Teresa de León Zamora
Biography
Scientist Explorer at GridX and part-time Entrepreneurship Professor at Tec de Monterrey Puebla Campus, Mexico
Teresa de León Zamora is a true believer of the impact of entrepreneurship in society. She advocates entrepreneurship from her work as a part-time professor at the Tec de Monterrey campus in Puebla, and as a Scientist Explorer in GridX, a LATAM Venture Company Builder Fund in biotechnology.
Teresa’s expertise in developing capabilities and opportunities for science-based entrepreneurs began in 2005, working in a one-to-one capacity at the National Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics public research center in Mexico.
At the end of 2014, she extended her experience and leadership to a national capacity as Director of Technology Commercialisation at CONACyT, the National Science and Technology Council in Mexico until the end of 2018.
This involved direct interaction with different governmental ministries and agencies, as well as with the academic, scientific and private sectors in Mexico and internationally, to design public policy in innovation. More than 13 competitions and at least three new programs related to innovation and entrepreneurship were successfully launched during her time in office.
Teresa has a Masters degree in Science and Technology Commercialization (MSTC) from the Advanced Materials CONACYT Research Center (2009), jointly with the IC2 from the University of Texas in Austin. She also holds an MBA from the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (2002) and a Masters in Habitat and Socio Equality from the Universidad Iberoamericana campus Puebla (2021).
Teresa formalized Mexico’s participation in the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium, coordinated by SPRU at the University of Sussex, back in 2017-2018, and was able to engage important actors of the innovation ecosystem in the country; unfortunately Mexico did not continue participating due to a change in government.
Teresa is now a PhD Candidate at the Polytechnique University of Valencia, where she is collaborating with INGENIO researchers on topics related to Transformative Innovation and Socio Technical Systems (STS), particularly studying and comparing “lock ins” in different STS in order to identify opportunities for innovative transformational actions.
Interests in
Transformative innovation and socio-technical ‘lock ins’; Science-based entrepreneurship; Public policy; Local and regional development
Open to contact in relation to
Joint research projects related to sustainability and transformational actions / Consultancy in sociotechnical systems and innovation / Entrepreneurial opportunities / Sharing experience and expertise / Mentoring
