Kelvin Willoughby

Biography

Dr. Kelvin Willoughby is Professor, Innovation and Intellectual Property, at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech), in Moscow. His expertise lies in the management of intellectual property, technology-based entrepreneurship, and strategic planning for technology-based industry development. He holds doctorates in both strategic management and technology studies, and a master of laws degree in intellectual property law. Willoughby has conducted a variety of studies, and produced numerous publications, in the above fields in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He has extensive experience as a teacher and director of executive education programs in management for mid-career executives from companies in the United States, Korea, China and elsewhere. He has also been elected Vice President for Technology Entrepreneurship of the U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Besides his academic experience, Professor Willoughby has been internationally active for many years as a consultant and advisor in industry and government. He was a member of the founding team of an entrepreneurial high technology company in the field of digital media management in the United States and has worked on projects related to the strategic management of intellectual property with firms in the electronic, metals and automotive sectors in Germany. He has led a training project on technology transfer for the federal laboratories of the United States Government, and has worked with a leading management consulting company in Europe. He has conducted a number of projects for technology industry associations in the United States, has developed a reputation as an analyst of the biotechnology and medical technology industries, and has co-chaired a statewide assessment and planning project on bio-related industries in Minnesota for a coalition of private-sector and public-sector high technology organizations (the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota). Prior to joining the faculty of Skoltech, Willoughby was a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Intellectual Property, and Director of the M.B.A. Program, at Curtin University, after an appointment at the Technische Universität München (TUM), where he was part of the research faculty of the Lehrstuhl für Wirtschaftsrecht und Geistiges Eigentum at the TUM Business School. Prior to that he held the positions of: Max Planck Gesellschaft Fellowship for International Scientific Cooperation at the Max-Planck-Institut für Geistiges Eigentum, Wettbewerbs- und Steuerrecht, in Germany; Professor and Endowed Chair in Management of Technology at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, USA; and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo, in Japan, in the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology. He has also worked in a variety of academic and administrative roles at: the University of Minnesota, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the University of Utah, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Westminster College, the University of Western Australia, the University of California at Berkeley, and Mahidol University; and as a visiting scholar at Columbia University in New York. He is a participant in Future 500 China and was also the Founding President of the Appropriate Technology Development Group, Inc., a not-for-profit organization involved in local environmental entrepreneurship.

Research Interest

Prof. Willoughby’s research is focused on the management of intellectual property, with a special emphasis on the role of intellectual property strategy in the internationalisation of technology firms. In parallel with his research about intellectual property management he is also an active scholar of intellectual property law, having recently published a book on contemporary issues in European and American patent law. He has also conducted research on entrepreneurial strategy, entrepreneurial finance, technology strategy, technology policy and the role of bio-industries in regional economic development.