Cooper Appointed Interim CEO of Foundation

(Baton Rouge, LA / August 22, 2005): Arthur R. Cooper has been appointed as Interim CEO of the LSU System Research and Technology Foundation, announced Dr. William Jenkins, Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Directors. The Foundation is charged with assisting with commercializing technology developed at Louisiana universities.

The LSU System Research and Technology Foundation is a nonprofit, private corporation created to take the most promising research from our state universities and harness it as an engine for economic growth. Cooper’s role as Interim CEO, effective August 15, will include overall responsibility for the Foundation’s oversight of the two entities, the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center (LETC) and the Louisiana Fund I and assisting LSU System university technology transfer offices.

Cooper has extensive experience with establishing programs for entrepreneurial development, business support, and technology-based companies. His background also includes venture, small business and seed funding for start-up and early-stage companies. Cooper holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana State University and a Juris Doctorate from the LSU Law School. Cooper also serves as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Emerging Technology Center.

“We know Arthur will serve the R&T Foundation well as Interim CEO”, said Jenkins. “He understands the broad view of commercializing our university research and he has excelled in the development of the Emerging Technology Center.”

The LETC is designed to incubate and accelerate the growth of life science, agricultural technology and environmental technology start-up companies. When it opens this fall, it will provide business incubation services to state-up and early-stage companies requiring wet lab facilities. The LETC will also expedite the commercialization of technologies as a means to building a substantive life sciences-based industry in Louisiana.

The Foundation also helped start the Louisiana Fund I, a venture capital fund targeting companies developing and commercializing promising technologies with an emphasis on those originating from Louisiana universities, at their start-up and early stages.

The Foundation’s CEO position became available with the resignation of Paula Jacobi, JD, Ph.D. Jacobi has relocated to Eunice where her parents reside and accepted a position as Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor for Paralegal Studies at LSU at Eunice..

“Paula has done an outstanding job as the first CEO of the R&T Foundation,” said Jenkins. “Her vision and unwavering determination is the basis for the Foundation’s success. Her legacy will be broader commercialization of university research and a stroneer contribution to Louisiana’s economic development.”

Upon the appointment of Cooper as Interim CEO, Jacobi stated, “I couldn’t have left the Foundation in better hands. Its continued success is ensured”.