Natalia Alvarez-Lopez has over 11 years of experience in the innovation, technology transfer and business development areas. Passionate about building successful relationships and providing strategic advice and support to academic and industry stakeholders through all stages of the innovation and commercialisation cycle. Natalia has highly developed skills in contract negotiation, Intellectual Property management, technology licensing and research/commercial transactions. She has strong expertise in facilitating interactions between universities and external partners such as funding bodies, industry, government and regulatory authorities.

Natalia is currently Manager, Innovation and Commercialisation at an Australian University. In her role, she is responsible for the identification of Intellectual Property arising from

researcher activities and the development of commercialisation strategies between the university and external stakeholders.

Natalia has held different roles in the education and government sectors. She was previously the Technology Transfer Executive Officer for Universidad de Antioquia, the second largest university in Colombia with over 230 research groups. She was responsible for assessing technologies, protecting, negotiating and transacting on behalf of the institution. Prior joining Universidad de Antioquia, Natalia was the National Strategy Manager from a federal government entity in Colombia that promotes innovation, technology, competitiveness initiatives and a mentoring program for entrepreneurs (TecnoParque). In this role, she was responsible for designing and executing strategies to promote innovative technology projects directed at for-profit sectors.

Natalia holds a MSc in Technology Management, a Specialisation in Innovation Management and a bachelor’s Degree in Agri-Industrial Engineering. She was also trained in Technology Commercialisation by the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas.