Aaron is an investment professional with True North Venture Partners, an early-stage investment firm targeting sustainable innovations in energy, water, chemicals & fuels, and waste management.  Aaron focuses on identifying early stage investment opportunities and key technology and market trends and assists portfolio companies in these areas post-investment. Prior to joining True North, Aaron held various research, development, and engineering positions. In addition, he works as a start-up consultant and co-founded a clean tech start-up. Aaron began his career as a development engineer at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Samsung Austin Semiconductor.

Aaron holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and a JD from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, along with degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware (BS) and the University of Texas -- Austin (MS and PhD).

Commercializing Innovations (ENTR-958-0)
Success for new technology is driven by the ability of a business to create and capture value through innovation - from product innovation to business model innovation. This experience-based course offers students a chance to put innovation to work by developing commercial opportunities for new, unique Northwestern University technologies, innovations and inventions. The course will be most beneficial to students with an interest in starting up a business, entrepreneurship, business design, business strategy consulting and commercialization. The objective of this course is to develop a business project (from business concept to business plan) to the point of potential commercial launch. It is open to all graduate, professional and post-graduate students from across the university. Students will be placed on four-to-five member cross-disciplinary teams based on skills, experience and interest. The cross-discipline approach will enable students to develop and apply knowledge about innovation to better understand the challenges and opportunities posed by emerging technologies and markets. Each team will function as a business development team for potential businesses selected by the Northwestern INVO (Innovation and New Ventures Office). Students will identify their top three choices of projects from project descriptions provided prior to the first day of class, when team matching assignments will be made. Once matched, students will work to build a business development plan that will target commercialization. Teams will deliver their proposals to a panel of industry experts at the end of the term. Note: This course may not be dropped after the first week of the quarter.