Lillegard's passion is helping entrepreneurs bring their ideas to market. Following early career training in the software industry as a project manager, business analyst, and sales manager, Lillegard received his MBA from the Lundquist College of Business in 2006.
Lillegard was founding CEO of Floragenex, a genomics research company based on technology developed at the University of Oregon. Floragenex, which was developed through the UO Technology Entrepreneurship Program as part of Lillegard’s MBA studies, moved from lab to market with a combination of grant funding, Oregon-based early stage investment, and a strategic investment from a seed company in Illinois.
In his role leading the Lundquist Center, Lillegard plans and delivers Oregon’s Venture Launch Pathway series of MBA courses, coaches student teams competing in national and international business plan competitions, and also leads the Technology Entrepreneurship Program (TEP). TEP engages UO MBA, Law, and PhD student teams in the evaluation and commercialization feasibility analysis of technologies sourced from Oregon technology partner institutions including ONAMI, OregonBEST, NETL, PNNL, OHSU, and the University of Oregon Tech Transfer Office.
