Who We Are

Arjun Sanga

Arjun Sanga

WiSys Staff, Board of Trustees & Officers, Advisory Committee | President

Arjun Sanga, president of WiSys, is an expert in supporting innovation and innovation ecosystems. Sanga has more than 25 years of experience leading research collaborations, managing intellectual property, closing licensing deals and fostering startup companies.

Through his almost ten-year tenure with WiSys, Sanga has piloted and scaled innovative programs and ideas to build an organization that serves Wisconsin’s regional public universities in new and creative ways. Sanga is currently leading a collaborative effort of more than 30 organizations to catalyze and foster an innovative ecosystem in Wisconsin around the topic of sustainable agriculture. In May 2023, the WiSys-led partnership for which Sanga is the principal investigator was awarded $1 million Type 1 development grant from the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines program.

Through Sanga's strategic planning, WiSys has expanded from a technology transfer office to a full-service innovation support system for researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs. WiSys was recognized as a “Global Good Practice” by the international University Industry Innovation Network and WiSys, along with its university partners, were ranked second in the nation for innovation impact productivity among smaller research universities in the report “The Innovation Impact of U.S. universities.”  In 2020, WiSys launched WiSys VentureHome, a network of startup hubs across Wisconsin to support scaleable startups in the communities served by the Universities of Wisconsin.  Momentum West awarded this program a collaboration award for its innovative and effective partnership between WiSys, UW-Eau Claire and the Eau Claire community.

Sanga serves on the boards of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences Arts and Letters Foundation, the Wisconsin Technology Council.  He is a member of the Wisconsin Science Festival Advisory Board and was recently appointed to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, School of Business, Entrepreneurship Advisory Council.

Credentials

  • B.A. Mathematics (University of Washington)
  • J.D. (University of Missouri-Kansas City)
  • Former Executive Director at UT STTM
  • Former Associate Vice Chancellor, UT System 
  • Licensed patent attorney, registered to practice before the USPTO.

Contact:

Phone: 608.218.3758
Assistant: Alicia Schiff