Ashley F. Cornelison
Vice President, Venture Development
In 2022, Ashley Cornelison was named vice president of venture development, GRA’s award-winning program that helps Georgia’s universities move more discoveries out of the lab and into the world.
In this leadership role, Ashley sets strategic objectives, manages a multi-million dollar portfolio of commercialization grants and loans and counsels Georgia’s university scientists in their journey of launching companies around their inventions. She also oversees program compliance, reporting and metric-driven accountability and chairs the program’s loan committee.
GRA’s venture development impact has grown significantly in the past decade, and Ashley has been at the epicenter of this growth. As of fall 2022, the program has launched 200+ companies, which collectively have attracted more than $2 billion in equity investment.
Since joining GRA in 2012, Ashley has led an expansion of GRA’s external review process for all commercialization grants and proposals. She has also streamlined administrative and financial requirements for university-based startups and worked with university tech transfer offices to improve overall program success and efficiencies. As vice president of venture development, Ashley works closely with the GRA Venture Fund, LLC to promote promising venture development companies for investment. She also conducts due diligence and provides general fund administration for GRA Venture Fund.
Ashley received her B.S. in Business Administration in 2008 from the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia and began her career working in contract law at an Atlanta-based law firm. She serves on the board of the Georgia Intellectual Property Alliance; is a 2016 alumna of the Venture Capital Institute; and is a member of the Association of University Technology Managers.
