By Sara Gilgore – Staff Reporter, Washington Business Journal Aug 21, 2024 - Sally Allain, the inaugural head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation’s D.C. incubator, has left her position after more than four years — to grow Virginia Tech’s health sciences research enterprise.
Allain, a longtime J&J exec who built up and led the local JLabs hub that planted roots on Children’s National Hospital’s Walter Reed campus in spring 2019, stepped away this month, announcing her departure in a LinkedIn post. She’ll start with Virginia Tech next week as chief health sciences growth and innovation officer, a newly created position charged with spinning out technology companies and tapping big-name partners across sectors.
In her new position, Allain will report to Michael Friedlander, Virginia Tech’s vice president for health sciences and technology, and executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
Allain was “looking for new challenges” and wanted to get back to strategy and business development, she said in an interview Tuesday. Blacksburg-based Virginia Tech, also with a presence on the Children’s National Research and Innovation Campus, is “at such an inflection point of growth and opportunities,” she said. “Knowing some of their immediate plans and then being able to move into a role and help them shape longer-term plans — it’s just the right time to join.”
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