News Release

Aris Melissaratos

Aris Melissaratos, former secretary of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development, will join The Johns Hopkins University as special adviser to the president for enterprise development.

Melissaratos, a 1966 Johns Hopkins graduate and longtime member of the Whiting School of Engineering's National Advisory Council, will have overall responsibility for building the university's relationship with business and forging new connections between the research and corporate communities. He begins his new job on March 1.

Specific assignments will include supervision of Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer, the office that links university researchers and businesses interested in commercializing their inventions. Melissaratos also will market opportunities for businesses to locate at Johns Hopkins-related research parks such as the Montgomery County Campus, the nearby Belward Research Campus and the Science + Technology Park at Johns Hopkins, now under construction as part of the comprehensive New EastSide redevelopment in East Baltimore.

"Aris' background, skills and accomplishments make him the perfect choice to serve as the university's point person for creating new linkages between Johns Hopkins and business," said university President William R. Brody, to whom Melissaratos will report.

Melissaratos, 63, who served as secretary of DBED for four years until last month, was widely viewed as highly effective in marketing Maryland as a location for businesses ranging from life science and technology corporations to manufacturing and retail concerns. He said he expects to find a "lot of synergy between what I did and what I will be doing" promoting Johns Hopkins as a partner to business.

"Johns Hopkins is a global institution with a global reach and a reputation that is truly global," Melissaratos said. "Its intellectual property assets, however, have not been fully appreciated. This is an exciting opportunity to help both maintain the university's traditional research focus and enhance commercialization and entrepreneurial initiatives."

Melissaratos, whose undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins is in electrical engineering, spent most of his career with Westinghouse Electronics in Baltimore, eventually becoming vice president of science and technology and chief technology officer at corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh. Before joining state government in 2003, he also served as vice president of Thermo Electron Corp. and founded Armel Private Equity Investments.

He was a founding co-chair of the Greater Baltimore Technology Council and is a former vice president of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce. He holds a master's degree in engineering management from George Washington University and did graduate work in international politics at Catholic University of America. Melissaratos also completed a program for management development at Harvard Business School.

Note: A color digital image of Melissaratos is available. Please contact Dennis O'Shea at 443-287-9960 or dro@jhu.edu.