July 16, 2024
Forever, one of us
All of us at GRA are heartbroken by the loss of Lee Herron, who died July 12 after fighting health issues on several fronts.
From the day he joined GRA in 2008 until his retirement early this year, Lee personified our very mission of driving greater impact out of university research and entrepreneurship. His unique alchemy of acumen, insight and realism helped hundreds of researchers turn their discoveries into products and companies.
Personally, Lee was courageous beyond measure. His forays into entrepreneurship were their own kind of daring. He did not fear the unfamiliar. And when recent years brought health issues that slowed him from time to time, he consistently powered through, ever eager to resume his work at GRA.
That work was always more than a job: Lee viewed his GRA career as helping others help others. Scientists want their work to benefit humankind, and such benefit sometimes involves moving a discovery out of the lab and toward a marketplace far down the road. Along this journey, Lee served as a wise and steadfast guide around sharp curves and over sudden obstacles. As he said in an interview earlier this year, “I knew the struggles entrepreneurs had to go through as a startup founder.”
The February 2024 meeting of GRA’s Trustees was the last of many board meetings for Lee Herron. At that gathering, Board Chair Liz Thomas and GRA President Tim Denning delivered the following tribute to Lee, who will forever be one of us.
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Lizanne Thomas: Before we adjourn today… I’d like all of us to take a moment to celebrate an invaluable member of the GRA team.
Sixteen years ago, GRA had the foresight and wisdom to invite Lee Herron to come to work here. The year was 2008. The venture development program was off the ground and starting to gather momentum. A brilliant effort to help university researchers shape and start companies around their inventions … but also, an effort in great need of someone who knew how to scale it.
At the time, Lee was advising early-stage life sciences companies over at ATDC, the Advanced Technology Development Center, at Georgia Tech. But he was well-acquainted with GRA: A few years earlier, he had provided advice to Mike Cassidy and Susan Shows as they started this whole new venture enterprise for the Alliance.
Lee accepted the offer – and arrived fully prepared for the challenge. Aside from the six years he spent at ATDC, he had founded his own company, SeaLite Sciences, in the medical diagnostics sector. He was on the team of founders for three other bioscience startups. He’d established North America operations for a German biotech.
And before all of that – he’d earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from UGA, taking his first job at a practice in North Carolina. (His predecessor at the practice, the vet who had just left, was another UGA-graduated DVM – by the name of Sonny Perdue.)
Tim Denning: It’s hard to overstate Lee’s impact on GRA’s venture development program these past 16 years.
· There are the metrics that are beyond impressive.
· There are the incredibly talented team members he’s worked with – Ashley, Connor, Andrew.
· There is GRA Venture Fund, a truly novel public-private fund that Lee helped to engineer, launch and grow.
· There’s the Greater Yield initiative, an out-of-the-box spinout effort that Lee just briefed us on.
But there’s something else … something more… to the difference Lee has made in the chapter of his career he’s spent with us.
Somewhere along the way, the staff gave Lee the nickname, “The Dream Killer.” It was in recognition of his ability to spot different variables around startups that others hadn’t yet thought of.
These are variables that help determine whether a startup will succeed. And when Lee pointed them out, it was often: Back to the drawing board.
But in my view, a better nickname is “The Dream Maker.”
Getting an invention out of the lab and into the marketplace is a monumental challenge.
It takes extraordinary vision, planning and due diligence. Lee has set that bar high to prepare our university scientists and founders for the road ahead.
It takes a constellation of connections to get a business going and growing. Lee’s made countless introductions … and opened so many doors … for our young companies.
And it takes truly sage advice and counsel for startup leaders to make the right moves and best decisions. Lee has been unfailing in his patience … his candor … his encouragement … and his good humor.
Of the innumerable investments GRA has made in its 34-year history, one of the greatest is right here in this room today. Lee Herron.
