John T. Preston – Textiles & Advanced Materials

Mr. Preston is President and CEO of Atomic Ordered Materials LLC., (AOM) and Senior Lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Preston founded several of the leading entrepreneurship programs at M.I.T. including: the M.I.T. Technology Licensing Office, the $50K Competition and the M.I.T. Entrepreneurship Center. Before joining AOM, Mr. Preston was the Director of Technology Development (and Licensing) at M.I.T., where he was responsible for the commercialization of intellectual property developed at M.I.T. In this capacity he oversaw activities that led to the creation of over 250 new technology-based companies as well as the negotiation of thousands of licenses with existing companies. Many thousands of new jobs resulted from these license agreements. He also negotiated many complex agreements including the US standard for high definition television, while representing MIT on the HDTV Grand Alliance.

Mr. Preston received a Bachelors of Science in physics from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters of Business Administration from Northwestern University. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Thomas Jefferson Award, given to the leading American in technology transfer and the Renaissance Engineering and Science Award from Stevens Institute of Technology. President Mitterand awarded Mr. Preston the rank of “Knight of the National Order of Merit” of France. Mr. Preston is also Honorary Alum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (only 131 such awards have been made by MIT is its 140 year history). Mr. Preston, in 1999, received the “Hammer Award” from Vice President Gore for reinventing Government. He is the only civilian to receive this award.

Mr. Preston is a Director of Clean Harbors Corporation, EZEM, Boston Life Sciences as well as several privately owned companies.

Prior appointments include director or advisory positions for the Governor of Massachusetts, the US Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science and Technology Board of Singapore and several others. Mr. Preston has testified seven times before the US Congress on issues related to technology commercialization and has chaired meetings on this subject for President George H. W. Bush and H.R.H. Prince Charles among others.