Corporate culture. Is it more than a mission statement on the wall of the conference room? How do you build and maintain a strong corporate culture? How critical is a positive corporate culture to the success of a company? A panel of entrepreneurs provides their thoughts on the following topics:

Rajen K. Dalal, Ph.D. CEO of Aviir

 

Rajen Dalal is CEO of Aviir and former President and Chief Executive Officer of Guava Technologies, Inc. Prior to joining Guava in 2002, Dr. Dalal was at Chiron Corporation where he was most recently President of its Blood Testing division. Prior to joining Chiron in 1991, Dr. Dalal was a leader of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability; a board member for Sagres Discovery, a cancer biotechnology company; an advisory board member of Outward Bound West; and a corporation member of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research. Dr. Dalal received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from St. Xavier's College, the University of Bombay; his master's in biochemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and his MBA from the University of Chicago.

 

 

Erica is the President and CEO of Allux Medical, a company she founded out of a medical device incubator backed by Prospect Ventures, Three Arch Partners, and Venrock. Erica is also the co-founder of Visiogen, an ophthalmic company developing the world's first dual optic accommodating lens. She is the co-inventor of the lens and holds over 13 issued and pending patents. Erica spent over 12 years at Boston Scientific, working up through the sales and marketing ranks of Medi-tech and Target. She has extensive experience in cardiovascular, peripheral vascular, and neurovascular interventions, as well as ophthalmology, ENT, and nanotechnology.  After a B.S. degree in zoology, she began her career with the Upjohn Company.

 

 

Ms. Hand joined Intuitive Surgical in February 2006. Before joining Intuitive, Ms. Hand was Senior Vice President, Global HR for Sunrise Medical, Inc., a global durable medical equipment manufacturer based in Carlsbad, California. Prior to Sunrise, she held the positions of VP, Human Resources, for Biosense Webster, a division of Johnson & Johnson and Vice President of Human Resources for City of Hope, a leading oncology hospital and research center located in Duarte, California. Ms. Hand obtained her MBA from Pepperdine University and her B.A. from Claremont McKenna College.

 

Sam Zucker is a partner in O’Melveny & Myers’ Silicon Valley office and a member of the firm’s Transactions Department and Corporate practice. Sam specializes in corporate transactions for life sciences and growth companies in the U.S. and overseas. His practice includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and partnerships, venture capital and private equity financings, international and multi-jurisdictional transactions, public and private securities offerings, and regulatory matters--including SEC, Nasdaq, and NYSE rules and regulations. He works extensively with the firm’s international offices on acquisitions, joint ventures, and financings throughout the world.