Roger A. Edwards Joins Aptima Ventures as Chief Commercialization Officer
Dayton, OH – February 9, 2022 – Aptima, Inc., a leader in human-centered engineering, is pleased to announce that Roger A. Edwards has joined Aptima Ventures, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aptima, as Chief Commercialization Officer. In the new role, Edwards will oversee and lead all aspects of commercialization, drawing on Aptima’s extensive research and development (R&D) in the Department of Defense and its research laboratories.
“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity, which is a culmination of my professional experiences and offers the potential to impact humans lives in many ways,” said Edwards. “There’s a common thread through Aptima’s unique human-centered engineering that offers so much potential, whether that’s to provide better training, tailored support in technology saturated environments, or solutions to better sense and protect people to keep them safe.”
Edwards is also the Co-Founder/Managing Director of Gem City Business Solutions and recently retired from serving as the Vice President and General Manager for the Accelerant Venture Capital Fund, an Initiative of the Dayton Development Coalition. He has more than 25 years of experience in providing business, investment and technical guidance for the development and commercialization of new solutions within a variety of different markets.
“Roger brings incredible experience and vision to all aspects of commercialization,” said Daniel Serfaty, Principal Founder and CEO of Aptima and Chairman of Aptima Ventures. “We’re excited to have a leader of his caliber who can identify, nurture, and transition emerging technologies and find new uses and pathways for existing ones.
“Aptima has long partnered with our customers in government and defense, conducting R&D on some of the most pressing problems. They, like us, want to see that innovation return to the market as commercially viable, cutting-edge solutions that can benefit both government and industry. Roger is a key part of that. Commercialization is not only a multiplier for economic growth, it also advances our society’s technological leadership,” Serfaty added.
Since 1995, Aptima has applied its deep understanding of how humans perform in complex, high risk, safety- and mission-critical environments, researching and developing innovative ways to measure, assess, and augment performance in defense, healthcare, and other sectors.
Aptima Ventures’ most recent commercialization is Sentinel, a Dayton-based venture backed company spun off from Aptima’s work with the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). After repurposing previous AFRL R&D into a solution to better monitor and protect Air Force aviation maintainers, the technology was transitioned into a commercial product whose application has been expanded to serve numerous industries whose workers operate in hazardous settings.
“Successful commercialization, such as Sentinel’s, is about more than funding. It also depends on innovation and talent,” added Edwards. “The opportunity to work alongside Aptima’s management team, its scientists, and to manage the launch of an Entrepreneur In Residence Program to accelerate commercialization opportunities is extremely exciting.”
Edwards is a Certified Public Accountant within the State of Ohio and holds a dual major in Accountancy and Finance from Wright State University.
About Aptima, Inc.
For more than 25 years, Aptima’s mission has been to improve and optimize performance in mission-critical, technology-intensive settings. Visit www.Aptima.com.
Media Contact:
Joel Greenberg
DCPR
Joel@dcpr.com
202-363-1065 | 202-669-3639 cell
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