Dr. Mark Benedyk, Head, The Pfzer Incubator
Dr. Mark Benedyk is Head o The Pzer Incubator LLC, a company created by Pzer to oer scientist-entrepreneurs anopportunity to bring their medical innovations to patients.Prior to joining The Pzer Incubator, Dr. Benedyk was Vice President o Business Development at Ascenta Therapeutics, aclinical-stage company developing pro-apoptotic small molecule drugs or the treatment o cancer. There he led contractand licensing negotiations or Ascenta, and was part o the executive team that secured $50 million or Ascenta’s Series Cnancing.Beore coming to Ascenta, Dr. Benedyk was Vice President o Business Development and Director o OptimerBiotechnology, an international biotechnology subsidiary o Optimer Pharmaceuticals, with operations in the U.S., Singaporeand Taiwan. At Optimer he led business development activities or Optimer Biotechnology in Singapore, and was part o the executive team that raised $22 million or the Series C&D nancing rounds or Optimer prior to its successul IPO inFebruary o 2007.Previously, Dr. Benedyk has held business development positions at rila bioconsulting, Farmal Biomedicines, AuroraBiosciences (now Vertex Pharmaceuticals), lan Pharmaceuticals, and Argonex Corporation. During his tenure in thepharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, Dr. Benedyk has personally led transactions worth over $300 million andparticipated in over $500 million worth o product licensing, corporate acquisition and undraising transactions. Dr. Benedykreceived his Ph.D. in Genetics and Developmental Biology rom The Rockeeller University, where he was a Lucille P. MarkeyGraduate Fellow. He received his B.S. in Microbiology and Botany rom the University o Michigan.
G. Steven Burrill, CEO, Burrill & Company
G. Steven Burrill has been involved in the growth and prosperity o the biotechnology industry or over 40 years. An earlypioneer, Mr. Burrill is one o the original architects o the industry and one o its most avid and sustained developers.He currently serves as Chairman o the Boards o Pharmasset (NASDAQ: VRUS), BioImagene and NewBridge, and is amember o the Boards o Directors o Catalyst Biosciences, CrossCart, DepoMed (NASDAQ: DEPO), Ikano Therapeutics,Phytomedics, Proteogenix, Proventys, Targacept (NASDAQ: TRGT) and XDx. Prior to ounding Burrill & Company in 1994,he spent 28 years with Ernst & Young, directing and coordinating the rm’s services to clients in the biotechnology/liesciences/high technology/manuacturing industries worldwide. In 2002, Mr. Burrill was recognized as the biotech investmentvisionary by the prestigious Scientic American magazine (The Scientic American 50), and in 2008, he received the BayBioPantheon 2008 DiNA lietime achievement award or his worldwide biotech leadership.
Peter Beattie, Former Queensland Premier
The Honourable Peter Beattie is Queensland’s Trade and Investment Commissioner or the Americas. He was Premier(Governor) o the state o Queensland rom June 1998 to September 2007, when he retired and handed over to his deputy. As Premier his key strategy was to turn Queensland into Australia’s Smart State by reocusing the education system, skillingthe workorce, encouraging research and development and creating thousands o long-term, new-age jobs in high techindustries such as biotechnology, inormation technology and aviation. Ater working as a lawyer, Mr. Beattie was elected to State Parliament as the Member or Brisbane Central in 1989. He wasimmediately appointed as the chairman o the reorming Parliamentary Criminal Justice Committee. From July 1995 heserved as Minister or Health beore becoming Leader o the Opposition in February 1996.
Peter BeattieDr. Mark BenedykG. Steven Burrill
Kay Chandler, Partner, Cooley Godward
Kay Chandler is a partner in Cooley Godward Kronish’s Business department and an active member o the Firm’s LieSciences practice group.Ms. Chandler specializes in representing public and private lie sciences companies in a wide range o securities, corporateand commercial matters that are critical to their businesses. She advises clients on all aspects o securities and corporatematters, including private nancings, public oerings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance and disclosureissues. She regularly counsels companies on complex commercial transactions, including technology licenses andacquisitions, research and development collaborations, supply, distribution and manuacturing agreements, and prot-sharing and co-promotion arrangements, based on her extensive experience in assisting clients to establish and maintainrelationships with pharmaceutical, medical device, chemical and agricultural companies in the United States, Europe and Asia. She works closely with her clients to understand each client’s business and strategic objectives and to structure andnegotiate transactions to meet those objectives.
Kay Chandler
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