Harold H. Shlevin, Ph.D., a 30-year biosciences-industry executive and researcher, has joined Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) as manager of ATDC-Biosciences. He will serve as a startup catalyst advising new bioscience companies within the ATDC.
In his new ATDC position, Shlevin will evaluate and guide new and emerging bioscience enterprises that are based on Georgia Tech research innovations as well as others across Georgia. He will work with Nina Sawczuk, a veteran biosciences entrepreneur who is now ATDC’s assistant director for biosciences, responsible for supporting the commercialization of bioscience innovation throughout the state.
“There is, and will continue to be, a willingness among venture capitalists and others to invest in innovation that helps people live healthier lives,” Shlevin said. “Georgia Tech is well-positioned to supply that innovation, because of the high quality and diversity of multi-disciplinary science here, and because there is a willingness among the faculty to see their science realized in some type of application.”
From 1998-2006, Shlevin held positions of increasing responsibility at Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc. These posts included global senior vice president of Solvay Pharmaceuticals-SA, president and CEO of Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., and senior vice president of business development and scientific affairs.
Shlevin’s combination of academic and business experience offers a strong background for his work as an ATDC biosciences manager and catalyst, said Stephen Fleming, vice provost at Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute, ATDC’s parent organization.
“Harold’s decision to join ATDC is good news for Georgia Tech and Georgia,” Fleming said. “I’m confident he will help us expand Georgia’s bioscience industry, which plays a highly important economic role in the state.”
Shlevin earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston University and a master’s and a doctorate in physiology from University of Rochester Medical School. His doctoral research focused on electrophysiology and biophysics of excitable cells.
He holds a post-doctoral certificate in pharmacology and physiology from the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota. He also served as an assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology at Mayo Medical School and the University of Minnesota.
Shlevin has an extensive list of both academic and business publications. He holds several global patents covering a variety of medical devices, drugs and electromechanical products, and has six patents pending.
He has been active in the community, serving on the board of advisers of Morehouse School of Medicine and the psychiatry department of Emory University School of Medicine. He has been an adviser and director of several healthcare-related software companies and a nanotechnology-oriented startup company focused on oncology. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Georgia Bio organization and is vice chair of its executive committee. He is also on the board of directors of Cardiome Pharma Corp.
Shlevin believes Georgia is well positioned to expand its already extensive list of bioscience companies. He praised Georgia Tech’s close connections with Emory University and its School of Medicine. Georgia Tech’s collaboration with Emory has produced the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, which is ranked among the nation’s top biomedical engineering schools.
“The ability to reach out to people who are practicing clinical medicine and receive their input is a huge benefit,” he said. “It is those people who can best help define the potential application of a given technology, and that in turn reduces market risk and supports the funding of ventures based on that technology.”
ATDC is a startup accelerator that helps Georgia technology entrepreneurs launch and build successful companies. Founded in 1980, ATDC has helped create millions of dollars in tax revenues by graduating more than 120 companies, which together have raised more than a billion dollars in outside financing.
Recently ATDC expanded its mission by merging with Georgia Tech’s VentureLab and with the Georgia SBIR Assistance Program. The change enables ATDC to greatly extend its reach to serve more technology companies along multiple growth paths and at all stages of development. ATDC has opened its membership to all technology entrepreneurs in Georgia, from those at the earliest conception stage to the well-established, venture-fundable companies.
ATDC is part of the Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI2) at Georgia Tech, which helps Georgia enterprises improve their competitiveness through the application of science, technology and innovation. ATDC currently has three facilities; two at Georgia Tech’s main campus in Atlanta, and one at Georgia Tech’s satellite campus in Savannah.
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Writer: Rick Robinson