As executive director, Chris Coburn has built Cleveland Clinic’s corporate venturing unit into a 70-person organisation since he was charged with setting it up 12 years ago.
Coburn said: “Cleveland Clinic had contemplated activities along these lines, but had never committed itself with the same vigour and vision you would associate with Cleveland Clinic in the clinical field. I was brought on to make this as significant an undertaking as it could be and that is the way it has played out.
He added: “We have had 52 spin-offs raise $641m. Every one of those dollars invested represents an independent source of capital, [thereby] sharing our perspective on the potential of what has come out of Cleveland Clinic. Kleiner [Perkins Caufield & Byers], Austin Ventures, JJDC [Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation] and Novartis Ventures are all in our deals. We find it very gratifying these groups invest in such a large magnitude in our deals.”
Coburn serves on the boards of Autonomic Technologies, Cleveland HeartLab, Explorys, PeriTec and BioEnterprise. He is a former vice-president and general manager of Battelle Memorial Institute, director of the US Enrichment Corporation and a published author on the subject of public sector commercialisation initiatives.
Lessons from the top: Coburn said: “I think any corporate venturing arm is always in a state of flux having to respond to two overall, sometimes competing objectives, both strategic effectiveness and the financial return of group. If the latter is not significant enough or if the former is over-looked, this raises the question why not invest the money somewhere else? Those divergent objectives have to be in balance to achieve at the level we have set out to do.”