Our Team
Prior to co-founding TriStar, Dr. Jacobson was Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs at Vanderbilt University and the CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). VUMC consists of a Medical School, Nursing School, and a health care system. During Dr. Jacobson's 11+ year tenure, VUMC revenues grew from $750 million to $2.5 billion, its Federally-funded (NIH) research program moved from 24th to the top 10 in the country, it opened over $1 billion of newly constructed facilities, it was recognized as a "most-wired" hospital as well as a U. S. News and World Report honor-roll hospital, and, most recently, as a Fortune 100 top place to work.
Dr. Jacobson has been a successful investor and entrepreneur having founded or co-founded ten companies. In addition, in his role at VUMC he participated in the oversight of technology transfer operations which resulted in the creation of over 30 companies. Notable co-founded companies include Contact Software (the developer of Act!, the world's leading contact management software), acquired by Symantec (SYMC:NASDAQ); Renal Care Group (RCG:NYSE), a leading dialysis service company, acquired recently by Fresenius (FMS:NYSE); Ambulatory Services of America (currently privately held), a diversified outpatient ancillary services provider, currently providing dialysis and radiation oncology services; CeloNova Biosciences, a medical device company with 2 CE-approved and IFDA-approved products (coronary stent and embolic microspheres). Dr. Jacobson has been both a formal and informal advisor to several venture and private equity funds. Currently he serves on the Board of Directors of Kinetic Concepts (KCI:NYSE) and Merck (MRK:NYSE), as well as Device Innovation Group and Diabetes Care Group, which are two of TriStar's portfolio companies. In 2002 he was named the Ernst and Young Southeast Entrepreneur of the Year and was recently ranked No. 35 on Modern Physician’s ranking of the 50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Healthcare.
Dr. Laden co-founded TriStar Technology Ventures in 2009. Through his role at TriStar, he serves on the Board of Directors for VenX, Molecular Sensing, GOBA and Diagnovus. Prior to the founding of TriStar, Dr. Laden served as the Assistant Director in the Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development at Vanderbilt University. That role involved leading various technology transfer functions for Vanderbilt, which included identifying, protecting, marketing and licensing promising new technologies to companies of all stages and sizes, as well as developing collaborative, sponsored R&D and material transfer relationships with industry. He also participated in the office’s venture investment and company formation activities. Since beginning as the Chancellor Fund in 2000, Vanderbilt invested a substantial amount of capital into 30 different Vanderbilt-related companies.
Before moving into technology transfer, Dr. Laden was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt, where his work focused on structure-function studies of the cytochromes P450. He holds a doctorate in Toxicology from the University of Kentucky, a master’s degree in Environmental and Industrial Health from the University of Michigan and an undergraduate degree in biology from Penn State University.
Mr. Rand co-founded TriStar Technology Ventures in 2009. Through his role at TriStar, he serves on the Board of Directors for Pathfinder Therapeutics, Molecular Sensing, Nashville Technology Council, Nashville Entrepreneur Center, Nashville Capital Network, E|Spaces and Bridge Nashville. Prior to co-founding TriStar, Mr. Rand was the Manager of New Venture Development in Vanderbilt's Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development. That responsibility included licensing Vanderbilt intellectual property, assisting in the formation of new start-up companies and working with existing start-ups. Since beginning as the Chancellor’s Fund in 2000, Vanderbilt has invested a significant amount of capital into 30 different Vanderbilt-related companies. Mr. Rand was responsible for managing this portfolio and represented Vanderbilt on the boards of five of these companies.
Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Mr. Rand worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers' valuation group, providing consulting and transaction support services. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA from Vanderbilt.
Prior to joining TriStar in May 2010, Lisa served as the Communications Coordinator in Office of Technology Transfer and Enterprise Development at Vanderbilt University where she was responsible for internal marketing, public relations and communications within the Vanderbilt community. Lisa also collaborated with licensing associates to develop long-range marketing goals and implement various outreach initiatives, including development and dissemination of information to community partners, assistance in creating and editing executive summaries used to market Vanderbilt-developed technologies to potential investors and licensees, and market research to help evaluate commercial potential of those technologies. She also served on various planning committees for the Association for University Technology Managers (AUTM) and Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO).
Prior to joining Vanderbilt, Lisa worked as a Marketing Coordinator at The Beach Company, a real estate and development firm in Charleston, South Carolina. She received her undergraduate degrees in Advertising and Sociology from The University of Georgia.
