Executive Director, Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center (4871U), Office of the Vice Chancellor for

Executive Director, Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center (4871U), Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research #88031

At the University of California, Berkeley , we are dedicated to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. Our culture of openness, freedom, and belonging makes it a special place for students, faculty, and staff, who are among the most talented and accomplished anywhere, including Nobel laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, and Mac Arthur Fellows. Since our founding in 1868, we have been an engine for innovation - driving intellectual, economic, and social progress that benefits California, the U.S., and beyond.

Together, we change the world.

At Berkeley, the best careers are built on a foundation of continuous learning and growth . We actively support professional development by providing all full-time staff employees with at least 80 hours of paid time per year and provide space for supportive colleague communities via numerous employee resource groups.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (VCRO) has overall managerial responsibility for Berkeley's research enterprise. Within the VCRO, and under the Office of the Chief Innovation & Entrepreneurship Officer, UC Berkeley's Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center (LSEC) is a unique "center of centers" that fosters life sciences entrepreneurship by coordinating and building upon existing campus resources.

The Executive Director (ED) is responsible for running, scaling, and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center (LSEC). Operating as a unique "center-of-centers," created in 2021, LSEC connects and catalyzes UC Berkeley’s world-class life sciences and entrepreneurship ecosystems—including Berkeley Sky Deck, Bakar Labs, the Innovative Genomics Institute (IGI), the Bakar Fellows Program, the Molecular Therapeutics Institute, Berkeley Haas, and others.

The Executive Director operates with a high degree of autonomy and consensus-building skill, managing complex, unprecedented collaborations across organizational boundaries. A prime example includes leading and coordinating high-profile, multi-entity initiatives like the Berkeley Bio Startup Showcase at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. This role requires a balance of high-level external relationship management, fundraising, and board governance, paired with a disciplined, execution-focused approach to managing and optimizing LSEC's established portfolio of academic and startup programs.

The Executive Director’s mandate spans five core strategic and operational areas:

• Internal Ecosystem Coordination & Development: Facilitates seamless collaboration across previously uncoordinated campus entities. The ED must work fluidly across institutional boundaries, identifying and designing innovative programmatic connections that add collective value to the UC Berkeley ecosystem.
• Board Management: Directly leads and engages LSEC’s Board of Advisors and its broader network of industry experts, serving as the primary liaison to align board expertise with the center's goals.
• External Relationship Management: Manages and generalizes external industry and donor relationships, ensuring LSEC complements rather than disrupts existing campus partnerships, while maximizing the mutual value generated for both the campus and external partners.
• Financial Model & Sustainability: Leads the transition of LSEC from its initial five-year "term" startup capital toward a self-sustaining financial model. The ED is responsible for identifying new capital pipelines, revenue models, and donor opportunities to fund high-value, emerging initiatives.
• Academic Program Design & Optimization: Oversees the delivery, design, and iterative improvement of LSEC's programs. These programs catalyze Berkeley's innovation ecosystem and include startup creation support (Venture Grant Program), the Entrepreneur-in-Residence program, market-needs workshops (I-Corps @ LSEC), graduate career pathway development (LSEC-Nucleate Venture Fellows), and high-profile public-facing showcases.

The First Review Date for this job is…