Speakers
Senior Vice President Global Strategic Networks
Ann Gabriel heads Elsevier’s Global Strategic Networks team , which engages with key stakeholders across the research enterprise to establish strategic collaborations and use data analytics to address societal challenges in the areas of sustainability, diversity & inclusion and open science. Prior to her current role, she held a variety of positions at the forefront of scholarly communication – most recently as Elsevier’s Publishing Director for journals in Computer Science and Engineering, as well as electronic product development for Elsevier’s ScienceDirect platform.
Director of Solution Services
Daniel Calto is the Director of Solution Services at Elsevier. As a leader in the rapidly growing analytical software business, he has helped build the business from inception to $180M in total sales in 2020, working in global roles in sales, product development, and business development. Previously, Calto managed a global team of 30+ consultants, managed a $600 million research portfolio and staff of 50 at a Top-10 research institution and led a successful $6 million full-lifecycle implementation of critical software system. He restructured business operations and staff to leverage new systems capabilities and improve service delivery. His expertise is in strategic planning and business analysis.
Vice President
Leslee K. Gilbert has an extensive background in higher education, research, technology development, and politics. She has nearly 12 years hands-on experience in the Washington policy-making process, and over 20 years of experience working in and with institutions of higher education. She uses her insider’s understanding of academia and government policy to help her clients navigate the changing world of Washington. As a Vice President at VSA, Leslee focuses on federal research, development, and competitiveness. In addition to helping clients navigate Congressional policy making, she has developed a research and development consulting practice focused on federal agencies. Through partnerships with former officials from several key agencies, she assembles teams of experts to meet clients’ unique needs. By coordinating and managing these teams, Leslee helps clients identify federal funding trends across multiple agencies and maximize their comparative advantages.
Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Director of the Innovation Institute
Evan Facher is Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Director of the Innovation Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. In this role, Evan promotes the commercial and societal potential of faculty and student discoveries, and works with regional businesses to enhance the Pittsburgh regional innovation ecosystem. Most recently, Evan was President/CEO of SironRX Therapeutics, a private, clinical-stage company developing novel drug therapies. Prior to this, Evan worked in Bayer Healthcare’s medical device division as General Manager of its Pittsburgh Interventional business. During this tenure Evan also served as Executive Director of Corporate Development overseeing company strategy and M&A. Evan started his career as Senior Manager Business Development at the biotechnology company Athersys, where he was a business development leader creating partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies. Over his career, Evan has been involved with corporate fundraisings bringing in nearly $100 million from venture, strategic partner and grant sources as well as a leader in company and product acquisitions totaling over $600 million of investments. Evan holds a Ph.D. in Human Genetics from the University of Pittsburgh an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Case Western Reserve University and a B.S. in Biology from the University of Miami (FL).
Executive Director
Sean Luther is the Executive Director of InnovatePGH – a public/private partnership accelerating Pittsburgh into a position as a global innovation city. InnovatePGH is implementing recommendations from the recently published Brookings Institution, “Capturing the next economy,” report including developing a Pittsburgh Innovation District, centered on Oakland, building and supporting Pittsburgh’s innovation clusters, improving the pipeline of high-growth entrepreneurs, and developing related workforce opportunities. Sean has spent the past decade integrating advanced economic development, sustainability, mobility and real estate fundamentals into urban place management. Prior to launching InnovatePGH, Sean was at the helm of Envision Downtown, a next generation public/private partnership between City of Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. Sean also previously directed Green Building Alliance’s Pittsburgh 2030 District and served as President & CEO of Downtown Roanoke, Inc. in Roanoke, Virginia.
A Pittsburgh native, Sean earned a BS in Political Science and a Masters in Real Estate Development from (2016 national college football champion) Clemson University. Sean also holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the Great Cities Institute at the University of Illinois-Chicago and is a LEED AP ND. He serves on the Board of Directors for the International Downtown Association and Uptown Partners.
Associate Vice President of Business Engagement and Strategy
Mark’s work focuses on the development of private sector partnerships in the areas of faculty and student engagement, sponsored research, dramatically increasing the awareness of less-traveled avenues of university-business engagement (i.e., IP, startups, executive/customized education, co-location, etc.) — and leading and collaborating with others to do the same.
Prior to joining CMU in 2016, Mark had extensive experience in university-industry partnerships, government-university-industry programs, tech-based economic development and university-based program design and management. He has worked in corporations and a VC-funded startup and served as a co-founder and/or advisor to university-born businesses and entrepreneurs in positions with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and at Johns Hopkins University. Mark holds a master’s degree from the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor’s degree in speech communications from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Mark has a passion for gravel cycling, being outdoors, enjoying time with family and friends, storytelling and meeting new people.
