Tom O'Donnell

Tom O'Donnell

Innovation Initiatives Senior Director, Haverhill Innovation Hub Director, Visiting Faculty

College
Manning School of Business
Department
Innovation Hub, Marketing, Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Phone
978-934-2641
Office
110 Canal St., 3rd Floor

Education

  • B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
  • M.S. in Computer Engineering, Boston University
  • M.S. in Management, MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Biosketch

Tom serves as Director of UMass Lowell's Innovation Hub, a co-working and incubator facility supporting early-stage, technology-based startups in a variety of areas including advanced materials, cleantech, robotics and information technology.

Tom is also a faculty member at the Manning School of Business at UMass Lowell teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in New Venture Creation, Managing Innovation, Corporate Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management.

He is actively engaged in mentoring student and faculty teams in starting new ventures and a key contributor to ongoing efforts to expand innovation and entrepreneurship programs on campus for students, researchers and faculty.

Previously, Tom was Vice President of Business Development for Product Genesis, a Cambridge-based strategic innovation management consulting company that works with Global 1000 clients to develop systematic and analytical approaches to delivering customized, high impact, technology-based innovation. In this role, he worked directly with senior executives from a range of industries to guide them through the process of identifying, developing and commercializing innovative new business opportunities.

Prior to Product Genesis, Tom was Director of Business Development for TIAX, LLC, a Cambridge–based technology processing company that transforms emerging innovations into technology platforms ready for interactive hand-off to established companies. TIAX’s primary technology areas included energy and energy storage systems, advanced materials / nano-materials, green chemistry and building / appliance systems. In his role reporting to TIAX’s President, Tom focused on identifying and developing new business opportunities for TIAX, including technology development and commercialization partnerships with established companies, marketing partnerships with industry organizations and research partnerships with university labs.

Prior to TIAX, he spent 14 years at Cisco Systems Inc. in sales, business development and consulting roles. He served as a Senior Business Development Manager within the Technology Center Group, an internal advanced technology and market opportunity incubator for Cisco. In collaboration with Technology Center’s advanced engineering team, Tom focused on identifying and developing emerging technology and market opportunities for Cisco. Previously at Cisco, he held leadership roles in the technical sales organization on the Enterprise, Service Provider and Channel teams.

Prior to Cisco, he was a senior network consultant for Bolt Beranek and Newman’s (BBN’s) Systems and Technologies Division in Cambridge and a system engineer for GTE Government Systems in Needham.

Holds a B.S.E.E. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, M.S. Computer Engineering from Boston University and M.S. Management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.