Chris Fender's Biography

Chris Fender, Director, University of Missouri

Chris Fender, Director of the Office of Technology Management and Industry Relations (OTMIR) at the University of Missouri, Columbia, is responsible for stimulating the development and commercialization of advanced technology and transforming University of Missouri intellectual property into successful business enterprise. Chris directs the MU Technology Management program, which consists of twelve full-time and five part-time staff.

Chris has worked at the University of Missouri in the area of technology transfer for 10 years. He is an active member of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) as well as the Licensing Executives Society (LES). He has been an invited speaker on the topic of technology transfer at regional and national AUTM conferences as well as many other regional conferences focusing on the commercialization of innovations developed within academia.

Previous to his position as Director of OTMIR, Chris served as Interim Director and as Sr. Licensing and Business Development Associate. His industrial experience includes working in research and development with Monsanto Company and Asgrow Company in the area of corn and soybean variety development and Servi-Tech, Inc. in the area of agronomic consulting.

Chris earned a B.S. degree in Plant Sciences and M.S. Degree in Agronomy with a research emphasis in the development of a NIR based, marker assisted selection system for breeding soybean cultivars with increased pathogen resistance.

On behalf of MU, Chris interacts with faculty, community, business and state government leaders to promote University of Missouri intellectual property. As a U.S. Patent co-inventor, Chris understands the value of intellectual property and the invention to commercialization process.