Raja Krishnan, M.B.A.
Director of Innovation for the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE)
Raja joined Skysong Innovations in December of 2024 and serves as the Director of Innovation for the Southwest Sustainability Innovation Engine (SWSIE). His role involves helping to advance ASU and SWSIE innovations into the marketplace, by identifying, evaluating, protecting, marketing, and out-licensing innovative, science-based technologies. In addition, his role includes mentoring nascent startups to advance such technologies.
Most recently, Raja worked at an early-stage company in the AI healthcare space. Prior to that, he gained a wealth of experience from other university technology transfer offices and industry. Within university technology transfer, Raja has led activities ranging from IP management, marketing of technologies, through licensing. Beyond that, he has worked on building partnerships between academic researchers and industry. These activities spanned his roles at University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Kentucky and Illinois Tech. He has also been involved in advising startups on various activities, including reviewing business plans, and providing feedback on pitch decks. Before working in academia, Raja spent 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry working in product development roles of increasing responsibility.
Raja, a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP), has a B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University, an M.S. in pharmaceutics from Long Island University, an M.S. in law from Northwestern University, and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame. Raja’s research project at Cornell University studied how bacteria grow exopolymer in different nutrient conditions with the ultimate aim to use for waste water treatment.