Josh Sprague opened the meeting and Jennifer Hendrickson was managing the questions. The invocation was going to be given by Mike Sitek, but we had a little technical difficulty. Instead we did the Pledge of Allegiance and the four-way test.Susan Stiles gave an update on the annual fund. We are a little short of our goals and could use a few more bucks if you are so inclined!
Tom McNellis-a long time member and generous contributor- recently passed away. He was honored and recognized by Josh Sprague. Ann Platt will send out future information. 
Andrea Fahrenkrug gave her new member classification introduction. She grew up in Hutchinson. She has a husband and two dogs-Jack and Jessie. She graduated from St Cloud State and started working in advertising. Then she moved to the medical device industry with Medtronic and Boston Scientific. On a personal level, she got involved with the Junior League. Her career progressed to becoming a fundraiser for a U of M foundation and then move to fund raise for animals for 8 years for the VMC. Presently she works for a company that focuses on cancer cures for dogs. She is fundraising for this in the capacity as a VC. Her husband is a PGA golf teaching professional at Braemar.
Michael Hynes, a new member gave us his classification talk. Born in St Paul, he was adopted by a family in Silver Bay. His dad worked in the mining industry and he still lives in the same area. Michael is very musically inclined and has played the piano since 1st grade. Michael attended UMD but did not finish there. He has pursued careers in music having played instruments in a few bands. His career focus now is with his wife as a recruiter in the medical device industry- for the past 18 years. He also has a Xmas related business that he has done for 7 years. Hobbies include hiking, golf, hockey, and travel and explore.
Xu Zou is our speaker. Xu is a technology portfolio manager for the U of M. He facilitates the conversion of technology from the bench to marketplace. Previously, he has worked for Abbott Laboratories. He is personally very involved in the STEM program. He has earned multiple degrees and a PHD. Xu helps figure out how to commercialize research and inventions with patents and licensing. His presentation demonstrated the flow and the process of the commercialization of ideas. Back in 1980, because of the Bayh Dole Act, universities could own the patents from research and could profit from them. Prior to this, the ownership belonged to the federal government. The U of M received almost 21M in revenue from their licensing last year. This in turn has helped generate more research and development because more funds are now available. One of their recent commercialization successes was done in 30 days. The U of M was a “coventer” of a simple ventilator for Covid 19 patients.Two previous big successes for the U of M include the creation of Honeycrisp apples and a licensing protocol -called HIV Therapeutic, which has brought in almost 600M. They also have some licensing to Adobe and their photoshop software. They also created an FDA approved questionnaire that is copyrighted. It is called “Living With Heart Failure” and is a standard protocol. Xu did a great job reviewing the differences between Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights and Trade secrets. The U of M has a Venture Center that has over 160 startups that have raised over 400M. Almost 78% are still functioning as a business or entity. There was a question by Hannelore Brucker. Unfortunately, Xu cannot discuss vaccine data or other proprietary information regarding Covid 19 at this time other than to say that they are working with Mayo. Josh asked about the outlook for the future- are we set to flourish? Because of the great diversity of start-ups, Xu feels the U of M Ventures program is well positioned to continue to produce leaders. Josh Sprague thanked the speaker and the meeting was adjourned.
Watch the You Tube May 28 meeting video for Jennifer Hendrickson
Mike Hynes and wife, Jeani