James E. Spencer, Jr.

Director, Launchpad Center for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education (OAIRE), Oklahoma State University (OSU) Tulsa, Helmerich Research Center

James E. Spencer, Jr. serves as the Director of the Launchpad Center for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) at the Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education (OAIRE) at  Oklahoma State University (OSU) Tulsa at the Helmerich Research Center. Before joining OSU as the Launchpad Center Director in late 2023, James worked as an entrepreneurial ecosystems strategist, designer, builder, and consultant who leveraged thirty+ years of accomplished Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) achievements, Nonprofit organization leadership and entrepreneurship & Venture Development to show urban stakeholders how to holistically integrate Technological Innovation, Servant Leadership, and Social Entrepreneurship to re-imagine, develop, revitalize and sustain vital urban communities as the President and CEO of AGILE Ecosystems, LLC. James is also the inventor of the AGILE (Accelerated Global Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship) Ecosystems Methodology, which he uses to design and optimize “Holistic” Innovation Ecosystems to transcend the limitations of traditional “economic systems.” OSU and the Tulsa Innovation Laboratories (TIL) recruited James to leverage the 2023 $39 Million EDA Build Back Better Grant Award with funding from OSU and the George F Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) to cultivate and grow the Advanced Air Mobility Innovation ecosystem in Tulsa to help regional stakeholders create equitable opportunities for underserved communities in the form of high quality jobs assets), quality of life affirming product and service technologies (resources), and startup ventures (capital) for regional and national competitiveness in the emerging field of Advanced Air Mobility leading to a higher quality of life for Tulsans and all Oklahomans. James received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Brown University and began his career working for IBM, and AT&T Bell Labs as a summer intern. He formally started his career at Boeing Aerospace Operations at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in 1989 as a robotics engineer in the Robotic Applications Development Laboratory (RADL). In the nineties, the technology startup he founded, developed, patented, and sold robotics & automation and expert system (AI)-based vision systems to world-class companies such as Nike, Ford Motor Company, BMW Manufacturing, Ball Corporation, Coors, Georgia Pacific, and others. More recently, James worked in new venture development and business incubation at the University of Central Florida as an associate director of Research and Commercialization. More recently, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), he served as the Executive Director of the Rensselaer Technology Park, Real Estate and New Venture Development for over six years. 

James also headed up the Institute’s Technology Transfer program at RPI for three of those six years. James  alsoserved on the Unity House of Troy boards, WAMC Northeast Public Radio board of trustees, Proctors Theatre & Proctors Collaborative, Board. James was also one of the charter board members of the Berkshire Innovation Center. James also served on the Director’s Advisory Council (DAC)for M&T Bank, Capital Region, New York.