Alan Thomas

Alan Thomas

Chicago, IL
AThomas@HeritagePartners.com
+1 773 251 3257

Function Specialization

Research & Development
General Management and C-Level

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Alan Thomas joined Heritage Partners in the summer of 2018. He has extensive experience recruiting for early-stage life-science and science-intensive companies. With an acuity for crafting compelling narratives, Alan honed his recruiting skills in and around university research.

He is also building a practice that makes selective search skills available to seed-stage academic spinouts, tightly integrated with their business development and fund-raising activities. He works with the spinouts, early-stage investors, and incubators and accelerators.

Alan brings to Heritage Partners a successful two-decade career in university technology transfer and innovation leadership, including as an Associate Vice President at the University of Chicago. Alongside recruiting for start-ups, he was key in recruiting senior executives for university innovation positions. Most recently, he led a collaboration among ten top research universities, including many of the Ivy League, to collectively source CEO’s for their ventures.

Earlier in his career, Alan was the second employee and business development lead of an advanced materials start-up that went public. He began his career as a chemical engineer working for Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in the UK.

Alan has a BSc(Eng) in Chemical Engineering from University College, London, and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He and his family live in Chicago, IL. He enjoys yoga, running, cycling, sailing, kayaking, and most recently, playing blues harmonica.