Donald P. Taylor, PhD, MBA, CLP, is the inaugural Chief Ventures Officer of UC Davis Health Ventures, where he leads efforts to develop and commercialize intellectual property and advance research translation in partnership with innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry engagement teams at UC Davis and UC Davis Health.
Before joining UC Davis, Dr. Taylor served as Executive Director of Licensing at The Ohio State University and as the inaugural Assistant Vice Chancellor for Commercial Translation in the Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, where he was also an Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine, Co-Director of the Center for Commercial Applications of Healthcare Data, and Executive Director of sciVelo.
A five-time life sciences entrepreneur, Dr. Taylor began his entrepreneurial career as co-founder and CEO of Net Health, which grew into one of the world’s largest providers of electronic medical records (EMR) for alternative site care. He later held executive roles at Cellumen, Cernostics, Vivisimo, Strategic Healthcare Programs, and Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he played key roles in driving innovation and commercialization. These experiences extended his expertise across bioinformatics, molecular diagnostics, drug discovery tools, and global biotechnology product distribution. In addition to his entrepreneurial ventures, Dr. Taylor spent over five years in venture investments and economic development at the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, supporting and funding early-stage life sciences companies.
Dr. Taylor serves on the Board of Governors for Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc., and co-chairs the Intellectual Property Committee for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
In 2023, Dr. Taylor was conferred as a distinguished alumnus of the University of Pittsburgh for his pioneering work in biomedical entrepreneurship and research translation. He earned his B.S. in Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University, his M.S. and Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, and an MBA from Pitt’s Katz Graduate School of Business. He also conducted postdoctoral research in pathology at Pitt’s School of Medicine.