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Please join me in celebrating two exciting leadership changes at JHTV. Steve Kousouris, who has been serving as Interim Executive Director of Technology Transfer at JHTV since June, has assumed this role permanently effective Jan.1. Additionally, Mark Bailey, previously Associate Director of Finance, will assume responsibility for the portfolio that Steve has overseen since 2013 in the capacity of Director, Finance & Administration.

Steve Kousouris joined JHTV in 2013 as Senior Director of Finance and Administration. In his time as the finance and operations lead for the office, he has helped JHTV grow into a multi-faceted commercialization hub, providing core tech transfer functions as well as a rich environment for entrepreneurs and a growing corporate partnerships function.

Upon the departure of Neil Veloso from the role this past spring, Steve assumed interim responsibility for technology transfer. Over the course of the last few months, Steve has adeptly managed the office – one of the busiest tech transfer offices in the country, as measured by the volume of disclosures. Steve has already implemented a number of initiatives related to technology cultivation, faculty service and licensing operations.

His talents as a manager, negotiator and planner and his broad knowledge of business transactions uniquely qualify Steve for this critical role. Steve is able to chart clear, actionable courses in complex situations. Steve is recognized among staff as a steady, grounding force and thoughtful decision maker. Steve is committed to JHTV’s values of customer service, transparency and accountability.

Steve and his licensing team will work closely with faculty and other inventors across the university to ensure the commercial opportunity for each Johns Hopkins discovery is optimized. He also will work with university startups and licensees to create sustainable win-win agreements that maximize the impact of discovery at Johns Hopkins. Steve will oversee the processing of approximately 4,500 material transfer agreements, 500 disclosures and 130 licensing agreements annually.

Prior to Hopkins, Steve held a number of health care management positions, overseeing sales and marketing and general operations in both established corporate and startup environments. During his health care career, Steve worked on a number of mergers and acquisitions, including the acquisition of startup companies, and did extensive work selling to life sciences companies. Steve also founded a consulting firm that conducted business valuation, acquisition marketing, negotiation and due diligence support services for small and mid-sized privately-held companies in the greater Baltimore area.

Steve received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Western Maryland College, a master’s in health science from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and an MBA from Loyola College in Maryland.

Mark Bailey began his career at the university in 2011, first in the Research Administration Program and then in finance at the Whiting School of Engineering. In his capacity as Senior Financial Analyst at Whiting, Mark helped manage the launch of FastForward as the university’s first incubator, a prescient creation of Whiting that has evolved into a thriving university startup ecosystem. In addition to budget responsibility for FastForward at Whiting, he also worked closely with the Homewood campus-focused intellectual property team.

Having caught the university commercialization bug, Mark joined JHTV in 2015, where he has taken on increasing responsibility for financial operations, financial analysis and business planning.

Mark possesses a high standard for excellence and leads a team that, indeed, embodies excellence – from efficient processing of licensing revenue distributions to faculty, payments to third parties and collection of patent reimbursement expenses. Mark is known for diligence, integrity and accessibility, someone always prepared with analysis, both financial and strategic. As JHTV approaches its five-year anniversary, Mark will be instrumental in establishing a financial plan that supports our vision for excellence in applied innovation and translation across the university.

Mark earned his bachelor’s degree and MBA from University of Baltimore. Mark serves on the board of directors of the Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union.

Sincerely,

Christy Wyskiel, Senior Advisor to the President Head of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures