Ian McClure, J.D., LL.M.
Vice President for Innovation, UK HealthCare
Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Impact, UK Research
Ian D. McClure, J.D., LL.M., is vice president for innovation at UK HealthCare and associate vice president for research, innovation and economic impact and executive director of UK Innovate at the University of Kentucky. In this role, he leads efforts to translate discoveries for the public good, secure equitable returns on intellectual property, strengthen institutional investments in innovation, catalyze entrepreneurship and expand industry and collaborative research partnerships. From 2024 to present, he has led the design and launch of the university’s comprehensive artificial intelligence strategy, the Commonwealth AI Transdisciplinary Strategy, or CATS AI, and serves as interim co-director of the initiative, overseeing implementation across campus and UK HealthCare.
His portfolio includes oversight of five units that make up UK Innovate: Ecosystem, Health Care Innovation, R&D Partnerships, Technology Commercialization and the TRUST Hub, Translating Research through Universal Solutions Together. Previously, as executive director of the Office of Technology Commercialization, he led a team of more than 25 staff managing intellectual property, licensing and startup portfolios, increasing commercialization metrics by up to 400 percent under his leadership.
McClure is a past chair of the board of directors for AUTM and serves on the advisory boards of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, Launch Blue Accelerator and Level Set Capital. In August 2024, he joined the Center for American Entrepreneurship as a board member. In 2023, he received an expert appointment advising the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships. In 2022, he was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, with his appointment concluding in November 2024. As an innovator, he serves as principal investigator or co-investigator on five federal grants focused on tech-based economic development from NIH, NSF and EDA.
McClure began his career as a mergers and acquisitions and intellectual property transactions attorney at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs LLP in Louisville. He later helped build IPXI in Chicago, the world’s first financial exchange for intellectual property and technology rights, leading its growth to more than 30 full-time employees across three offices.
Before returning to Kentucky, McClure was vice president of IP strategy for Black Stone IP, later acquired by Houlihan Lokey, a boutique investment bank headquartered in San Francisco focused on intellectual property-rich mergers and acquisitions and technology-driven transactions. In parallel, he teaches graduate courses on the law and business of intellectual property management at the Chicago-Kent College of Law and the University of Kentucky College of Law. He has been named one of the world’s leading intellectual property strategists by IAM magazine for six consecutive years.