A good board of directors can make the difference between success and failure for your start-up venture. How to recruit, manage and compensate board members is something that entrepreneurs need to know right from the very start. The topics to be covered at this meeting will include:
Networking session will follow.
Expected Panelists:
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Stephen Fowler, Founder and CEO of BoardSeat
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Stephen's career spans more than twenty years of experience working in the UK, Continental Europe and Silicon Valley. Stephen has invested in a variety of Silicon Valley startups, both as a Venture Capital and Angel investor, and served on many high-technology corporate and advisory boards.
Prior to founding BoardSeat, a firm devoted exclusively to board consulting and recruiting for high-tech and life sciences firms. Stephen spent five years as a venture capitalist, firstly with Berkeley International Capital, a later-stage fund based in San Francisco, and latterly as a General Partner with Aspen Ventures, an early-stage VC fund based in Silicon Valley.
Stephen spent the first part of his career in Europe where his most recent position was CEO of Chubb Parsi s.a., a subsidiary of Racal/Chubb Group, a multinational electronics, telecommunications, fire and security company based in the UK. Previously Stephen held a variety of operational positions with Virgin Group and Ever Ready.
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Phyllis Gardner, MD
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Phyllis Gardner, MD is currently a tenured associate professor in the
Department of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine
since 1984. She is also an adjunct partner at Essex Woodlands Health
Ventures. She has conducted extensive research in cell biology,
including gene therapy, with particular emphasis in the area of cystic
fibrosis. She is widely published in the field of cell biology and
pharmacology, and has co-authored a pharmacology textbook, which is now
in its second edition. She has received numerous national awards and
honors, including the Faculty Development Award from the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers Association Foundation and Burroughs
Wellcome Faculty Scholar in Clinical Pharmacology.
In addition to her academic affiliation, Dr. Gardner recently served as the Vice President for Research and Head of ALZA Technology Institute (ATI) and Principal Scientist. Dr. Gardner was responsible for managing the priorities and resources of ATI, providing strategic direction and participating in business development activities. She has served on the Executive Committee at ALZA and also serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Vical, Inc. Currently Dr. Gardner serves on the Board of Directors of several companies, including Aerogen, Inc., BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Inc., Health Hero Network, Inc., and CambriaTech. Dr. Gardner is a co-founder and Director of Xeragen, Inc., and also a co-founder of Genomics Collaborative, Inc.
Dr. Gardner earned her MD from Harvard Medical School. She trained in
Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by a
Chief Residency at Stanford University Hospital. She then completed
research fellowships in ion channel biophysics and pharmacology at the
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and the
University College, London, England.
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Gregory T. Went Ph.D.
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Dr. Went received his B.S in Chemical Engineering with an emphasis on
Computer and Information Systems from Carnegie-Mellon in 1985. He
continued his education at the University of California, Berkeley
pursuing his thesis work to develop novel optical spectroscopy
techniques to characterize the activity of catalytic surfaces. After
receiving his Ph.D. in 1991 he completed post-doctoral work at Cornell
University in NMR spectroscopic studies at surfaces.
In 1992, Dr. Went co-founded CuraGen with Jonathan M. Rothbberg. Dr. Went over saw the reduction to practice the initial technology platform, developed the first pilot-scale processes, and the scaling strategy. These processed included gene _expression profiling, partial and full length gene sequencing, protein-protein interactions, SNP discovery and and an enterprise informatics system. Later, he lead the business development and finance efforts, executing corporate alliances with Genentech, Genetics Institute, Biogen, Pioneer Hybrid, Dupont, Glaxo Wellcome, and Roche valued in excess of $250MM. As a Principal Investigator, Dr. Went raised nearly $20MM in Federal and State grants. In addition, he spear-headed raising over $100MM in private, mezzanine, public and corporate equity. He left CuraGen in 1999. After a year spent as a Director and COO of DNA Sciences, Dr. Went left to pursue his interests in start-up biotechnology companies. He is currently serves as an advisor/board member to 8 companies and venture firms, including NeuroMolecular, Inc. (CEO/Chairman) and Tethys Biosciences (CEO/Chairman), both early stage biotechnology companies, Abgenix, Parallele BioSciences, Nugen Technologies; and the funds Versant Ventures, CMEA Ventures, and Origin Capital.
Dr. Went continues pursue his technical and business interests in the
development and application of technologies to accelerate development
of therapeutic and diagnostic products. He has published in the fields
of spectroscopy and biological profiling and is an inventor on over 20
issued and pending patents.
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Moderator: Shauna Farr-Jones, PhD
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| Shauna Farr-Jones currently consults for biotechnology companies doing technology assessment, competitive intelligence, grant proposal writing and market research for biotechnology companies and investors. She was recently at BioCentury Publications, the leading biotechnology business newsletter, where she analyzed and wrote about strategic market and technology issues affecting biotechnology companies. Shauna's education includes a post-doctoral fellowship at UCSF, Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Tufts University in Boston, and a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Southampton University, UK. |