Frank Klemens is currently the Managing Director of the Generation Food Rural Partners Fund (GFRP) at Big Idea Ventures. Frank leads and supervises the fund’s team of experts to evaluate intellectual property developed at collaborating universities with the strongest commercialization potential. Frank also leads the GFRP fund and will invest in new companies formed around the groundbreaking research. These new companies will be headquartered in rural communities near the collaborating universities, creating living wage jobs and driving economic growth and development. The GFRP fund will focus on technologies and create startups in the Food, Protein and Ag verticals.

Frank is currently on Advisory Boards for several startups.

Previously, Frank was the Managing Director of DuPont Ventures and the Director of Licensing who oversaw all aspects of sourcing, analyzing and executing strategic equity investments and licensing agreements for DuPont’s businesses. As the Licensing Director, he collaborated with DuPont businesses to in-license or out-license technology. As the Venture liaison he generated collaborative technology investment options to create new business opportunities. His areas of investment and licensing include biotech, food ingredients, food safety, nutrition, electronic, IoT, machine learning, and advanced materials.

He holds a B.S. from John Carroll University, and a M.S. in Chemistry and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Purdue University