Cindy Claycomb, Wichita State director of WSU Ventures, will start a phased retirement out of her position Jan. 4.

Mark Torline, director of WSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship, will take her place while keeping his position at the center.

“Phased retirement allows people to remain at the university, but they give less time to the university. It’s kind of like going part-time,” Claycomb said.

Claycomb also works as assistant to the university president for strategic planning, and she will continue to assist President John Bardo in that regard.

“I worked full-time for the university, and my time was split, half between WSU Ventures and half between assisting the president,” Claycomb said.

In her role, Claycomb said she would work 20 hours a week as director of WSU Ventures and 20 hours a week as assistant to the president in a typical 40-hour week.

 “Now, I’m just going to drop off that WSU Ventures piece of it and just work 20 hours a week as assistant to the president,” Claycomb said.

Claycomb plays an active role in the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. The committee consists of representatives from each college who help make plans for their colleges that align with the university’s overall vision.

“So, right now I have a steering committee, and we kind of think of ourselves as a transition team,” Claycomb said. “So we’re, you know, kind of moving through this time where the university developed our overall plan and the colleges are doing theirs, and we’re developing the staff board.”

Claycomb has been occupied with three main objectives for the steering committee. The committee has reviewed each of the colleges’ revised plans, is helping create a dashboard of metrics for the entire university, and will assist non-academic units on campus by reviewing or revising their strategic plans.

While Claycomb focuses more on assisting Bardo through strategic planning, she is also helping Torline prepare to be the director of WSU Ventures.

“Mark and I are working on this transition,” Claycomb said. “We met every week before, and the next three weeks we’ll continue to meet and figure out what things need to go to him or somebody else or what the priorities are.”

Torline said he is prepared for the change.

“It will be a much easier transition for two reasons,” he said. “The first is that we have been collaborating with WSU Ventures already, and we really have kind of shared goals with WSU Ventures and the Center for Entrepreneurship. Plus, Cindy won’t be fully retiring, and she’ll still have her office in Devlin with us.”

As director, he plans to continue in the direction that the organization was already headed.

“I think we (WSU Ventures) will focus a lot on commercialization as it relates to the development of new business enterprises, and we will focus a lot on opportunities with respect to the licensing of technology that originates within the university,” Torline said.

Claycomb said WSU Ventures has been at WSU for about 15 months. Claycomb has been the director of WSU Ventures since August 2014 and Torline has been director of WSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship since October 2014.

Claycomb said she looks forward to her new role at the university and devoting her time to the things she enjoys.

“I’m excited,” she said. “Just because maybe it’ll open up some time for me to do some things that I haven’t had time to do. And so, I serve on some boards now, and I don’t always get to devote the time to them that I would like to. I’ll have some time to do that and just time to relax a little bit.”