Ruth Taylor: Pursuing an entrepreneurial path at a large company
By Kim Spurr

uth Taylor (EMBA '93) has the best of both worlds - the excitement and challenge of working for an entrepreneurial-minded division within the relative safety net of a large corporation.

Taylor is senior program director for venture capital and new business strategy at IBM in Research Triangle Park, N.C. She is responsible for venture investments with key venture capital funds in Europe and Asia in the emerging field of life sciences and biotechnology. Through her work in the Life Sciences Solutions Group, she's become a walking encyclopedia of proteomics and genomics. But what does IBM have to do with biotech?

"If you think about typical drug discovery, you think about wet labs in isolation," Taylor said. "But genomics uses tons of data that has to be stored and mined for what you want. Since there is so much data, you need that computational horsepower."

Taylor has made several transformations in her career life, early on switching from housing and environmental design to computer science. While a software developer at IBM, Taylor and her husband, Mike, a pharmacist-turned-entrepreneur, decided to attend Kenan-Flagler together. After graduation, she went back to IBM and took on increasing responsibilities, including new business development, business strategy, product development and commercialization of emerging technologies.

For about a year and half beginning in April 2000, she left IBM and went to work for Southeast Interactive Technology Funds, a firm that allowed her to hone her venture capital skills. Then the Internet boom went bust, and the venture capital market fizzled.

"It became pretty evident after a while that it was not really a good time to be investing in information technology companies, globally not just locally," she said. "The handwriting was on the wall that we were not going to be doing new investments. That's when I got the opportunity to go back to IBM and do something else. In some ways, I'm now working for an internal startup."

Taylor said she loves working with entrepreneurs, and she believes there's a lot of economic promise in biotech and life sciences.

"It's gratifying to work in a business where the technology I'm working on is going to benefit people's health," she said. "I like being able to use technology in a way that matters."

One thing Taylor has come to realize over the years is that there has been a connectivity in her career path; even though at first glance it might not seem so.

"I would advise people to look at what links their job experiences. I didn't always plan my career path; but if you're looking for a new career, ask yourself what underlying skill or interest has driven your career, even though it might not be what you originally got a degree in."