January 10, 2008 — Tom Ballard has been named director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Partnerships Directorate, formerly known as Technology Transfer and Economic Development.
Ballard joined the management team of UT-Battelle in July 2004 and served as ORNL's Director of Economic Development and Partnerships. Since August 2007, he had been serving as interim director for the ORNL Partnerships Directorate following the departure of Alex Fischer, who left to take the post of vice president for commercialization at Battelle.
Prior to his appointment at ORNL, Ballard held various roles within the University of Tennessee. He most recently served as Vice President for Public and Governmental Relations at UT where he spent more than three decades helping facilitate initiatives including the Solid Waste Management Act of 1991, the Tennessee Growth Policy Act of 1998, statewide distance learning and telecommunications networks, and coordination of the planning committee for the first-ever Governor's Economic Summit in 1997.
The Partnerships Directorate will continue to house the program functions of intellectual property management, licensing, sponsored research, and economic development while adding two new areas: educational partnerships and industrial development.