Members of the UTC and entrepreneurship communities are invited to register and join us for

Inspiring the Innovation Mindset: Commercializing Innovation Through Partnerships

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022

10:45 a.m. to noon

Join us for a special presentation by UTC alumnus Tom Waters, assistant director for startups at the University of South Florida and former undercover member of the CIA's Trade Security Team. Waters will share his insights in a program focused on startups, commercialization and developing commercialization plans.

This event is sponsored by the UTC Gary W. Rollins College of Business Clarence E. Harris Chair of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and is open to the public.

    About Tom Waters

Tom Waters is an Intellectual Property executive with thirty years of strategy practice in product development, market intelligence, and startup innovation. He is a UT-Chattanooga graduate (BA: Biology) who began his career with ten years in the R&D Department at BASF, commissioning a product development pilot plant at their Polymer Drive manufacturing site.

As the Assistant Director for Startups at the University of South Florida, Tom assists faculty and staff in commercializing new innovations. USF is a Tier 1 research institution, among the top ten in patent generation for public universities, and U.S. News & World Report’s fastest rising university of the past decade. Prior to his work at USF, he was a manager in Corporate Strategy at Jabil, a $27BIL contract manufacturer for Apple, GoPro, and Tesla.

Tom stepped away from corporate America to join the CIA after the 9/11 attacks. Serving undercover on the Trade Security Team, he advised U.S. companies who were targets of technology theft by foreign governments. He authored strategic analysis for the President’s Daily Brief and presented finished intelligence to members of Congress. 

Returning to the private sector in a technology startup, Tom took a leave of absence to be the founding CEO of his own startup firm. There he received a dozen patents in biometrics, authentication, and digital rewards programs. He has been featured on the cover of Government Executive magazine and interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, and Fox News.

Tom’s CIA memoir (Class 11) was optioned for television by ABC and is # 2 on the Agency’s list of recommended reading for new employees. His 2010 business strategy book (Hyperformance) took him on a USO Tour of U.S. military bases in the Middle East, while his debut novel (Secret Signs) won the 2011 International Book Award for Multicultural Fiction. His new book on startups and corporate innovation (Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks) comes out in November.

In addition to his UTC degree, Tom earned an MBA at Wake Forest and completed the Board of Directors College at Stanford Law School. He is a registered Patent Agent admitted to practice before the USPTO and a member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

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