Anthony Francis

Anthony joins Innovation Ventures to lead the Office of Technology Management after an extensive career in technology management and transfer in Australia, most recently as the managing director of GP Partners, a group investing in primary care innovations made through their own accelerator team. Before that, Francis established Flinders Partners at Flinders University where he became managing director of that organization and led it to establish 12 spin off companies, with numerous licenses and many commercial partnerships. He also founded TCG, a specialist technology commercialization company that was acquired by Deloitte.

Anthony has spent the last 25 years deeply engaged with researchers, commercial partners and investors, often creating new ways to achieve success. Because it is often administrative issues that slow innovation and frustrate inventors and partners alike, Anthony excels at cutting through “red tape” and confusion about business models by intervening personally to find solutions that benefit all stakeholders.

“In the coming year Innovation Ventures will be even more proactive,” Anthony Francis says. “The best way to bridge our researchers to their potential markets is to partner even more closely with both our UCSF peers and our external collaborators. We need to make it as easy as possible to access UCSF innovations.”

Being a trusted partner to our investigators is the key objective of UCSF Innovation Ventures. With Anthony’s leadership we believe that our faculty will discover more opportunities for growth, as their research extends to its full potential. He is a boon to our team, bringing with him a wealth of industry knowledge, experience, and relationships. We trust him to guide our technology management forward as we continue to develop healthcare science and bring these discoveries to the people who need them most.   

“It is a privilege to work among such great science and healthcare professionals,” Anthony says. “We hope to build even stronger partnerships with our UCSF researchers and bring the best innovation to the benefit of all.”