Taj Mattu, PHD

CEO, Foresight UK

Dr. Taj S. Mattu is the Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at Bristol University. He is a member of the Licensing Executives Society, an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and a member of PraxisUnico and the Association of University Technology managers. Having led license deals on technologies a variety of fields he is acutely aware of the specific challenges of taking early stage technology through the commercialization process via industrial engagement.

At the UK Ministry of Defense’s research facility at Porton Down (the Defense Science & Technology Laboratory) he was initially responsible for the full review of the intellectual property portfolio and the branding and marketing collateral. This role evolved into reviewing best practice in the areas of rewards to investors, inventor engagement and IP commercialization and then implementing those outputs. Dr. Mattu also commercialized intellectual property arising from the Biomedical and Detection Departments, and the creation and administration of the Ploughshare Innovation Fund whose gap finance supported technology development through to either spin-out or license deals.

In 2011 Dr. Mattu set up the UK franchisee of Foresight Science & Technology Inc. where he worked with a University and a number of SMEs to further their commercialization objectives. At Foresight Dr. Mattu contributed to the market valuation of technologies for the US National Institutes of Health, US Department of Energy, the Singapore National Medical Research Council, along with countless US Universities.

Dr. Mattu (as a founding Director) was part of the management team that, to date, has raised £1m in loans from third parties, £1.8m in equity from third parties and was the principle legal negotiator for an investment of £8.9m from a blue-chip investor in London Recycling & Renewable Energy Limited in Drenl, Ltd.