The University of California, Berkeley is making Darren Cooke its permanent chief innovation and entrepreneurship officer, effective 1 April.
Cooke has been in the role in an interim capacity since July 2024, when his predecessor, Rich Lyons, became chancellor of UC Berkeley.
In an announcement sent to UC Berkeley staff, Katherine Yellick, the vice chancellor for research, said that Cooke had “further strengthened Berkeley’s innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem”.
His permanent appointment follows what Yellick described as a “highly competitive” search.
Cooke is also a faculty member at the Haas School of Business, and has 27 years of experience as an intellectual property attorney. From 2018 to 2024, he was the chair of the Bio track at Berkeley SkyDeck, the university’s incubator programme.
University chancellor Lyons has continued to be an advocate for innovation activities and has launched the Berkeley Chancellor’s Fund that mixes philanthropy with venture capital to back spinouts across the University of California System.
