Speakers

Bob oversees the CTTEC team and all elements of the licensing and start-up commercialization processes within the center. He spearheaded the reorganization of CTTEC after becoming Director in 2002. Under his leadership, the center went from a $2M loss to break-even in three years. The Milken Institute, in its April 2017 publication, "Concept to Commercialization, The Best Universities for Technology Transfer", has Carnegie Mellon ranked #10 in the United States.

During his time at Carnegie Mellon, he has personally negotiated over 350 license, research, and other complex agreements with companies ranging in size from start-up to multinational.

Bob also developed then implemented new spin-off guidelines in 2002, which were designed to both encourage entrepreneurship and facilitate investment; on average, the program resulted in a 250% increase in the number of new companies per year and a reduction in the time to spin-out by 60%.

Bob has been personally involved in the formation of several dozen CMU spin-offs. Bob has previously served as a member of the board of directors for a number of startup companies and entities including Mediasite, Inc., Wisdom Technologies Corporation, Carnegie Interactive, Inc., Chromodynamics, Inc., Carnegie Technology Holdings, and the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association. He has participated in nine rounds of venture capital, six acquisitions and one bankruptcy (and found each one to be a unique learning experience). He is currently a Director at iCarnegie, Inc.

In 2005, after several years of promoting the concept regionally, Bob submitted a successful proposal to the Heinz Endowments to establish a "Gap Fund" to make small, awards to researchers exploring start-up opportunities. Since that time, in concert with his colleagues in CTTEC, more than $4M has been raised from various foundations and other agencies to support new company formation. Over $3.7M has been distributed to date.

Prior to CTTEC, Bob spent ten years in industry, the majority of that time with a manufacturer of electrical and electronic components. He worked closely with industrial customers on commercialization, starting with the design/R&D stage through product development and, finally, introduction. Bob's expertise covers a wide range of industries including electrical assemblies and systems, automotive, and telecommunications.

Bob received his BA History/Mathematics and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He has also attended the Venture Capital Institute and the Harvard Program on Negotiation.

David is a National Group Leader of the Dentons Venture Technology and Emerging Growth Companies Group, concentrating his practice on providing general business and tax counsel to robotics, life science, information technology, and other emerging growth companies, with a particular focus on university spin-offs. David also represents angel, institutional and strategic investors in these sectors. David's practice is both national and international in scope, but locally he has been at the forefront of some of Pittsburgh's most important and innovative business transactions, helping to transform the city as a world leader in the robotics industry and a vital player in the life sciences arena. David serves on the Board of the Pittsburgh Robotics Network, and throughout his career has created and led initiatives to attract and retain the talent that is fueling Pittsburgh's growth. David has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® in four separate categories: Corporate, Tax, Technology and Venture Capital Law. David was most recently honored as the 2025 'Lawyer of the Year' for Venture Capital Law in Pittsburgh by Best Lawyers.

Afshan Khan is an innovation executive, venture advisor, and educator with over a decade of experience helping entrepreneurs translate technology into scalable, market-ready businesses. She brings a rare combination of operator, investor, and academic perspectives shaped by leadership roles across venture investing, advanced manufacturing, and global operations. 

Afshan served as a Portfolio Executive for Hardware and Robotics at Innovation Works, one of the nation's leading early-stage investors. She has worked closely with founders across robotics, AI, advanced manufacturing, energy, consumer products, and medical devices, supporting companies from inception through growth. Her work includes sourcing and evaluating startups for investment, advising founders on strategy, fundraising, and operations, and serving as a board director and advisor. She has helped recommend more than 50 startups for funding, contributing to over $7 million in early-stage investment, more than $20 million in follow-on capital, and multiple successful exits. Afshan also led manufacturing-focused investment and support programs at Innovation Works, connecting startups with regional manufacturers and supply chains to accelerate prototyping, MVP development, and scale-up. 

Before entering the venture ecosystem, Afshan was CEO of Focal Point Products, a global manufacturing and distribution company. She led U.S. operations and international supply chains, raised over $10 million in equity and debt financing, executed strategic acquisitions, expanded national distribution, and drove significant revenue and margin growth through operational and process innovation. Her leadership experience spans M&A, global partnerships, workforce negotiations, and operational scaling. 

Afshan holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, where she won First Place in the Global Moot Corp Competition and was recognized as an Ernst & Young Early Entrepreneur of the Year. 

At the Swartz Center, Afshan is passionate about mentoring founders and students as they navigate commercialization, capital strategy, and the practical challenges of building scalable ventures. 

Megan Shaw is a mission-driven life sciences leader with 20 years of experience in strategy development, early-stage investing, and growth company execution. She is the President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Alliance, a nonprofit that serves as strategic advocate in developing the greater Pittsburgh region into a global life sciences leader and economic engine.

Previously, as Managing Director of Life Sciences at Innovation Works, she managed investments in over 35 life science startups, launched AlphaLab Health seed-stage healthcare accelerator in partnership with Allegheny Health Network, and served as a board observer for numerous portfolio companies. Megan also served with NIH's Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative to identify and scale up technologies to detect SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic, including serving on the Variant Task Force. Earlier, she was employee #1 at HemoSonics, a company sprung from research at the University of Virginia that developed a novel point of care coagulation diagnostic. As Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, she established the business infrastructure and led the commercial leadership team in developing and launching an outcome-changing product. HemoSonics was acquired by French multinational Diagnostica Stago in a successful exit. Megan began her career as a strategy consultant for Monitor Group, a consultancy founded by Michael Porter, and previously worked at two mid-market private equity funds.

Steve Carpenter serves as Director, Research Startups at Penn State University's Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization providing guidance and support to scientists pursuing commercialization of their technology. Mr. Carpenter also serves as an Adjunct Instructor at Penn State's Smeal College of Business teaching Entrepreneurial Finance & Venture Funding and as the Program Administrator for the Garber Fund providing venture investment experiences for Smeal graduate students.

Mr. Carpenter has served as a director or board observer on more than ten company boards since 2008. Mr. Carpenter has 19 years of experience with Life Sciences Greenhouse Investments providing seed- and early-stage investments in promising life sciences companies in Pennsylvania. In his most recent role as Senior Vice President, Mr. Carpenter provided guidance and support to portfolio companies, evaluated early-stage companies for prospective investments, and managed the organization's accounting and finances. Prior to joining LSG Investments, Mr. Carpenter served more than 20 years in a variety of management and engineering positions, primarily leading operation start-ups and new product launches.

Mr. Carpenter earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA from Penn State University's Smeal College of Business where his academic concentration was on venture capital, entrepreneurship, and finance.

Cindy has supported the Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC) at Carnegie Mellon University since 2012. While at CTTEC, she's had various responsibilities related to licensing, patent management activities and new enterprise creation for several departments. She's currently the Director of Technology Licensing and broadly supports the licensing efforts and dissemination of technology developed at Carnegie Mellon, leading an agile team of licensing managers who develop and maintain Carnegie Mellon's vast and diverse IP portfolio. Cindy also helps connect the faculty, staff and students that are commercializing early stage technologies from their research at CMU with Carnegie Mellon's startup community partners, Pittsburgh's economic development partners and the investment community, to enrich Carnegie Mellon's efforts toward entrepreneurship.

Prior to coming to Carnegie Mellon, Cindy was the Program Manager and Director of Informatics Services at Ceiba Solutions (acquired by Perkin Elmer) in support of their pharma customers' informatic software enterprise needs, including business development and strategy. Cindy received her B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in chemistry, specializing in analytical method development.

Anne DeChant, MS, MBA, is an Associate Director for the CMI. She manages a portfolio of therapeutic and diagnostic technologies, leads the Innovation Fellows Program and I-Corps@NCATS, and manages grant initiatives and proposals.

Anne has spent over 20 years in higher education, most recently at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. In her various roles at CWRU, Anne helped launch and grow the Office of Translation and Innovation where her work supported faculty students and staff develop medical technologies for market. She established several translational funding programs, cultivated philanthropic donations, created and implemented the CWRU Venture Mentor Program for graduate students and post-docs, and managed a portfolio of medical technologies. Anne also participated in strategic planning for the School of Medicine and the University and served as ad hoc project manager for large programmatic grant proposals such as the Clinical & Translational Science Award and multiple Innovation Symposia. Anne also worked with the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship where she helped develop and implement a speaker series and establish a grant program. Anne holds a BS from Ohio State University, an MS in Cell Biology from Cleveland State University, and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University.

Michael S. Lehman, MD, MBA brings a unique blend of interdisciplinary experience and innovation leadership: a medical doctor traveling overseas for an international MBA, working in a new product development team at a global healthcare company, ultimately launching and evolving three prominent entrepreneurship programs across three different types of institutions (a small private liberal arts college, a public state-related research university, and a private research university).

The common thread through his work has been curriculum development-integrating foundational content and cutting-edge innovation from across disciplines to create educational programs that are both academically rigorous and practically relevant.

At Lehigh University, Dr. Lehman serves as Faculty Director of Technical Entrepreneurship, which educates master's and doctoral students from across disciplines on both technical product development and entrepreneurial venture creation; TE was recognized with an Award of Excellence in Talent Development by the University Economic Development Association.

At Lehigh he holds an appointment as Professor of Practice in the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, is Senior Personnel on the NSF Cooperative Agreement focused on accelerating research translation, and serves as a Provost Faculty Fellow. He has served as a Creative Inquiry Faculty Fellow, as well as a Senior Fellow with the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning at Lehigh.

Dr. Lehman serves as an Entrepreneurial Lead with the LifeX Accelerator based in Pittsburgh, and is on the Executive Board of DLAB, an interdisciplinary certificate in Digital Technology Management at TU Dortmund in Germany.

He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and recently contributed as an author to the Palgrave Handbook of Applied Creativity in Higher Education.

Dr. Lehman earned a BS from Juniata College, a Doctor of Medicine from the Penn State College of Medicine, and an MBA from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Erika Swift, MBA, MHA, serves as a Professor of Practice with a joint appointment at Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Harrisburg. She is also the director of the Center for Medical Innovation at Penn State College of Medicine, where she leads efforts to foster a thriving innovation ecosystem. The Center provides essential education and resources to drive medical innovation, ultimately generating both economic and social impact.

With over 25 years of experience in economic development, technology commercialization, and new business development across various industries-including medical devices, consumer goods, and dental equipment-Erika joined Penn State College of Medicine in 2015 to spearhead technology development initiatives. She was pivotal in establishing the Center for Medical Innovation, officially launched in February 2017, aligning with the College of Medicine's broader mission of cultivating a culture of innovation.

Beyond her role at Penn State, Erika served as President of BioStrategy Partners, Inc., a nonprofit consortium dedicated to advancing academic research into the marketplace, from 2018 to 2024. She continues to contribute as an officer and board member.

Erika holds a Bachelor of Science in business with a concentration in international business from Bloomsburg University, an MBA from York College of Pennsylvania, and an MHA from Penn State University.