Entrepreneur, IU business school faculty will guide process to bring medical innovations to market.
Entrepreneur, Indiana University Kelley School of Business faculty and Indiana Venture Fellow Todd Saxton, Ph.D., has been chosen as Regenstrief Institute’s inaugural vice president for business development. Dr. Saxton will help create and guide new business models for bringing Regenstrief healthcare innovations to market, and connect Kelley’s business research and teaching expertise to the Institute.
Dr. Saxton’s expertise is in corporate and competitive strategy, innovation, and new venture formation and development. He has experience in healthcare ventures and is currently an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at IU Kelley School of Business. He is also the co-founder of several commercial ventures and an active angel investor.
“Dr. Saxton’s extensive experience and expertise will help Regenstrief capitalize on our robust research portfolio, advancing our work to create real-world solutions that directly improve health and healthcare locally, nationally and globally,” said Peter Embí, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Regenstrief Institute. “His innovative ideas and strategic thinking will bring a new dimension to the institute and its approach to the constantly changing entrepreneurial environment.”
One of Dr. Saxton’s first tasks is to develop a business development plan that will accelerate health innovations into solutions that improve health and healthcare. Under consideration are a venture lab in which novel approaches to health and healthcare will be applied and validated, a health tech incubator, and expert consulting services. Dr. Saxton will also work to foster and enable an entrepreneurial culture among the institute’s researchers and affiliates to enable greater engagement with potential business partners.
“The vice president for business development is a critical next step to advance an aggressive, creative, and dynamic approach to translating research discoveries into practice and to bolster the continued success of the institute and its partners,” said Dr. Embí. “This appointment completes a triumvirate of new leadership positions to further advance Regenstrief’s internal and external acumen, agility and collaboration. These new leaders join us at a pivotal time in our organization’s history. As we mark 50 years, we look to the future and the exciting potential for continued growth, innovation and impact. These new additions to our executive team will play a crucial role in leading Regenstrief into its next half century.” The other two recently filled vice president positions are focused on faculty development and research development.
“Regenstrief Institute has a great history of groundbreaking research and innovations, and now is the time to leverage all that work into solutions that will have the greatest impact on the health of individuals and populations,” said Dr. Saxton. “I look forward to working closely with faculty, staff and the venture community to facilitate new partnerships and accelerate innovations. I am excited to help Regenstrief envision and build a business development function and team, and establish bridges to Kelley’s student and alumni talent, as well as considerable expertise in innovation and organizations.”
Dr. Saxton will remain in his roles at IU, where he currently teaches in the Business of Medicine MBA program for physicians, the Evening MBA program, and the Kelley Direct Online MBA program. He has received multiple honors, including the Lilly Teaching Award as top graduate instructor.
In his career, Dr. Saxton has guided the development of more than 100 strategic analyses of existing companies and more than 50 business plans. He has consulted with emergent and high growth ventures on their launches and business plans.
Dr. Saxton served on the board and as president of the Venture Club of Indiana, and currently sits on advisory boards for Diagnotes Inc., the Fight for Life Foundation, PERQ, VisionTech Partners angel investment network and the Indiana Center for Biomedical Innovation. He is the Director of the DIVE (Discovery, Innovation, and Ventures Enterprise) program for Kelley Evening MBA program students with an interest in venturing. Dr. Saxton is a founding member of AngelBoM, an angel investing group affiliated with Kelley’s Business of Medicine MBA program. He and colleagues formed LSV Launchpad to accelerate the launch of healthcare ventures. In 2018, he helped co-found the Indiana Chapter of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SoPE).
The Regenstrief Institute and its cadre of research scientists are responsible for a growing number of major health care studies and innovations. Examples include developing global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records and health information exchanges, improving patient-physician communications and the creation and assessment of models of care that inform clinical practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe.
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