David Allen

Partner

Dr. David Allen is a Partner at SEP, guiding the “start early” aspect of our investment strategy. David has spent his working life teaching, conducting research, and engaging in technology development and commercialization at five US universities. He retired from his position as Vice President of Tech Launch Arizona at the University of Arizona in 2018. Previously, David was Associate VP for Technology Transfer for the University of Colorado system, Associate VP for Technology Partnerships at Ohio State University, and Associate VP for Technology and Economic Development at Ohio University (where he also served as Director of the Edison Biotechnology Institute). During his career in tech transfer, David supervised over 600 exclusive licenses, enabled over 175 startups, managed nearly 225 POC projects, and successfully negotiated two major ($40M+) royalty monetizations.

David holds a BA in Sociology and a PhD in Political Economy from Indiana University Bloomington and MRP in Regional Planning and MPA in Public Administration from Penn State University. Before working in tech transfer, David was a professor at Penn State University. His Ph.D. chairperson and mentor was the late Elinor Ostrom, a co-recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economics.