Entrepreneur-in-Residence Program

EIRs advise and assist Vanderbilt entrepreneurs in the launch of new ventures. They are experts in business formation, operations and strategy, and have been successful entrepreneurs, investors in startup companies, and seasoned executives from large corporations with experience in an entrepreneurial setting.

Gerry Barañano

A highly effective and experience mentor, Gerry Barañano personally guided 40+ companies to raise over $100 million in equity and grants. Gerry brings a comprehensive understanding of all elements necessary to start a successful technology company. Gerry prepares tech startups for equity and grant fund raising, helps them craft successful go-to-market strategies and guides them to get their first paying customers. Gerry served as a mentor to an NSF I-Corps team from UC Berkeley and also an entrepreneurial team from LLNL in the DOE Energy I-Corps program. Gerry holds an MBA from Stanford University and an undergraduate degree from Yale University.

Jim Monsor

Jim has more than 33 years of device, diagnostic, drug, and biologics experience. He is currently CEO of Relay Life Science. Most recently he served as COO for BioMimetic Therapeutics for 12 years; leading growth from four to 100 employees. He has broad experience in commercial operations, supply chain management, product development, tech transfer, quality, regulatory, IT, and facilities management for drug, device, biologics, combination products, and bulk drug products. His experience spans early stage research through all phases of development, product launch, and routine commercial operations. Jim is also head of the LifeScienceTN Mentor program and a member of NueCura, an angel investment network in Brentwood, TN.

Peter Rousos, J.D.

Mr. Rousos is currently a founder of The Innovation Studio, a venture studio is an enterprise that founds, operates, manages, and sells startup companies. The Studio partners with large companies to identify pressing industry-wide problems that can be solved using industrial artificial intelligence. Prior to that, he was the Director, Economic and New Venture Development, in the Vanderbilt Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization. That group launches and supports new companies in which Vanderbilt holds equity resulting from a license or a direct investment. Mr. Rousos is also an investor, an entrepreneur, and has served on a number of for-profit, non-profit, and trade association boards of directors. Prior to that, Mr. Rousos served in senior-level business and legal positions with large companies and startups and practiced law. He received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Damon Spiceland

Joshua Trantum, Ph.D.

Josh is currently the President and Chief Investment Officer of CUREX Capital Advisors, a Nashville, TN-based firm investing in publicly traded life science companies. Josh has spent his career in the life science industry in senior leadership roles of operating companies as well as on the investment side in equity research and portfolio management. Earlier in his career, Josh developed and commercialized multiple Class III medical devices, co-founded an immuno-oncology diagnostic company, and managed pre-clinical drug development activities for a NASDAQ-listed biopharmaceutical company. Josh earned his MBA from Emory University and his doctorate degree from Vanderbilt University in the Department of Biomedical Engineering where he currently holds an adjunct appointment as Assistant Professor.