Paula Sorrell

Paula Sorrell serves as Principal at Paula, LLC where she is a strategy, marketing, and tech commercialization consultant working with universities, governments, non-profits, equity investors, and tech companies. Previously, Paula served as vice president of entrepreneurship, innovation & venture capital for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). She oversaw $1billion under management to support Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, including university research and tech transfer, technology service providers, business incubators, seed funding programs, portfolio investments and fund to funds (200+ contracts in all). Prior to MEDC, she has held full and interim senior management roles at seven early to mid-stage technology companies. All resulted in successful sale of the company, or are still a going concern. Sorrell’s past activities in economic development include being a national trainer to economic development centers, universities, and consultants for early stage commercialization strategies and supporting eco-systems. She was the co-developer of a screening tool used by entrepreneurial support and investment organizations to evaluate commercialization potential in early stage companies. Sorrell has been a technology business evaluator for investment portfolio companies, business incubator tenants, National Lab managers for the U.S. Department of Energy, and 1,000+ sustainable technology businesses for a group of 1300 international investors.