The Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) serves as a key resource for UAlbany Innovation Center members, providing expertise, mentorship and strategic guidance to early-stage startups and entrepreneurial teams.
Our EIRs leverage their entrepreneurial experience to foster innovation, accelerate business growth and support the development of a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem. EIRs play a critical role in empowering entrepreneurs and advancing the mission of the UAlbany Innovation Center incubator to drive innovation and regional economic growth.
Dr. Karen Torrejon
Dr. Karen Torrejon is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Humonix Biosciences, Inc., where she developed a platform technology to accelerate drug discovery and development by licensing intellectual property generated at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Poly, which is now the College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering at UAlbany.
Her expertise in advanced biomimetic tissue engineering has been instrumental in both the technical and business success of this university spinout. Recognized by MIT Technology Review as an Innovator Under 35, Dr. Torrejon has also been honored in the Albany Business Review's 40 Under 40.
Karen earned her bachelor's degree in chemistry and her doctoral degree in nanotechnology, with a concentration in tissue engineering, from UAlbany.
Dr. Scott Alpizar
Dr. Scott Alpizar is the founder of Emerging Innovations Consulting, where he mentors academic researchers and early-stage startup founders. He works closely with academic entrepreneurs and management teams to support commercialization efforts, including research and development planning, intellectual property strategies, and financial modeling.
Scott has served as an Industry Mentor and Expert on both regional and national NSF and NIH I-Corps teams. He earned dual bachelor's degrees in forensic science and biology from the University of New Haven and completed his doctoral degree in neuroscience at Dartmouth College.
Dr. Brandon Hogstad
Dr. Brandon Hogstad is the founder and principal consultant of Morpheos Innovation LLC, where he collaborates with startups, investors and academic institutions across biotech and AI-driven platforms.
He specializes in strategic commercialization, alliance management and scientific due diligence, helping breakthrough innovations progress from concept to market. Brandon has managed large-scale funded initiatives and led multiple biotech/pharma partnerships and collaborations.
An active member of New York City’s bio-entrepreneurial and startup ecosystem, he brings deep expertise in bridging science and business. He earned a bachelor's degree in molecular cell biology from UC Berkeley and a doctoral degree in biomedical sciences from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Frank LeCates
Frank LeCates is a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience in educational technology and web software development. He founded, bootstrapped and successfully exited a company providing web solutions, showcasing his ability to lead ventures from inception to profitable exits.
Currently, Frank is the vice president of strategy at Applywave, where he leverages his expertise to drive innovation in the edtech sector. Additionally, he serves as an adjunct faculty member at Stevens Institute of Technology, sharing his entrepreneurial insights with the next generation of business leaders.
Frank earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University and a master’s in international education management and leadership from UAlbany.
James Peterson
James Peterson is the co-founder of a venture-backed hardware manufacturing company, where he led engineering and operations from pre-seed through Series A, managing teams of R&D and manufacturing staff members from concept to production scale.
Now the head of product at Reju and a business development executive at IBM Research, James oversees corporate venturing initiatives while taking active roles in Product Management and Product Development inside of early new ventures.
His career spans semiconductor, fashion/apparel, water treatment, composites and medtech industries, with a strong focus on aligning product innovation with market needs to drive business growth and sustainable impact. James holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Richard E. Honen
Richard E. Honen focuses his practice in corporate, finance and venture capital law, as well as complex mergers and acquisitions and commercial litigation. He provides corporate counsel to a broad spectrum of companies — from startups to Fortune 50 companies — and has lectured extensively, particularly on topics of corporate law, venture capital and entrepreneurship.
Rich authored the chapter on “Legal Issues Affecting Private Equity and Venture Backed Companies” in Representing Private Equity and Venture Capital Backed Portfolio Companies (Aspatore/Thomson Reuters 2010) and was an editorial board member and chapter editor of White’s New York Business Entities (LexisNexis Matthew Bender), a leading treatise on New York corporate law. Rich earned a bachelor’s degree from UAlbany and a law degree from Albany Law School.
Dr. Christian Olivier
After a stint in academic research, including a post doc at UC Berkeley, Christian Olivier has been involved in government and later held senior roles in both large multinational corporations and startups.
Bringing a work experience spanning Europe, Asia and North America, he developed an expertise in developing and turning around business-to-business (B2B) technology businesses in the semiconductors, electronics, Internet of Things (IoT) and telecommunications spaces.
He is the founder of CO Partners Inc, which provides advisory to both startups and established players expanding their markets. He earned a master's degree from École Polytechnique and completed a PhD at University of Paris-XI. He also holds an MBA.
Mike Shimazu
Mike Shimazu is an experienced entrepreneur and innovation advisor with a career spanning startups, public service and academia. Early in his career, he spent a decade in the photonics industry, founding a venture-backed startup and addressing the challenges of startup finance, product-market fit and scaling science-based ventures.
At the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), he designed and led nationally recognized programs to accelerate commercialization and market entry for clean tech companies. He has served he National Science Foundation (NSF) as a commercial reviewer for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and as an I-Corps Industry Mentor and instructor. He also held senior roles at major research universities, supporting technology transfer and industry collaboration.
Mike holds three U.S. patents and earned degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.