Donald P. Taylor, PhD, MBA, CLP, is the inaugural Chief Ventures Officer of UC Davis Health Ventures, leading efforts to develop and commercialize intellectual property and accelerate research translation in partnership with innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry teams across UC Davis and UC Davis Health.
Previously, he was Executive Director of Licensing at The Ohio State University and the inaugural Assistant Vice Chancellor for Commercial Translation in the Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. There, he also served as Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Co-Director of the Center for Commercial Applications of Healthcare Data, and Executive Director of sciVelo.
A five-time life sciences entrepreneur, Dr. Taylor co-founded Net Health, one of the largest EMR providers for alternative site care. He also held executive roles at Cellumen, Cernostics, Vivisimo, Strategic Healthcare Programs, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, with a focus on innovation across bioinformatics, diagnostics, drug discovery, and biotech product distribution. He spent over five years in venture investment at Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, supporting early-stage life sciences startups.
He serves on the Board of Governors for Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc., and co-chairs the Intellectual Property Committee for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). In 2023, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh for his contributions to biomedical entrepreneurship.
Dr. Taylor holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University (B.S.), University of Pittsburgh (M.S., Ph.D., MBA), and completed postdoctoral training in pathology at Pitt’s School of Medicine.