From her perch atop a ladder at the front of the room, AZBio president & CEO Joan Koerber-Walker shares AZBio’s key initiatives for 2018 and beyond with leaders from across our life science community.
It was standing room only as researchers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors, philanthropists, and patient advocates joined the AZBio Board to kick of AZBio’s 15th year of supporting Arizona’s life science community.
The room was so full that AZBio’s president & CEO had to climb up on a ladder to kick things off.
Koerber-Walker recognized AZBio’s Board Members and the 2018 AZBio officers:
- AZBio Chairwoman – Kristen Swingle, CBR/AMAG Pharmaceuticals
- Vice Chair Dirk – Karsten Beth, Arivis and Hyalescent Ventures
- Treasurer – Jeff Singleton, EY
- Secretary – Jeff Vallerga, VWR
- Immediate Past Chair – Russ Yelton, Pinnacle Transplant
To learn more about AZ-HCIF and to learn how you can get involved, click here.
AZBio has big plans for 2018 including Arizona Bioscience Week (AZBW 2018) in the fall which includes the AZBio Awards and the return of the White Hat Life Science Investor Conference.
The community also learned about the recently announced $200 Million Capital Campaign for an endowment at the Health Care Impact Foundation (HCIF) that is designed to provide sustainable funding t support grants for non-profit organizations that support life science entrepreneurs and debt and equity funding for early stage life science companies. Once AZ-HCIF is funded and invested, the annual distributions from HCIF create the ability for the foundation to serve as the first institutional investor for Arizona’s life science start ups and emerging growth companies.
A local board of AZ-HCIF trustees, led by Russ Yelton, will determine how the annual distributions will be allocated through grants to non-profits and through loans or investments in for-profit enterprises each year. AZBio and the Opportunity Through Entrepreneurship Foundation (OTEF) are working with the Stetson Family Office to coordinate the HCIF capital campaign for Arizona. Teams are being formed to work on the capital campaign. To learn how you can get involved, click here.