The Missouri Innovation Center has appointed Charlie Bolten as president and CEO to succeed Quinten Messbarger, who has retired after three decades with the centre.
Bolten will also be a board member for the centre, taking on his new role tomorrow, 1 October. He was most recently the chief executive officer of agtech company Solis Agrosciences, which he co-founded in 2021.
Bolten brings 25 years of industry R&D, venture capital and startup expertise to his new role. He has served on the boards of 36 technology companies and founded wet labs hub BioGenerator Labs, which has housed more than 150 startups to date.
He has invested in multiple spinouts, including agtech business Peptyde Bio (a platform to discover novel peptides for use in agriculture, spun out of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center) and Panome Bio (a multi-omics platform spun out of Washington University in St Louis).
“Missouri Innovation Center has a strong track record of success and its clients leverage world-class facilities at the MU Life Science Business Incubator and other Mizzou infrastructure.
“The research community at Mizzou is fertile ground for new ventures, and I am excited to help translate these ideas into successful mid-Missouri businesses.”
Charlie Bolten
Founded in 1984, the Missouri Innovation Center is a startup hub affiliated with the University of Missouri (MU). It supports startups from the region, operates the MU Life Science Business Incubator, runs an executives-in-residence programme, and is home to angel group Centennial Investors.
“Missouri Innovation Center and the MU Life Science Business Incubator are critical components of the university’s long-term commitment to driving commercialisation of important inventions from our faculty.
“Startups emerging from Mizzou research can help solve global challenges while creating economic benefit to the Columbia region and beyond.”
Patrick Smith, assistant vice chancellor in MU’s Research, Innovation and Impact Division
