Fernando Quezada is Executive Director of the Biotechnology Center of Excellence Corp., a US-based private, non-profit organization providing technical assistance internationally. His consulting assignments have included the Ministry of the Economy of Chile, the US-Mexico Foundation for Science, the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust, and the US-Israel Science and Technology Foundation. He also coordinated a study for the German Agency GIZ on The Knowledge Economy in Central America. Mr. Quezada has served as an advisor to the International Association of Science Parks, the BioBasque agency, the Basque Network of Technology Parks, the University of Ulster Science and Technology Park and the Quebec Biotechnology Innovation Centre. He was appointed to Chile’s National Commission for the Development of Biotechnology by the President of Chile, and served as consultant to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Board on Science and Technology in International Development of the National Academy of Sciences. Mr. Quezada studied at UCLA and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has taught at the Federal University of Para and University of São Paulo, both in Brazil, the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico, and Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In addition to serving on Laspau’s board, he currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Framingham State University. His publications focus on biotechnology commercialization, technology-based innovation and public policy.