Bryn Rees
Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Partnerships
LEADERSHIP
LinkedIn | To schedule a meeting with Bryn, please contact Christine Jackson, executive assistant, at christine.jackson@colorado.edu
Bryn Rees is senior associate vice chancellor for Innovation & Partnerships at the University of Colorado Boulder. Together with his team, he works with university researchers, creators and entrepreneurs to partner with the extended innovation ecosystem and transform lives and society through innovation.
He leads three primary functions at CU Boulder: commercialization of university innovations, industry partnerships and the central campus entrepreneurship hub.
Venture Partners at CU Boulder provides entrepreneurship training and mentorship, the NSF I-CorpsTM Hub West, Ascent Deep Tech Accelerator, Lab Venture Challenge, Embark Deep Tech Startup Creator and other founder funding opportunities, intellectual property management, licensing and strategic partnerships. Venture Partners works side by side with faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers and bridges externally with investors, entrepreneurs, mentors and innovative companies.
Industry Research Partnerships was launched in 2025 to connect corporate partners to CU Boulder's breakthrough research and world-class faculty. By supporting university researchers to understand and effectively respond to industry needs, and by delivering a company-friendly experience from opportunity identification through contracting, Industry Research Partnerships helps to make CU Boulder a partner of choice for companies' R&D needs.
The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative connects and integrates the broad network of entrepreneurial activities on campus, including the New Venture Challenge and the Colorado Sustainability Challenge.
Bryn is a Co-Principal Investigator in the Colorado-Wyoming ASCEND Engine, a regional economic development and innovation initiative funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Engine builds innovative solutions, ventures and partnerships that support community response to environmental challenges.
His board service includes the Investment Advisory Board of Buff Gold Ventures and the Board of Directors for CU Boulder License Equity Holdings, LLC.