Panelists added today for February event!

February 17, 2012, 7:00 a.m. ~ Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine

Members are FREE; non-members are $50 

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Panelists Christophe Schilling, Leighton Reed, Tina Nova and Drew Senyei will talk about their experiences building companies from start-up to successful exit. Join SDVG to understand what makes a winning CEO in a venture-backed company – do you have what it takes to raise capital and find a profitable exit?

Meet our panelists here!

Christophe Schilling, Genomatica

Christophe co-founded Genomatica and has served as Chief Executive Officer since May 2009. Christophe holds a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego where he was a Powell Foundation and Whitaker Foundation Fellow. He received a B.S. in biomedical engineering from Duke University where he was a Howard Hughes Undergraduate Research Fellow. Christophe’s awards include the Top 100 Young Innovators from MIT’s Technology Review, R&D100 for the SimPheny part of the company’s technology platform, and the Distinguished Young Alumnus from Duke University’s Edmund T. Pratt, Jr. School of Engineering.

Leighton Read, Alloy Ventures

Leighton Read was a Managing Member in four Alloy funds investing with us in companies from 2001-2007, and now serves as a Venture Partner. Before joining Alloy, Leighton spent 14 years as a biotechnology entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Affymax NV, under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni, setting the stage for two successful spin-outs: Affymetrix and Maxygen. He founded Aviron, a biotechnology company best known as the developer of FluMist™, the intranasal influenza vaccine, where he served as Chairman and CEO until 1999 and Director until its acquisition by MedImmune in 2002. While at Alloy, he served as the first CEO of Avidia, a spin-out of Maxygen later acquired by Amgen. He received a B.S. from Rice University in Psychology and Biology (1973), an MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1976) and completed internal medicine training at Duke and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

Tina Nova, Genoptix

Tina S. Nova, Ph.D. has served the President and Chief Executive Officer of Genoptix, Inc., and a member of the Board of Directors from March 2000 – February 2011. From 1994 to January 2000, she served as Chief Operating Officer and President of Nanogen, Inc., a provider of molecular diagnostic tests, where she was a co-founder, and from 1992 to 1994, TIna served as Chief Operating Officer of Selective Genetics, a targeted therapy biotechnology company. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Cypress Bioscience, Inc., both publicly held clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies and serves on the board of trustees at UCSD and was a life science sector representative to the Independent Citizen’s Oversight Committee overseeing the California Stem Cell Initiative (Proposition 71) from inception through 2008.  Tina holds a B.S. degree in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California, Riverside.

Drew Senyei, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital

Drew is a managing director at Enterprise Partners where he leads the life science practice. Drew focuses on investments in pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices and consumer healthcare. He currently sits on the boards of current Enterprise portfolio companies including: Scoperta, Inc., Ascenta Therapeutics, Celladon, Celula, Complete Genomics, Ophthonix, TargeGen and Scoperta, Inc. Prior to joining Enterprise Partners in 1987, Drew was a physician and entrepreneur. Drew holds a B.S. from Occidental College and an M.D. from Northwestern University. Drew completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Irvine, and holds 20 patents in healthcare related products and services including the first and only biochemical test that predicts preterm delivery.