Will Charles

Will Charles has been General Manager of Commercialisation since 2005. During this time UniServices has transacted over 185 licensing deals, started 31 companies and raised over $80 million in venture and seed funding for these companies, and has successfully exited a number of these.

He set up the TransTasman Commercialisation Fund, a A$30 million seed fund with four Australian Universities and sat on the Investment Committee of the fund. He is a director of a number of start-up companies. He also set up and is responsible for the direction of Return on Science which is part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Economic Development’s Commercialisation Partner Network. He has been a speaker at a number of international Technology Transfer events including the Association of Technology Managers in the US (AUTM) and BioEurope.

Previously, Will has had extensive senior commercial experience in businesses in Europe, Asia and New Zealand where he has held executive positions at a number of companies including Novartis, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Celltech and Wolters Kluwer.