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Bill Payne, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Science and Technology, Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, University of Chicago

Bill Payne is a seasoned business and technology executive from the telecommunications industry. He is the Executive Director of Science and Technology at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago, where he leads the technology commercialization, Polsky Science Ventures, and industry relations teams working to bring groundbreaking faculty research to the market.

Bill has held leadership roles in product and technology development at Nokia, Motorola, and AT&T. He had business unit chief technology officer (CTO) responsibilities at both Nokia and Motorola, driving innovations into commercial products and services. He led Nokia’s Small Cell Business Line, as well as the development of Motorola’s first commercial 4G/LTE cellular infrastructure products. As CTO of Motorola’s infrastructure business, he incentivized the development of idea disclosures and introduced an innovation gate process to track, promote, and move concepts toward patent filings and/or commercialization. In addition, Bill Payne is also a startup veteran, having founded and built a company that developed a mobile advertising and sponsorship service.