Divyesh Patel

After each of Divyesh Patel's three placements with WestLink's Technology Commercialization Internship Program, he thought to himself, "now that's what I want to do." When he first started the program, he had no idea he would enjoy so many aspects of the commercialization chain (or better yet, get to choose the name for a novel agricultural product).

Now an innovation officer with SpringBoard West Innovations in Regina, a not-for-profit organization that works with entrepreneurs to turn Saskatchewan ideas into market-ready products and services, Patel is drawing on what he learned in all of his placements to advise early-stage entrepreneurs how to get started.

It wasn't that long ago that Patel was a molecular biology graduate from the University of Saskatchewan researching fungal diseases on pine trees when he read about WestLink on a career website. He was interviewing for his master's degree when the idea of the internship won out.

"I knew I wanted to be in business eventually and this seemed like a way to get hands-on experience without going back to school," says Patel.

During his first placement with the B.C. Cancer Agency, Patel was part of a team that looked at new inventions to determine whether they had any commercial value. On one project dealing with a new monoclonal antibody for research, he was involved with all stages from the first discussions with the inventor to negotiating and signing a royalty-bearing license. "These types of deals normally take a long time to develop so it was a rare opportunity to get to see it all the way through as a WestLink intern," he says. "Plus, the people I worked with were fabulous."

With Ag West Bio, Patel performed an economic impact analysis on the organization's Commercialization Fund to demonstrate the fund's benefit to the region's economy and to show the government was getting more in return than the $5 million it had invested. Patel also worked with the fund's clients—some of whom had a strong business proposition and were submitting investment proposals for funding and others that were burgeoning entrepreneurs who needed help developing their business. "We went through a due diligence process on the investment proposals to make sure the market existed for the technology and that finances were feasible, among other details," he says. "With the new entrepreneurs, we helped flesh out a business case from the idea they brought to us."

Patel's third stop was with Innovotech, an Edmonton-based product development company focusing on microbial biofilms. One of Patel's major projects included working on the regulatory submission for a seed treatment called "Agress" for diseases of soy and bean crops. The submission was completed just before Patel left Innovotech. "It was pretty exciting because I was given the opportunity to name the treatment and that's how it will always be known," he says.

With Innovotech, he also helped the product development manager on a launch—everything from strategizing on how to enter the market to refining in-house manufacturing logistics and working on a system to track inventory.

After Patel finished his placements, the WestLink network helped him land his current job with Springboard West Innovations. The previous internship program manager, who interviewed Patel for a WestLink spot, connected him with his new job.

"My internship experience has been great," he says. "It has brought me a lot closer to where I was heading and a lot faster. I might just be finishing my master's degree now and would still be an MBA away from where I am today. It definitely fast-tracked my career."