Dines: OCR helping tech companies and investors

MADISON – Allen Dines, assistant director at the UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations (OCR), is a veteran of the high-tech start-up world, having created and sold two biotech firms.

Before that, he worked for another company that was spun out of a UW-Madison research lab. Even earlier, he worked for Booz Allen Hamilton in Bethesda, MD as a high-tech consultant.

These days, Dines focuses on helping entrepreneurs get their efforts off the ground. He also works with the financial community to find funding for start-ups.

“It goes both ways,” said Dines, who has been mixing business, technology and science for 25 years. “We help investors make useful high-tech investments. On the other side, we help new companies find the money to help them grow.”

Dines said his work moving ideas from the university into the marketplace keeps his motor running.

“It’s something you never get tired of,” he said. “And it’s fascinating to work here with the university. There is never a shortage of new ideas. And I like helping move them into the marketplace.”

WisBusiness Editor Brian Clark interviewed Dines recently.