Patrick J. Ennis

Venture Partner

2019 - Current

Board Member

2016

Member Commercialization Advisory Board

2017 - 2022

CTO

2016 - 2019

Head of incubation and startup creation

2008 - 2019

Member of senior team which raised and deployed private equity funds in excess of $6B. Determined and implemented invention investment strategy by analyzing the intersection of research, technology and markets worldwide. Recruited, built and lead an international team of interdisciplinary professionals across 8 countries. Shepherded inventions from idea stage to market via multiple VC-funded startup companies. Worked with professors, scientists, engineers and inventors to commercialize their technology. Worked with corporations worldwide to help them expand their product lines and garner new revenue. Built an international open innovation network of more than 20,000 inventors.

Board Member

2013 - 2018

Managing Director

1998 - 2008

Invested in a lead capacity in seed and early stage high-technology companies in computing, communications, semiconductors, materials science and energy. Built portfolio companies and served on 10+ boards of directors. Founding investor and board member of Impinj, the leading RFID company. Worked closely with major Universities, National Labs, and Corporate Labs to form companies based on unique technologies. Part of ARCH core team that raised and managed 7 funds, $1.4B and 60+ active portfolio companies. Worked closely with portfolio company founders and management to develop and execute technical, product, business and sales plans. Helped close 30+ company financing deals for an aggregate value of $500M+ . Served as expert witness in a high technology trial.

Kauffman Fellow

1998 - 2000

Product Manager

1996 - 1998

Business manager with profit and loss responsibility for fiber optic communications products utilizing wavelength division multiplexing. Presented numerous sales proposals to major international telecom carriers including AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Verizon, NTT, France Telecom, British Telecom, etc. Partnered with telecom carriers to develop financial models for new services. Developed engineering and product requirements for WDM and optical switching systems. Conducting competitive analyses studies for the optical networking industry. Directed research efforts to ensure alignment with future business opportunities. Led efforts to respond to “Request for Proposals” for contracts totaling in excess of $1B.

Marketing Manager / Product Manager

1995 - 1997

Led three consumer product launches and worked with major advertising agencies to develop and execute comprehensive marketing campaigns for innovative services. Managed AT&T’s Directory business. Profit and Loss responsibility for product lines (consumer, business and wireless) comprising an annual revenue stream in excess of $250M. Negotiated business deals and contract terms with suppliers of customer call centers. Led new product development efforts and coordinated activities of sales, marketing and engineering groups to ensure flawless service roll outs. Consultant for AT&T’s Network Management reengineering effort, with an emphasis on Internet operations, reliability and monitoring. Performed competitive analyses for information services and speech recognition industries. Successfully expanded, in a team environment, an annual revenue stream from $70M to $120M while maintaining a 35% return on sales derived from a niche credit card product. Negotiated contract terms with VISA and MasterCard. Worked with internal and external vendors in the commercial credit card industry to reduce fraud using a variety of computerized expert systems and predictive models. Led a 50 person team responsible for developing and marketing AT&T's VoiceLinesm Service which uses the latest in computerized speech recognition technology. Managed the overall project ($30M) and prepared the business case. Lobbied members of Congress to articulate AT&T's position on the 1996 Telecom Act. Overall product feature architect, ensuring compatibility and interoperability with AT&T's entire communications Network.

Member of Technical Staff / Systems Engineer

1992 - 1995

Led a multi-million dollar software and hardware development project using advanced project management and source-code control methodologies. Developed a new telecommunications service based on computerized speech recognition. Managed a staff of software developers and engineers, responsible for the development of a main operations, administration and maintenance subsystem. Performed network and switching feasibility studies in conjunction with external vendors. Conducted network operations planning for technical projects. Coordinated with field personnel to determine optimal disaster recovery procedures. Wrote software engineering requirements and developed reliability models. Defined quality metrics and security features for inclusion in new services.