Ask Erin Skimson how she ended up as director of U of G’s Business Development Office (BDO), and she will likely say that the cosmos had something to do with it.

That’s how it felt for Skimson, who was looking for her dream job — one that would provide a new challenge, connect her with the Guelph community, and allow her to use her MBA and health sciences background. “The stars pretty much aligned,” she says. “I have the best job ever.”

As BDO director, Skimson is the gateway of sorts for U of G faculty members and other researchers to develop their discoveries and inventions. Along with 12 staff members, she helps those researchers turn their knowledge and ideas into products and technologies that benefit people in Canada and beyond. “I love the challenge of that,” says Skimson, who took the BDO helm about six months ago.

The office’s projects range across the arts, life sciences and social sciences, from transgenic animals developed to solve environmental problems to a nutrition screening tool for preschoolers. Licensing agreements, patents and other commercial applications are the focus.

Skimson came to U of G from Stryker Canada, which makes and sells surgical and medical products. “It really helped me to understand industry, how it works and how people engage with other participants and bring a technology to market.”

After seven years there, she says, “I started to get the itch, feeling I was ready for different challenges in my life.”

Commuting daily to Hamilton was also taking its toll. Skimson, who lives in Guelph with her husband, Paul Peters, and sons, Cameron, 5, and William, 3, had always been engaged in her home community. But she felt out of touch with Guelph.

“I wanted to feel more involved, to know what was happening in my community and that I was doing something to have an impact on my community.”

She enrolled in Leadership Guelph Wellington, offered by the Volunteer Centre of Guelph-Wellington and the University. The workshop series provides leadership training to people looking for a stronger role in enhancing their community.

“It helped me understand just what the University means to this community,” she says.

When the BDO job became available, Skimson jumped at the opportunity to join U of G.

Her interests began in the life sciences and business (she has an undergraduate degree in health education from Dalhousie University and an MBA from McMaster), but Skimson started her career in a very different field.

After graduating from Dalhousie, she worked in Latin America through the Canadian International Development Agency. Later, when her husband became a professional ski coach in Alberta, she ran a resource program through the YWCA for the Banff community. “I loved it — the community ties and connection, and there was so much energy involved.”

The couple also spent a year in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. “It was sort of our last kick at the adventure can before settling down to real life.” They lived very simply: “We had four plastic chairs in our house for furniture,” and worked as tutors. Skimson also volunteered in a local hospital.

“During the day, I was at a hospital where there were rats running around the hallways. At night, a Mercedes would pick me up and take me to tutor the ambassador’s children. I saw the broad spectrum of what life is like in that country.”

On weekends, they’d pack up a motorcycle and ride around the country, camping on beaches along the way. “It was an incredible experience,” she says.

After returning to Canada, Skimson went to work for Stryker in business development and marketing. “It was a great training ground.”

Now at U of G, she works with the minds behind the inventions. Skimson says it’s exciting and humbling to help researchers develop their ideas to commercialization. “The goal is always to maximize the potential of the ideas and technology coming out of U of G.”

When she’s not working at her dream job, Skimson likes to spend time with her family, read, cook and run early in the morning with neighbours. “We are out there by 5:30 a.m.” — early enough most mornings to still see the stars.