Venture Club of Louisville - This Month's Featured Speaker

Deborah Clayton, Commissioner of the Department of Commercialization and Innovation, will speak about the department’s goal, plans, and changes in the business environment at the July 2nd Venture Club of Louisville luncheon.

Deborah L. Clayton is the commissioner of the Department of Commercialization and Innovation within the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. Her professional background includes extensive experience in academia, entrepreneurial small business, corporate environments, a federal laboratory, and state government, which enables her to bring a unique perspective as she builds successful teams and implements cross-cutting initiatives.

Prior to joining the Kentucky state government, Clayton served as the founding executive director of the Charlotte Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she led efforts to forge relationships between academia, industry and government to create a leading technology research community. In 2004, the Charlotte Business Journal named Ms. Clayton among its Top 25 Women in Business.

As manager of operations for Argonne National Laboratory’s Office of Technology Transfer, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) facility, she managed an aggressive program to transfer Argonne’s technology to the private sector. She also served as the laboratory’s program manager for the DOE’s Office of Science, Laboratory Technology Research Program. In 2001, Ms. Clayton received the DuPage County YWCA Outstanding Woman Leader Award (Business & Professional category).

Previously, Ms. Clayton co-founded a high-tech start-up company near Chicago that developed precision electron optic devices. Initially, she managed technical product development for the firm and then served as vice president and chief operating officer prior to the company being acquired.

Ms. Clayton began her career as assistant director of the Electron Microscopy Laboratory at the University of Alabama where she oversaw the expansion of the facility into a multidisciplinary, state-of-the-art program. While there, she also founded the Alabama Electron Microscopy Society and the Microscopy Society of America's (formerly EMSA) Technologist's Forum.

Active in community and professional activities, Ms. Clayton serves on numerous national, regional and local boards and committees.