Rubén Darío Flores Saaib is a Life Sciences Executive | Innovation Agent at Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Colleagues describe them as "I strongly endorse Rubén as a leader and Executive Licensing Professional and his ability to manage a complex team and achieve superior results in a short span of time. While at UCSD, Rubén established himself as an ambassador of the office promoting UCSD in the biotech and hi-tech community. Internally, he was great in managing difficult relationships and he was able to gain the trust of the faculty inventors and UCSD leadership. He is always exploring new ways to structure licenses and other business transactions in order to overcome obstacles in negotiations. As a supervisor, Rubén was clear in his directions, while providing me with the operational freedom to achieve my licensing and business development goals. I hope our paths cross again and I would welcome an opportunity to work with him again", "I strongly recommend Rubén for his management, leadership and teambuilding skills. I have known Rubén since 2000 when we worked together at BD/Pharmingen and since then our paths have crossed several times in our careers. Most recently, we both worked at UC San Diego in the Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC) where Rubén was my supervisor for my marketing role ; he allowed me to explore new ways in which we could reach out to industry and partners and encouraged me to play a more active role in the pitching of technologies across the board, life or physical sciences. Rubén was brought to change the mindset of OIC at UC San Diego and was very successful at it, doubling the annual number of startups coming from UC San Diego, and increasing the total number of licenses by creating programs that reached out to the business community. If you know Rubén, he is a master at networking and has an infectious entrepreneurial sprit and a keen sense of what needs to happen to close a deal or a drive a win-win business relationship. Rubén is very well known locally in the San Diego area, but also in the Southern California region and in some global innovation circles. I can highly recommend my friend Rubén and I miss his contagious laugh around the office.", and "Rubén played an invaluable role in the conceptualization, implementation, and growth of the San Diego Innovation Council. To paraphrase from one of his LinkedIn posts, he helped the Southern California Innovation Highway through innovation showcases, but success initially involved building relationships with other leaders, organizations, and clients. Rubén's insights, energy, and enthusiasm were invaluable for making the innovation ecosystem in Southern California into a robust network that extends throughout the region and beyond."