– Harold Jones to join firm and focus on strategic institutional collaborations –

Jacksonville Fl, – 17 May 2022 – Kirchner Group, a boutique advisory, operational support, and asset management firm, today announced Dr. Harold Jones has joined the firm. Dr. Jones will be a project leader for a newly established service focused on strategic institutional collaborations. He joins senior members of Kirchner Group’s health and life sciences team including, Dr. Richard Marchase and Dr. Patrick McNees.

Harold’s efforts will include providing academic institutions with access to an unprecedented combination of “practice, policy and partnership opportunities”. Through this access, academic institutions will be better able to leverage their resources and create return on investment while creating greater societal impact. This academic focused unit of the firm will leverage its resident team’s 100+ years of cumulative expertise around the intellectual property lifecycle as well as the firms four decades of experience in enterprise development and crystallizing the value of intellectual property on behalf of investors, entrepreneurs, and investors.

Most recently Harold spent 18 years as Dean of the School of Health Professions at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) prior to retiring in 2018. His role included responsibilities around recruitment, financial management, partnership development, constituent relations and philanthropy for an enterprise of $40 million annually. By the end of his tenure at UAB, each of his unit’s programs that are evaluated by US News and World Report was rated in the top 25 programs with its program in Healthcare Management rated as the #1 program, nationally.

“We look forward to having Harold join the firm after having the opportunity to work with him in various capacities over the last decade,” stated W.B. (Bud) Kirchner, Founder and CEO of Kirchner Group. “The expertise and experience Harold brings along with the complete alignment of culture and values enable us to provide an unprecedented offering to the academic world.”

“I am truly excited about this opportunity to join the Kirchner Group as it expands its outreach by bringing its expertise to academic institutions,” added Harold. “Understanding the financial pressures on academic institutions coupled with the need for academic institutions to participate fully in addressing society’s most pressing problems, most academic institutions can benefit from these approaches that can leverage their resources and expertise.”

Earlier in his career, Harold served nine years as Dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences at East Carolina University.  Before that, he served as the first Branch Chief for the Science Planning and Analysis Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse overseeing the Institute’s science strategic planning and coordinating many of the Institute’s cross-divisional activities. He also has served as a Program Director for the Shared Instrument and Instrument Development Programs at the National Science Foundation, an Associate Dean for the College of Allied Health Professions at the University of South Alabama and as a faculty member in the Department of Biochemistry in the School of Medicine at the University of South Alabama where his biomedical research was supported by grants from NIH, NSF, and the American Heart Association.

Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Duke University, a B.S. with Honors and Distinction in Biology from Rhodes College and completed his postdoctoral studies at the University of Georgia. Dr. Jones has also received several recognitions during his career including election as a Fellow of the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) and to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. He was awarded the University of South Alabama Scholar of the Year Award and the J. Warren Perry Author of the Year Award (Journal of Allied Health). He has also received recognition for community leadership for his efforts in leading United Way campaigns at both East Carolina University and UAB.