Dr. Fountain currently serves as the Founding Director of the University of South Florida’s (USF) Interdisciplinary, Cross-Campus Center for Entrepreneurship, where he directs the University-wide Undergraduate and Graduate interdisciplinary programs in Entrepreneurship, the Interdisciplinary USF Graduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship and the Master of Science Degree in Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies and graduate training programs in entrepreneurship for business, engineering, medical and sustainability students.

He also serves as the faculty Director for the USF Student Innovation Incubator.  He holds faculty senior faculty appointments in the Colleges of Business (John and Beverley Grant Endowed Chair), Medicine (Professor), Pharmacy (Professor), Engineering (Professor) and the Institute for Advanced Discovery and Innovation (Professor).  Under Dr. Fountain’s direction, the Center for Entrepreneurship has developed national and international prominence as evidenced by top USASBE national awards (Model Specialty Program, Innovative Pedagogy and Innovative New Course) in 2004, 2005, and 2006, the USASBE Conference Pillar Award in Pedagogy in 2009 and national ranking by Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the nation’s top graduate entrepreneurship education programs for the past consecutive 9 years.

In 2009 Dr. Fountain was honored as one of the top 100 business leaders in Tampa Bay by Tampa Bay CEO. Dr. Fountain has served as the Director of the National Consortium for Life Sciences Entrepreneurship and as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with the Kauffman Foundation.  He served for 4 years as the Vice President for Development of USASBE, 2 years as a Board Member-at-Large.  He served as the National Director of the National Consortium for Life Sciences Entrepreneurship from 1999 until 2004, as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and as a member of the Board for the Kauffman Fellows Program prior to becoming the Founding Center Director at USF.   He is a pioneer in the development and adoption of Life Sciences Entrepreneurship as a sub-interdisciplinary specialty in entrepreneurship education linking the disciplines of science, medicine, engineering, sustainability and business.

He was honored by USF receiving the university-wide Excellence in Research and Innovation Award for 2014, was selected as a 2015 Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors and selected in 2016 as a Justin Longenecker Fellow of USASBE.  Dr. Fountain has focused the past thirty-five years on creating, financing, growing and harvesting biotechnology, medical device and life science companies.

In his career prior to coming to USF, Dr. Fountain founded or co-founded eleven new ventures, three of which became publicly traded companies.  These corporate ventures include The Liposome Company, Cooper Biomedical, Lipogen, DFW Technologies, Inc., and Fountain Pharmaceuticals among others.  During his corporate career he has served in a variety of leadership roles including Chief Scientific Officer, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Dr. Fountain was a pioneer in the field of development and application of the use of phospholipids in micro- and nano-particle technologies for drug encapsulation.

He has successfully patented and commercialized numerous innovative medical and diagnostic products for the domestic and international marketplace, including sustained release anti-cancer drugs, genetically engineered diagnostic products for autoimmune diseases, microencapsulated dermatologic products and advanced subunit vaccine products for prevention human and animal infectious disease.  His research efforts have yielded over 70 peer reviewed publications, over 70 United States and International issued patents.  His patented technology platforms are currently utilized in over 200 products worldwide.  He currently serves as the Founder and Managing Partner for Fountain Technologies International, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Intezyne Technologies, Inc., Board of Directors of Global Safety Management, Founder and Board of Directors of Uventures and Scientific Advisor of Dermazone Solutions, Inc.

Dr. Fountain received his Honors BS from Samford University, his MS and PhD from Auburn University and his MBA from Bristol University.  In addition, he completed advanced studies in Education Theory at the University of South Florida.

Dr. Ruta brings value to our foundation by contributing to fundraising, business strategy consulting, and communication in Spanish at a native-level. She has an interest in non-conventional education. Dr. Ruta is fluent in six (6) languages, and she has worldwide business experience, which includes Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada, Europe, the Middle and Far East.

Dr. Ruta received her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering from University of Florida and her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from University of Minnesota. She has founded several real estate and technology companies brining market value in engineering/business/ strategy consulting as well as biotechnology. She is seasoned in technology market assessment and valuation, developing customer contact strategy and guiding implementation, identifying funding sources and contacts along with winning contracts and securing funding opportunities, providing guidance on technology development process, industry contacts, developing commercialization strategy and direction, and maintaining technology development momentum.

Dr. Ruta has eighteen (18) years of experience in the federal, defense, and commercial sectors ranging from biotechnology, medical devices, IT, consumer goods, paper manufacturing and packaging, pharmaceutical, specialty chemicals, to development of specialized optical surface characterization instrumentation, nano sensors, and intellectual property strategy. Her impact has been in technology market assessment, valuation, and commercialization along with technology strategy development and tactical implementation in a global environment.