.
She noted that she will miss her team at the OLV and the accomplished researchers on campus that facilitate the high number of licensing agreements.
“Without their innovations, there would be nothing to translate outside of this place,” she said.
Ritts hopes that her successor will be someone with a vision who can move the OLV forward, she explained, adding that she believes the OLV is in a good place for her to leave and that hiring new employees for the future will be much easier because the office now has a solid base.
“The new leadership will have no problem,” she said.
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