Heather Callahan | Director of Licensing
University of Colorado

Heather Callahan joined the Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine as Director of Business Services in 2013, initially focused on developing the intellectual property portfolio. In 2017, she began to share her time with CU Innovations and became an Entrepreneur in Residence focused on developing technologies in regenerative medicine and ophthalmology.    Prior to joining the Gates Center, Heather started her own consulting company, Divetank Strategies, LLC, through which she continues to work, focused primarily on local biotech companies. Heather guides them through formation, business and regulatory strategy, and intellectual property alignment. Before relocating to Colorado, Heather lead a team of intellectual property professionals as the Head of Patent Development for Intellectual Ventures? Invention Development Fund, and resided in Asia. Her exposure to pharmaceutical drug development began at Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where she worked as Associate General Counsel and Intellectual Property Attorney.  She began her legal career in intellectual property working at Genset Corporation and Lyon & Lyon, LLP while attending law school in the evening.  Before her legal career, she was a research scientist in infectious disease leading teams focused on mechanisms of drug resistance and drug discovery at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in the US and Brazil.  Heather earned an Executive MBA from the Daniels School of Business at the University of Denver (Beta Gamma Sigma), a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law (Magna Cum Laude, Order of the Coif), and completed a molecular biology Post-Doc at Harvard Medical School after earning her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Medical University of South Carolina and a B.A. in biology from Tufts University (Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa).