Isaac Kohlberg, who came to Harvard in May 2005 to forge partnerships with for-profit companies, launch startups, and license intellectual property based on research developed in Harvard labs, announced on Thursday that he will retire at the end of the calendar year.

Under Kohlberg’s leadership, the University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) grew to include more than 50 full-time staff with expertise in business development, corporate alliances, and intellectual property law. In the past five years alone, according to the announcement, “the advancement of Harvard research has resulted in the launch of 96 startups raising nearly $2.8 billion, more than 2,000 reports of innovations, 897 U.S. patents held by Harvard, and $300 million in research funding through industry partnerships.” OTD helps Harvard researchers translate their discoveries into technologies that can benefit society. (For an account of how OTD operates, see “Accelerating Innovation.”)

Harvard’s corporate partnerships are likely to become increasingly important as federal funding for research is frozen, and overhead costs for any future work for the government are reimbursed at rates that the University might find unacceptable.