TechJournal South selected 25 of most influential people in the Southeast technology and entrepreneurial space from nominations by venture capitalists, serial entrepreneurs, and tech related organizations in its Nov. print edition. We’ll be running a selection of them daily for the next few weeks. Today: Aurora Funds’ Jeff Clark; University of Florida’s David Day; and Wayne Jackson, CEO, Sourcefire.
Jeff Clark, Managing General Partner, The Aurora Funds, Durham, NC
DURHAM, NC—Jeff Clark, well-known to many in the venture and entrepreneurial community, co-founded The Aurora Funds with Scott Albert in 1994. While Albert himself is also an influential figure in the Southeast investment community, Clark is probably more visible at a variety of venture-related events in and out of the Research Triangle.
Clark works primarily with Aurora’s life sciences portfolio. He pulls from his strategic planning and operational experience to help these companies create or refine business plans, build solid management teams, develop strategic partnerships and secure key customers.
Jeff currently serves on the boards of several of Aurora’s life science portfolio companies, including Aldagen, Argos Therapeutics, Metabolon, and Regado Biosciences, assisting in the strategic direction of each.
Prior to forming Aurora, Jeff spent thirteen years working in development and external affairs for Duke University (including Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duke Medical Center and the School of Engineering). Through Aurora, he hoped to close the gap between local universities and the venture capital community to facilitate the growth of life science companies.
Clark is chair of the NC Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) and the Overseers of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, among others.
David Day, Director of Technology Licensing, University of Florida, Gainsville
GAINSVILLE, FL–David L. Day is the director of the Office of Technology Licensing. Day oversees the commercialization efforts of all UF technologies. The University of Florida has one of the top licensing offices in the country and ranks seventh in licensing revenue.
Day is also the director of the Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator in Alachua, Florida. He serves on the board of the Southeastern Bio Investors Forum, Bio Florida and the Florida Research Consortium.
The University’s Office of Technology Licensing (OTL) executed 74 licenses and options in fiscal year 2007, a record for the office. UF has consistently ranked in the top ten universities in the country in annual licensing income earning over $43 million in fiscal year 2006. OTL is noted for its start-up company program, spinning off 10 to 14 new businesses per year most of which are backed by venture and angel investors.
OTL was ranked the fifth best technology transfer office in the U.S and Canada by the Milken Institute, #1 among individual public institutions. The Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator was 2nd among technology incubators internationally last year in the NBIA Incubator of the year competition.
Wayne Jackson, CEO, Sourcefire
COLUMBIA, MD– Wayne Jackson races cars as a hobby and gets his companies to take the checkered flag as well.
Jackson joined Sourcefire in May of 2002 and serves as its chairman and CEO. Although when he first heard about Sourcefire, he was skeptical of its chances for success, he changed his mind. When he took the helm at Sourcefire, it had 58 customers and $2 million in revenue.
During Jackson’s tenure, Sourcefire grew from a fledgling open source startup to a profitable category leader with more than 200 employees and operations worldwide. On March 9, 2007, Sourcefire raised more than $86 million dollars in its initial public offering of stock – the first network security industry IPO in over five years.
Before joining Sourcefire, Wayne co-founded Riverbed Technologies, a wireless infrastructure company, and served as its CEO until the successful sale of the company to Aether Systems for more than $1 billion dollars in March of 2000. At Riverbed, Wayne grew the company from startup to category winner in less than two years with more than 100 employees and relationships with industry leaders including Palm, Oracle, IBM, Symbol, and Microsoft.
As the Managing Director of Aether Capital, Wayne led the process for strategic investing and played a key role in two secondary stock offerings that raised more than $2 billion dollars. Previously, Wayne built a sophisticated emerging technologies profit center for a large systems integrator and has consulted to organizations including General Electric, the World Bank, and the Federal Reserve.
On the Web: www.sourcefire.com
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