Who Leads Georgia Innovation's Sector Teams?
Meet the director and sector specialists translating Georgia's research strength into commercial outcomes across Georgia's seven priority industries, per department records.
Director of Life Sciences Commercialization
Commercialization rarely fails at the bench. It fails in the gap between a validated discovery and the market that needs it — the regulatory hurdles, the licensing terms, the first manufacturing run. That gap is where Dr. Ricardo Azziz spends his days.
As Director of Life Sciences Commercialization, he tracks how a Georgia lab result moves toward a product patients can actually use. He builds his work around documented case studies rather than projections, because the path from breakthrough to bedside looks different for a diagnostic than it does for a therapeutic, and the details matter more than the averages.
Dr. Ricardo Azziz
Director of Life Sciences Commercialization
I love seeing how a breakthrough in a Georgia lab becomes a life-saving product on the market through case studies.
The directorate connects directly to our life sciences and commercialization & capital programs, where the same discipline applies: follow the evidence, name the source, and resist the temptation to round a messy outcome into a clean number.
Specialists by Sector
The six specialists listed here carry the day-to-day work across Georgia's priority industries. Each owns a sector and brings a method shaped by that sector's particular questions — grid thermodynamics looks nothing like soil chemistry, and a logistics corridor measures success on a different clock than an aerospace supply base.
Their work starts with evidence rather than assertion. They lead with what the metrics show, compare Georgia against the right benchmarks, and flag the limits of their own data. A grid efficiency figure means little without the resolution behind it; a competitiveness ranking means less without naming the hubs in the comparison. These are the people who insist on that context.
Jill Stuckey
Energy Grid Sustainability Researcher
I quantify the thermodynamic efficiency of Georgia's renewable energy integration using high-resolution grid benchmarks.
Ron Jackson
Supply Chain Logistics Strategist
Ron Jackson monitors the performance metrics of Georgia's logistics corridors to identify efficiency gaps in intermodal transport.
Sidney W. Elliott
Venture Capital & Intellectual Property Liaison
I manage the process for connecting Georgia's university researchers with private capital partners.
Sterling G. Wharton
Senior Aerospace Policy Analyst
I specialize in evaluating Georgia's aerospace competitiveness against global manufacturing hubs through comparative analysis.
Steve Justice
Advanced Manufacturing Systems Engineer
Steve Justice explores the evolution of advanced manufacturing by comparing traditional assembly lines with modern, automated systems.
Wayne Hodges
Agribusiness Technology Consultant
I believe that solving agribusiness challenges starts with returning to first-principles thinking about soil health and crop yields.
A practical note on how to read this team: sector specialists report on their own domains, and findings in a fast-moving field like advanced manufacturing or grid integration can shift as new benchmarks arrive. We update analyses as the underlying data does, rather than treating any single snapshot as the final word.
Want to reach a specific specialist or discuss a sector program? Start with our Contact page, or read more about the mandate behind this work on About Georgia Innovation.