Business Development
Michael Pratt
Executive Director, Business Development
(617) 353-4569 • mpratt@bu.edu
Mr. Pratt joined Boston University’s Office of Technology Development in May 2000. He worked in Technology Transfer, responsible for the transfer of technologies from the fields of physical, engineering, and computer sciences, as Director of the Office of Corporate Business Development, responsible for building long term partnerships with a special focus on technology development between Boston University/Boston Medical Center and industryand as Director of Translational Research & Corporate Relations, providing support to faculty that participate in translational research programs through proposal development, implementation of translational research, and facilitating collaboration with industry. As Executive Director Business Development he leads a team of business development professionals across all technical fields to connect Boston University discoveries with commercial opportunities.
Prior to OTD, Mr. Pratt was the Global Support Manager at NESLAB Instruments, Inc. of Portsmouth New Hampshire. His duties included management of the Application Engineering and Technical Support departments, P&L responsibility for the field service operation, and maintaining relationships with their International Dealer network.
Mr. Pratt holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Holy Cross College. He is a member of the Licensing Executives Society and the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM).
Nelson Medeiros, Ph.D.
Director, Business Development, Medical Device and Instrumentation(617) 353-4567 • nelson1@bu.edu
Nelson joined OTD’s business development group in March 2011 with a focus on medical devices and instrumentation. He manages a portfolio of medical devices, life science tools, and diagnostics inventions from BU. Prior to BU, Nelson spent 5 years at Fletcher Spaght, a boutique strategy consulting and venture capital firm with expertise in medical devices. At Fletcher Spaght, Nelson outlined the commercialization strategy of early stage companies and emerging technologies and performed due diligence supporting acquisitions and venture capital investment. In addition, Nelson has over 10 years of bench research experience in the neurosciences at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Marine Biological Laboratory, and Yale University.
Nelson received his PhD in Neuroscience from Yale University and Bachelor of Arts in Biology and History from Brown University.
Renuka Babu, MBA.
Director, Business Development, New Ventures
(617) 353-1828 • rbabu@bu.edu
Most recently, Ms. Babu acted as the Head of Finance and Business Development at Medicine In Need (MEND), a start-up biotechnology company funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The company is focused on utilizing advanced technology for the delivery of drugs and vaccines to the developing world. Ms. Babu led the group in a successful IND filing for an inhaled drug used in the treatment of MDR-TB and also engaged MEND in a number of successful partnerships. Prior to MEND, Ms. Babu worked in the Business Development group at ArQule, a publicly traded biotechnology company, where she was part of the negotiation team that licensed out the Asian rights to a Phase 1 compound in a deal valued at over $150MM. Ms. Babu started her career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan where she developed expertise in the public markets and corporate finance while focusing on debt securitizations, IPOs and mergers & acquisitions.
Ms. Babu holds an MBA degree from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, where she was a finalist in the New Venture Business Plan competition, and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College where she was a recipient of a Howard Hughes Research Fellowship in Reproductive Biology .
Jonathan Jensen, MBA, CLP 
Director, Business Development, Physical Sciences 
(617) 358-3795 • jjensen@bu.edu 
Jon Jensen joined OTD in June of 2006. He manages a physical sciences portfolio of inventions, focusing much his time on energy, IT, software, and media related technologies. He also developed and now manages the Technology Development Analyst Program and the TECC Student Consultants group, both of which were designed to assist OTD and its portfolio companies while providing BU students with valuable hands-on experience.
Jon received his Master of Business Administration degree from Boston University’s Graduate School of Management, and both his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering and his Graduate Certificate in Intellectual Property from Northeastern University. As an undergraduate at Northeastern, Jon gained industry experience as a Test Engineer for genomics, medical device, software, and product development companies. Jon is also a Certified Licensing Professional™ and a USPTO Registered Patent Agent.
In his free time, Jon enjoys spending time with his family, playing soccer, and traveling.
April Effort 
Director, Business Development, Therapeutics
(617) 358-3045 • aeffort@bu.edu
April Effort joined the Technology Development Office at Boston University in November 2007. Prior to joining BU, she worked at the University of Michigan with the Coulter Foundation’s Translational Research Program in Biomedical Engineering. There she helped develop commercialization strategies including market, regulatory and intellectual property assessments for medical devices. In addition to her work with the Coulter program, Ms. Effort has worked as an independent consultant for Arboretum Ventures and several life science start-up companies.
As Director Business Development, Therapeutics, she helps manage Boston University’s portfolio of Life Science inventions along with the Technology Analyst Program.
Ms. Effort is a graduate of the University of Michigan where she earned a Master of Science in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology as well as a Bachelor of Science in Cellular and Molecular Biology. In addition to seven years of laboratory research, Ms. Effort also served as a science reporter for the Michigan Daily.
Harald Steltzer
Director, Business Development, Life Sciences
(617) 358-4550 • hsteltz@bu.edu
Harald Steltzer joined OTD in November 2011. Harald most recently was part of the Corporate Development team at Genzyme (a company best known for its orphan disease enzyme replacement therapies and mission to support advancement of products with serious unmet needs), supporting the $20B acquisition and integration process with Sanofi. While at Genzyme, Harald worked on a broad array of corporate initiatives spanning from expansion into China to Genzyme venture investments to product lifecycle planning. Prior to Genzyme, Harald supported the management team at the US affiliate of Schwarz Pharma which was acquired by UCB in 2007. Prior to Schwarz, Harald spent nearly 10 years with Abbott Labs Diagnostics Division and Abbott’s joint venture with Takeda – TAP Pharmaceuticals. He began his career as a bench scientist taking on roles of increasing responsibility in project management, alliance management, and business development.
Harald will be responsible for co-managing the life science portfolio covering therapeutic and biomarker discoveries emerging from both the Medical Campus and the Charles River Campus.
Harald received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.