Brian Mullen, PhD

Innovation Strategy Manager, Brigham Innovation Hub

Boston

Brian Mullen is an entrepreneur, design engineer, and researcher with a passion for designing innovative medical products and assistive technologies. Brian holds a B.S.M.E., M.S.M.E and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Brian’s background covers many disciplines, from clinical research exploring the safety and effectiveness of treatments for people with mental illness to human centered design, universal design, design for commercial viability, and teaching new product development. Brian’s work has led to clinical publications, awards, and presentations in multiple fields, as well as pending patents.

Previous to joining the iHub Brian founded an early stage medical device company, Therapeutic Systems, to translate the technology he developed in graduate school to the market. The mission of the company was to help people who are struggling with brain disorders such as autism, ADHD, PTSD and anxiety based disorders, by providing them therapeutic wearable technologies that included monitoring and sensory based neuromodulation as an intervention (you can watch his TedX talk on designing for people with mental illness).

As CEO, Brian lead Therapeutic Systems in winning MassChallenge in 2011, the UMass Innovation Challenge, a VentureWell E-Team award, raised seed investment, and launched a class I product and generated revenue through sales.

Brian is passionate about supporting early stage innovation. Outside of his work at the iHub, Brian is a mentor for entrepreneurs and startups in top national programs. Brian’s unique background helps innovators in the early stages by figuring out the problem, flushing out ideas, develop concepts, creating action plans building business models, and crafting and presenting value propositions and pitches.