Duke Leahey

Duke Leahey is a founding member of Nidus Investment Partners bringing more than 35 years of entrepreneurial, technology licensing and intellectual property management expertise in the plant and life science industry.  The breadth of his experience, negotiating agreements in academia as well as the corporate world, ensures Nidus’ approach to technology licensing and commercialization is approached as a win-win for all parties.

Operating Experience
Starting his career working with avionic technologies in industry, Duke was recruited to Washington University in St. Louis in 1979 to create their technology transfer program resulting in more than 300 technology licenses earning millions of dollars in research and license income.  During his 18 years at the University he initiated the first university-industry licenses in Ag Biotechnology, including virus resistance, Aagrobacterium transformation, Bt pest resistance, and expression of foreign proteins in plants, negotiated the largest university-industry research contract, resulting in more than $160 million in research and participated in creation of one of the first Venture Capital-University investment company (A/WCompany), resulting in formation of ten new companies.  In 1997, Duke moved back to industry joining Monsanto as Director, Technology Alliances Team, leading a team of scientists that optioned/licensed more than 50 new technologies and executed several hundred technology access agreements in Ag-Biotech, Nutrition and Animal Agriculture. In 2001, he was named President of GD Searle LLC, a corporate entity set-up for the management and disposition of non-strategic intellectual property.  In 2005 he once again moved into the entrepreneurial world, setting up Life Science Alliances, LLC to work with emerging high-growth start-up companies.

Duke was a former board member of Competitive Technologies, Inc. (CTT-AMEX), president of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), co-chair of LES University-Industry Committee and senior lecturer on strategic partnerships for Arthur Anderson Consulting. He holds a B.S. Industrial Management from Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts and a Masters of Arts in Business Administration and Procurement Management, Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri

Email Contact Information: duke@niduspartners.com