West Corner Company, Limited is the bridge between academia and industry, helping to create new value for technology and business

Celebrating the establishment of West Corner Company, Limited

Congratulations on establishing West Corner Company, Limited.

Sumida-san and I have known each other for more than 10 years and having heard that he has completed his long career working for major chemical companies and started his own consulting company, I would like to say a few words of encouragement with high hopes.

In recent days, there has been a rethinking of the interaction between academia and industry with a strong push towards more practical applications and efficient commercialization of intellectual properties developed by universities and research institutes. This company’s aim is to assist in the transitioning of academic intellectual properties from mere ideas to business foundations, and in my opinion, is exactly the kind of company that is needed in this era.

Until 1994, I worked at a national university researching organic chemical synthesis and have had the good fortune to have a part of the results of my research be known as the “Suzuki Coupling Reaction”. Although no patents were obtained, this technology has been adopted widely by the chemical industry. However, it took more than 20 years before the technology was accepted by the global chemical community and I know deeply from that experience how essential it is to have the right person make appropriate connections in order to efficiently commercialize technologies developed by universities. I have no doubt that Sumida-san's experience in chemical research and product management techniques that he has developed over many years will yield great results to help bring technologies to the market.

I wish you great success.

　　　　　July 3rd 2014
Emeritus Professor of Hokkaido University
Akira Suzuki

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