To help you develop business connections in international
markets. We aim to do this through a variety of service
offerings.
Companies around the globe are looking to maximize
their presence, and find more efficient ways of making
new partnerships. We can play a part in this process by
helping make these vital connections.
Grant-writing is an area that we have been involved with
recently and would be pleased to take on more business
in this area. If you have certain grants in mind or would
like suggestions and for us to take care of the application
process on your behalf, then do get in touch.
Please read on for some information about our
backgrounds.
The Team:
Shaan Katari Libby: Founder and sole full-time
representative of the company. The associates listed will
be brought aboard on projects on an ‘as-needed’ basis.
Shaan Libby
I worked as Vice Consul (Trade) with the British
Consulate-General, San Francisco from 2000 through
2005. My role was U.S.-wide Biotechnology lead officer
with responsibility for UK trade development work in this
sector. The work involved producing market research
reports for companies and organizing partnering
conferences for sector-focussed ‘missions’ of companies
that visited the US. It was essential to make and maintain
a network of contacts in the US in order to facilitate
partnerships between companies in the two countries.
It was possible for me to initiate and run an annual
meeting entitled 'Bio-TransAtlantic Venturing Out'. This
involved leading a group of Biotechnology Venture
Capitalists and representatives from corporate venture
funds and large Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical
companies on a trip to the UK. The first meeting was held
in October 2002. CEOs of pre-selected UK Biotechnology
companies made presentations to the would-be
investors/partners. This meeting was repeated in October
2003 and was used as the role model for a European
version in 2005. I ran workshops in the UK just prior, to
prepare UK CEOs for the presentations.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, I initiated and ran a
seminar series entitled ‘ British Innovations in
Biotechnology’. Ten seminars were completed. These
were held around the time of existing industry
conferences, and UK Biotechnology companies were
encouraged to apply to be presenters. Three or four
presenters made up the speakers for each seminar. They
proved to be excellent networking events, and are now
being continued.
My University education was at Christ Church (University
of Oxford). I did an Undergraduate degree in Biological
Sciences, followed by a Graduate degree in
Jurisprudence (Law). I was called to the Bar by Lincoln's
Inn. Whilst at Bar School I opted for International Trade,
Intellectual Property, and EU Law.
Outside interests include skiing, swimming, theatre and
music. I live with my family in Oxford, England.
Associates:
We are fortunate to have links with the following highly
qualified individuals, each of whom brings with them
unique specializations. These colleagues may be
brought on board on certain projects, as appropriate.
Cori Gorman, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Gorman is an entrepreneur, strategist, and research
scientist with experience in business and drug
development aspects of biotechnology industry. She has
an outstanding record of achievement in basic research
and drug development in diverse areas including gene
therapy, gene expression and transfer, hormone
processing, cell biology, protein transport, and the
humanization of antibodies and production of
recombination of proteins.
At Genentech, Dr. Gorman played a key role in the
development of a number of marketed products including
Kogenate, Activase, Herceptin, Xolair, and Raptiva. She
also played a role the early stages of Avastin. Based on
her work at Genentech, Cori is also recognized as a
pioneer in the development of monoclonal antibody
therapeutics and has co-authored 6 INDs. An experienced
entrepreneur, Cori has worked in all aspects of start-up
company, including raising capital, strategic planning,
recruiting scientists, and developing infrastructure. Her
contributions were key to enabling Valentis, a gene
therapy company, to proceed to a successful IPO. Dr.
Gorman has a strong publication and presentation record
and is an inventor on several issued patents in the fields
of gene expression and delivery and gene therapy.
Dr. Gorman is also experienced in business development
having closed eighteen corporate partnerships for clients
over a two-year period. Early in her career Dr. Gorman
was a recipient of several fellowships from the American
Cancer Society, the National Cancer Institute, the
European Molecular Biology Organization and NATO. She
has be recognized for her teaching excellence and has
been an recurring invited lecturer at the University
Colorado Health Sciences educating physicians in
molecular aspects of disease as well as a guest lecturer
in the biotechnology program at Yale. Cori is recognized
by citation index as one of the most highly cited authors in
the past two decades, with over 10,000 citations.
Kate Gunning
Kate Gunning has a unique background in the field of
biotechnology and the life sciences. With particular focus
on applications in genomics she has demonstrated
expertise in both process and product development.
From the early days of the Human Genome Project Kate
led a process engineering team for one of the world’s top
five genome sequencing facilities, the Joint Genome
Institute in California. From 1996-2000, as the race to
finish the genome was under way, Kate played a key role
in designing a state of the art sequencing facility,
increasing productivity and planning capacity to
accommodate the enormous increase in sequence data.
Moving from the research area to the business sector,
Kate provided leadership and technical expertise in new
and existing system development projects. At Applied
Biosystems, a world leader in enabling technologies for
the life sciences, Kate was known for leading dynamic
application development teams in producing quantifiable
efficiencies while sustaining quality standards.
With an expansive network in the US and affiliation with
professional organizations Kate is up to date on the latest
developments in the field of biotechnology and the
emerging science of nanotechnology as it applies to the
life sciences.
A graduate of the Dublin Institute of Technology, she
began her career in Nuclear Medicine and Clinical
pathology in Dublin and London, UK.
Dr.Ken Kengatharan
Dr Kengatharan obtained his PhD in Pharmacology at the
William Harvey Research Institute (of the University of
London) under the mentorship of Sir John Vane (Nobel
laureate and eminent British pharmacologist) and
Professor Christoph Thiemermann. After completing his
PhD, he held a post-doctoral position with Professor Erik
Änggård (a Director of the William Harvey Research
Institute), and was subsequently given the responsibility
to supervise a small research group in the section of
vascular biology, where he also had extensive mentoring
responsibilities. The translational research that he
directed involved the development of animal models of
cardiovascular disease for studies that included the
elucidation of the pathophysiology of vascular alterations
in sepsis, diabetes and atherosclerosis.
Prior to joining Stanford, he was the Vice President of Pre-
clinical R&D for a South San Francisco based
pharmaceutical company. Dr Kengatharan has a bachelor
of science degree in pharmacology from the University of
Leeds (UK) where he was the recipient of the Pfizer prize
as well as the ICI Pharmacology and Therapeutics Prize.
Dr. Jim Libby
Jim Libby is a lecturer at the University of Oxford in the
sub-department of particle physics. Jim performs
research on sub-atomic particles which form the
fundamental building blocks of matter. He is a member of
the LHCb collaboration that will perform experiments at
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland.
CERN is the European centre for particle physics
research. This cutting edge Big Science project will begin
operation in 2007.
Jim previously performed postgraduate particle physics
research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in
California from 2002-2005, at CERN from 2000-2002, and
at the University of Oxford in 1999-2000. He studied for
both his doctorate and undergraduate degrees in Physics
at Oxford (1992-1999).
Jim has experience of leading large data analysis and
simulation projects. He also is well versed in international
collaboration within the academic community.
Jim lives with his family in Oxford, England.
Anthony Stolis
Anthony Stolis, MBA, was most recently the Managing
Director of Pacific Bridge Life Sciences (PBLS).
Prior to this Mr. Stolis was Director of Sales at Acumen
Sciences, an advisory firm. In addition to developing the
client base among life sciences companies, he also
worked with service companies that focus on life sciences,
including law firms, venture capital firms, real estate firms,
and government entities. Prior to Acumen, Mr. Stolis was
with IMS Health, holding positions in the Sales, Customer
Service, Marketing, Product Development, Finance, and
Information Technology groups.
Mr. Stolis has a Masters in Business Administration from
Temple University and a Bachelor of Science degree from
Drexel University.
David Oliver
David Oliver has more than 12 years experience in sales,
marketing and business development both in the Europe
and the US life sciences market. He has worked in several
sectors of the industry including diagnostics,
biopharmaceuticals, clinical research and 'eMedicine'.
David started his career as a product manager at Biotrin
International in Dublin where he launched innovative
diagnostic products in Europe, Japan & Australia and
located to the US to run the company’s office on the East
coast. In 1997, he moved to the Bay Area where he joined
SangStat Medical Corp. (recently acquired by Genzyme)
as a product manager. David launched a
biopharmaceutical drug on the US market that within 3
years dominated its market sector within the transplant
medicine/immunology market.
Covance Inc. recruited David as an Account Manager,
where he was responsible for sales in clinical research
services to biotech. & pharmaceutical companies. David
also worked with Infomedics Inc., an innovative medical
software company before launching BioVisability in 1999.
David is a science graduate from Trinity College Dublin
and the Marketing Institute of Ireland and has completed
post graduate courses in pharmaceutical sales &
marketing both in the US & Ireland.
Chris E. Piercy
Chris Piercy is an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and
manager who has founded and managed, as CEO or
Chairman, a number of biotechnology, nanotechnology,
hi- tech, and consulting companies in the U.S., Europe,
and Asia.
He has founded or was a member of the founding team of
a number of companies. For example: Connective
Therapeutics, Connetics, (NASDAQ 'CNCT' - a
biopharmaceutical company); Coleman Consulting (a
management consulting group for the global Fortune
1000); Global Connect (a Japan based international
telecom) and a number of others, primarily in the
biotechnology and nanotechnology industries. Mr. Piercy
has been working in the biotechnology sector since 1985,
when he joined the pioneering biotechnology company,
Cetus Corporation (now Chiron; NASDAQ 'CHIR'). Mr.
Piercy has been a partner at SVIC , a Palo Alto based
early stage venture capital firm.
Chris Piercy studied Molecular Genetics and History at U.
C. Berkeley and business at Harvard Business School,
and the Stanford Business School Advanced
Management Program. Mr. Piercy serves as an Advisory
board member of NASA Ames Institute of Science and
Technology (NAIST); serves on the Advisory Board for the
University of California Center for Adaptive Optics;
industry advisory board for the National Science
Foundation Center for Biophotonics Science and
Technology (CBST). Chris Piercy is also a founding board
member of the Silicon Valley Nanobiotechnology
Organization; National Nanotechnology Initiative Regional
Nanotechnology Coordination Committee, Northern
California Nanotechnology Initiative, NanoSIG, and the
Nanotechnology Industry Organization.
He also serves on the boards of a number of cutting edge
high technology companies and is active in various other
business, biotechnology and nanotechnology
organizations, in the US and abroad. Mr. Piercy is an
author of a number of studies and books on
biotechnology and nanotechnology. He is the inventor of
developing or patented technologies and his scientific
work (at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and for the
biopharmaceutical industry) has contributed to the
development of a number of novel therapeutic drugs,
diagnostic and research products, the Human Genome
Project, and has been published in such leading journals
as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, etc.
Nathan Bach, Ph.D.
Nathan has more than 20 years of scientific and business
development experience in Russia, Israel, Europe, and
New Zealand. During his
scientific career Nathan published more than 20 papers in
peer-reviewed journals devoted to the problems of gene
therapy and immunotherapy of cancer.
His business career started in Moscow, Russia, where he
was a co-founder of the first private biotechnology
company, Diagnostikum, which was transformed into a
reagent and equipment provider, Dia-M. Later he
successfully represented biotechnology and
pharmaceutical companies from France, New Zealand
and the US. Nathan facilitated numerous deals that range
from fee-for-services to complex deals including sharing
of intellectual property, royalties and co-development of
products. Those deals are in the areas of proteomics,
genomics,bioinformatics and drug development.
Dr. Bach possesses an M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the
Moscow State University (Russia) and a Ph.D. in
Molecular Immunology from the Weizmann Institute of
Science (Israel).
Audrey Erbes, Ph.D.
A developer of customized executive education, Audrey
originated and currently teaches three bioscience
marketing and business development courses for UC
Berkeley Extension and one for UCSC Extension.
With more than 25 years of managerial experience in
marketing and business development in the biotech and
pharmaceutical industry, she was Executive Vice
President and cofounder of Kowa Research Institute,
a biopharmaceutical licensing and investment subsidiary
of Kowa Company Ltd. Before that, she held
management positions at Syntex
Corp. (acquired by Roche) in market research, product
management, strategic marketing and planning, and
business development in the US
and abroad, with expertise in Europe and
Asia/Pacific/Canada. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in
political science from the University of
Florida.
Recent activities include publication "Face to Face with
Investors," Pharmaceutical Executive, (June 2003),
chairing BIO 2004 panel
entitled "The Most Likely Successful Business Model for
Personalized Medicine" and organizing and directing an 8-
international speaker symposium and partnering meeting
on June 10, 2004 for 15 Japanese biotech company and
academic executives.
