James Y. Lancaster, Professional Speaker
James Y. Lancaster
A professional speaker on various entrepreneurial topics including entrepreneurship, innovation, innovation ecosystems, angel investing, angel funds, incubators and accelerators.
Positions include Founder/General Manager of Innovate CXO Services, Innovate Angel Funds, Innovate BCS Properties and CEO of Ecolyse, Inc., an industrial biocontrol company. Previously he was CEO and CFO of Shape Memory Medical, a medical device R&D company and the founding General Manager of the Research Valley Innovation Center, a science and technology incubator teamed with The Texas A&M University System.
With an extensive background advising entrepreneurs and early-stage companies, James has co-founded multiple technology companies in addition to the Innovate family of companies (Angel Funds, CXO Services and BCS Development). James is an ongoing volunteer and contributor of Startup Aggieland, the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship and a regular lecturer at Texas A&M University. James currently serves on the boards of Ecolyse and the non-profit BrightMinds Foundation. Prior experience includes bootstrapped, angel investor and venture capital-backed businesses, as well as nine years at Deloitte Consulting with Fortune 500 clients across North America. Clients for both consulting and his startup ventures have included Alcatel, Allied Signal, Bridgestone/Firestone, Dow Chemical, Ericsson, Foxmeyer, GE, Haliburton, Herman Miller, Honeywell, Landmark, Shell, Sonoco, Trilogy and Trinity Industries.
Lancaster holds a BBA from Texas A&M University and a MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.