Guest: Eric Smith | Executive Director for UA Center for Innovation

Guest: Eric Smith | Executive Director for UA Center for Innovation Topic: Amber Smith and Eric Smith talk about what the UA Center for Innovation and Tech Parks Arizona have been doing with the 53 startups and what impact the startups are making in the community. They also discuss the upcoming Copper Cactus Awards, including the Best Startup of the Year category that Tech Park Arizona sponsors. They’re looking for grit, determination and market need in the winner. Bio: Eric Smith brings with him a decade’s worth of technology commercialization experience and a passion for entrepreneurship. Smith came to the UA Center for Innovation after serving as the commercialization network manager for Tech Launch Arizona (TLA), UA’s technology transfer unit. While at TLA, he built and leveraged a 1600-person world-wide commercialization network and managed TLA's NSF I-Corps Site program. An entrepreneur in his own right, after Eric started, developed and sold his first company, he embarked on a career in technology startups. Smith holds a BSBA in business management and entrepreneurship and an MBA from the University of Arizona.