Curt Roberts Joins USU as Associate VP

Utah State University’s Office of Commercialization and Regional Development hired Curt Roberts as associate vice president for commercialization and regional development.

“Curt’s addition to the USU team is a significant step towards creating new opportunities in USU’s ongoing quest to expand and enhance its commercial ventures,” said Vice President for Commercialization and Regional Development Robert Behunin.

Since 2007, Roberts served a dual appointment as vice provost for innovation and economic development at Weber State University and as the USTAR (Utah Science, Technology and Research) initiative regional technology outreach director. Roberts’ efforts have resulted in the development of numerous products, patents, licenses and business plans for more than 50 early stage entrepreneurial ventures.

Before relocating to Utah in 2007, Roberts served as a senior executive at NIKE where he led the global strategic planning for five teams after which he led NIKE’s Vision, Timing and Techlab. Under Roberts’s leadership, NIKE realized substantial gains and the generation of new business platforms.

“I’m very excited to be joining a great commercialization team at USU,” Roberts said. “The university has a very strong intellectual property portfolio and some of the best researchers in the world. I’m confident we will be able to establish deep partnerships with industry and increase the university’s economic impact in the state of Utah.”

USU President Stan Albrecht is enthusiastic about the addition of Roberts to the USU commercialization team.

“Curt’s USTAR experience and his private sector experience will lend a new dynamic to USU’s efforts,” Albrecht said. “Pairing Curt with Rob Behunin and the others on the commercialization team will bring new opportunities to USU and to the state of Utah.”

Behunin is quick to point out that Roberts is the first to be named in the overall reorganization strategy for USU’s commercialization efforts. Behunin was named vice president for commercialization and regional development in September 2010 and assumed the post Jan. 3 of 2011.

Roberts will transition from his Weber State and USTAR assignments to USU over the next 45 days and will assume his USU post Feb. 16.

Contact: Robert Behunin, 435-722-1766, Robert.behunin@usu.edu