Phyllis Leah Speser
Chair, Board of Directors
Leah Speser has had a long career in research and innovation ecosystem development. From 2023 to 2025, she served as Senior Consultant to the Director of the Research and Innovation Foundation, where she developed and led programmes to advance the Cypriot national knowledge transfer system and to strengthen the country’s research, development and innovation ecosystem.
As a member of the Board of Trustees of Peninsula College, Washington State, she is leading a Board initiative to position the institution as a hub within the innovation and economic development ecosystem of the rural Pacific Northwest. She has undertaken similar roles in Thailand and other countries.
Over a career spanning more than 45 years, she has supported the commercialisation of technologies, helping her clients collectively generate billions of dollars in new revenues.
She is the author of The Art & Science of Technology Transfer and co-author of Open Innovation Essentials for Small and Medium Enterprises, among other publications. She holds a JD in Law and a PhD in Political Science, and is a Registered Technology Transfer Professional, a certified New Product Development Professional, and a certified Emergency Medical Technician and Wildland Firefighter.
She has taught at universities worldwide, advised governments and the United Nations, and delivered keynote addresses at professional society meetings across the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Her diverse experience also includes ranching in Montana, receiving government awards in artificial intelligence, serving as a registered lobbyist in Washington, DC, managing redwood tree farms in northern California, serving on Wildland Fire Incident Management Team Command Staff, and raising two children as a single mother — the achievement of which she is most proud.