NEW ORLEANS — The Tulane University Innovation Institute announced that Casey Candebat has been named executive director of industry partnerships, elevating him from interim executive director to lead the university’s industry partnership strategy on a permanent basis. The appointment comes as Tulane leads a $500 million redevelopment of the historic Charity Hospital building into a new hub for research and industry collaboration.
In this role, Candebat will serve as the primary conduit between Tulane’s research enterprise and the corporate world, building strategic partnerships that turn university discoveries into sponsored research programs, licensing agreements, and funded spinouts. He will work closely with faculty across all Tulane schools, with a particular focus on the School of Science and Engineering, the School of Medicine, and the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center. He will also work with regional partners, including GNO, Inc., Louisiana Economic Development, and NSF FUEL to grow Tulane’s footprint in the Gulf South innovation economy.
“Casey has spent years building the operational backbone of our tech transfer program, and now he’ll be steering the relationships that bring Tulane’s research to market,” said Kimberly Gramm, David and Marion Mussafer Chief Innovation and Entrepreneurship Officer. “As we prepare for a new era of research infrastructure in New Orleans, we need someone who understands how to connect faculty expertise with real industry needs, and that’s exactly what Casey does.”
“There is an abundance of high-quality research at Tulane,” Candebat said. “My job is to be a matchmaker. I learn what industry needs, I learn what our labs and faculty have to offer, and I introduce the two to each other.”
Candebat previously served as Director of Operations and Data Management within the Office of Intellectual Property Management, where he helped launch initiatives like Go Green, a streamlined licensing system designed to accelerate faculty commercialization efforts. He holds a Master of Science and a Master of Music from Northwestern University, and is currently pursuing an MBA at Tulane’s Freeman School of Business. Before transitioning into data compliance, higher education administration, and technology transfer, Candebat performed internationally as a professional opera singer.
Candebat steps into the role at a pivotal moment for Tulane’s innovation ecosystem. The university recently announced it will lead a roughly $500 million redevelopment of the long-vacant Charity Hospital building in downtown New Orleans, the Art Deco landmark that closed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and has sat empty for two decades. Once construction is complete in 2029, the nearly 90-year-old building will house the Tulane Innovation Institute alongside the Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and parts of the School of Medicine, creating space for approximately 700 researchers.
The project, backed by the State of Louisiana, the City of New Orleans, BioDistrict New Orleans, the Goldring Family Foundation, and other private philanthropy, is expected to anchor downtown New Orleans as a destination for biotech discovery.
As Charity Hospital’s transformation moves from announcement to groundbreaking, Candebat’s mandate will expand to build the pipeline of corporate partners who will fill that space with sponsored research, industry collaboration, and new company formation.
“There’s a real opportunity here to make New Orleans a place where industry comes looking for research partners, not the other way around,” Gramm said. “Charity Hospital’s rebirth gives us a physical symbol of what’s possible. Casey’s job is to make sure the partnerships match the ambition of that building.”