University of Kentucky

Ian McClure is the Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Impact at the University of Kentucky where he oversees a team of 18 staff managing the University’s inventions.

In this role, Ian is also a PI on the NIH’s Regional Technology Transfer Accelerator Hub grant for the Southeast IDeA states region, chairs the Ohio Valley Affiliates for Life Sciences (OVALS), and is a PI and sits on the Board for the Commonwealth Commercialization Center (C3), a state-supported project to provide tech transfer services to all other universities in the state. Ian began his career as a Mergers &
Acquisitions (M&A) and Intellectual Property (IP) transactions attorney. Following private practice, he helped build a start-up company in Chicago that was the world’s first financial exchange for IP and technology rights, which he led through product development, capital raise, proof of concept and growth to 30+ full time employees.

Most recently, Ian was Vice President of IP Strategy for Black Stone IP (acquired by Houlihan Lokey), a boutique investment bank headquartered in San Francisco focused on IP-rich M&A and technology-driven transactions. In parallel, he teaches graduate courses on the Law & Business of IP Management at Chicago-Kent College of Law and the University of Kentucky College of Law. Ian is a founding member of the LES Standards Initiatives’ Intangible Assets in the Boardroom committee and has been named one of the World’s Leading IP Strategists by IAM Magazine every year since 2012.