Guest Speakers

Wendy Kennedy is a seasoned technology industry executive, award winning professor, and author who has spent more than 20 years helping science and technology inventors bring their ideas from “lab to life”. Wendy’s methodology and book, So what? who cares? why you?™: The Inventor’s Commercialization Toolkit, have been adopted internationally by government research labs, innovation centers, university commercialization offices and private sector corporations.   Wendy’s career spans executive roles in several venture backed startup companies, two of which were acquired by Microsoft and Harman Kardon.   She is very familiar with campus entrepreneurship, having spent 12 years as a business school professor at Algonquin College in Canada.  It was during this time Wendy developed So what? who cares? why you?®, a methodology for communicating the business value proposition of scientific and technical innovations. In 1999, Wendy left academia to create her own venture through wendykennedy.com inc.  Today, So what? who cares? why you? is at work globally by organizations including: Pennsylvania State University, The National Research Council of Canada, The University of Central Florida, Tech Fort Worth, The University of Canterbury (New Zealand), Purdue University, Springboard Atlantic, Mississippi State University, West Virginia University and others.

Wendy is a frequent speaker at commercialization and entrepreneurship forums including:  Pennsylvania State University, the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Springboard West Innovations, Innoventure2007 and Enterprise Ireland.

Wendy holds a Masters Degree in Business from Queen’s University and is a recipient of the Dr. Laurent Isabelle Award for innovation and excellence in education.  She lives in the heart of Canada’s innovation capital, Ottawa, Canada.  Please visit www.wendykennedy.com to learn more about Wendy and So what? who cares? why you?.

 

Chad Barden is a self-proclaimed “serial – entrepreneur” with a very diverse professional career. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Purdue University. Following his graduation, he held positions in the insurance and banking industries with Gibson Insurance Group and 1st Source Bank in Northern Indiana. During the late 1990’s, his career path followed a similar path to others in that time as he dove head first into the technology industry. As a product manager, he successfully launched a new product licensing the MasterLock brand name for Fortres Grand Corporation, a security software company in Plymouth, Indiana.

During his time at Fortres Grand, his consulting activities with other high-tech startups led him to leave Fortres and co-found Nuron, Inc. Nuron was a hardware company originally based in South Bend, Indiana, but quickly grew to have offices in New Jersey and Silicon Valley, California. Just one year after founding that company, it was sold to Intel Corporation. Mr. Barden moved to San Diego, California to work for Intel running Business Development for the Network Equipment Division, focusing his efforts on technology licensing, strategic supplier agreements, and mergers and acquisitions. The technology purchased from Nuron was spun out from Intel as another new venture known as Tarari. He ran the business development organization for Tarari and then became interim CEO of Tarari’s largest customer, National Broadband. 

Upon successfully filling the permanent top executive position at National Broadband with the former CEO of High Speed Access, Inc., he assumed the role of Executive Director of Crossroads Academy in Plymouth, Indiana. Crossroads is a Lilly Foundation funded technology learning center and incubator for emerging technology oriented companies. While assisting Crossroads, he co-founded IN-Vivo Ventures, a venture group focused on harvesting new research technologies from mid-western research universities and creating commercially viable companies based on those technologies.

As part of his role with In-Vivo Ventures, Barden has assumed the full-time role of CEO of Quadraspec, an IN-Vivo portfolio company. Quadraspec is a protein-array company focused on the drug development and diagnostics market segments.

Chad has held numerous positions with not-for-profit organizations. He has served as Chairman of the American Red Cross of Marshall County, as Large Industry Chair for the Marshall County United Way, was a founding member of the Crossroads Technology Group that eventually established Crossroads Academy, and served as Chairman of the Michiana Venture Network, an organization focused on matching local entrepreneurs with local investors. He now sits on the Nanotechnology Advisory Group to the office of the U.S. President and on the entrepreneurial advisory committee for BioCrossroads.

 

Alan H. Rebar
Senior Associate Vice President for Research Executive
Director, Discovery Park Purdue University
610 Purdue Mall West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2040
Phone: 765 496 6625
Email: rebar@purdue.edu

Education
DVM, Purdue University, 1973
Ph.D., Purdue University, 1975
Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Pathologists, 1978

Following a brief stay in mixed animal practice, Dr. Rebar served as assistant professor of Veterinary Clinical Pathology at Purdue University and later as an experimental pathologist at the Lovelace Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1979, he returned to Purdue as an Associate Professor and advanced through the ranks to Professor in 1983. He was Head of the Department of Veterinary Pathobiology from 1993-1996; Associate Dean for Research from 1989-1996 and Dean from 1996-2005.

Dr. Rebar's current positions are Purdue University Senior Associate Vice President for Research, Executive Director of Discovery Park at Purdue and Professor of Veterinary Clinical Pathology in the School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University. He is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, a former member of the Council of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, past-president of the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology, and the former editor of the journal Veterinary Clinical Pathology. He also served as Section Co-Editor of Toxicologic Pathology from 1995-1998 and on the Editorial Boards of American Journal of Veterinary Research from 1983-1985 and Fundamental and Applied Toxicology from 1983-1986. Dr. Rebar is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association.

Dr. Rebar is the author or co-author of 11 books/monographs, 23 textbook chapters, and over 100 scientific articles in the areas of diagnostic cytology, hematology, and inhalation toxicology. He is an internationally recognized expert in clinical laboratory medicine and has presented over 250 invited lectures nationally and internationally. He has consulted widely to the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government. In 1986 he served on the National Academy of Sciences Lithium Toxicity Review Board. He also served as a scientific advisor to the Departments of Interior and Justice during the Exxon Valdez Damage Assessment and Restoration Studies and was a member of the Environmental Protection Agency Panel on Pesticide Toxicity from 1992-1996. In 1989 Dr. Rebar received the Award of Merit from the American Animal Hospital Association, and in 1994 he received the Gaines Cycle Fido Award for outstanding contribution to small animal medicine and surgery. Dr. Rebar received the 2001 WALTHAM Award given in recognition of outstanding activities or contributions by a veterinarian that has resulted in the improvement of the well-being of companion animals in the international veterinary community.