Mireya McKee

Director at KickStart Venture Services

Speaker

Mireya joined the KickStart Venture Services team in February 2019. She has over 20 years of research, technology transfer and innovation management experience. She began her career as a researcher, completing a BSc in chemistry from Monterrey Tech, Mexico, and a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Texas-Austin. Afterwards, she carried out postdoctoral research in nanotechnology at Oxford University. She transitioned into business, completing a certification program on the commercialization of scientific research at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. She then became a consultant and later a senior consultant in technology transfer for Oxford University Innovation (OUI) in the UK. After that, Mireya started an innovation management consultancy company in the US, providing training and supporting the commercialization of innovative technologies from universities and start-up companies from around the globe and led business development at Tekcapital Plc., a Miami-based venture capital firm. She has helped institutions design and implement seed funds, set-up accelerator programs, and develop strategies that promote entrepreneurship industry-academia collaboration. Mireya is also a regular mentor for startups based on university research, helping them improve their overall business strategy and pitching for investment. At UNC she supports IP-based startups, helping them improve their overall business strategy, pitching for investment, and connecting them with entrepreneurs and service providers.