Venue
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
1000 Marsh Road
Building 1100
Menlo Park, CA 94025-1015
Click here for Venue Directions»
Speakers Bios
Mike Powell, PhD, Managing General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures
Mike Powell, Ph.D., has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical development experience, and he has focused interest in clinical-stage product companies, particularly in the oncology, endocrine, and neurology areas. He joined Sofinnova Ventures as a General Partner in 1997. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Mike worked on 20 clinical products and authored almost 100 papers and books, including an 1,100�page treatise on vaccine design. Mike was an early investor in Actelion (SWX: ATLN), InterMune (Nasdaq: ITMN), Anesiva (Nasdaq: ANSV), Orexigen Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OREX), Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq: SGEN), and Threshold Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: THLD), as well as several private companies such as Ascenta and Trius Therapeutics. Mike is currently Board President of AVAC (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition), a past Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a Strategic Advisor to One World Health, and a Founding Venture Advisory Board member of the IAVI Innovation Fund. He flies too much, but he loves it.
Mike was Group Leader of Drug Delivery at Genentech (1990�97) where his focus was developing new therapeutics. In 1987 he was part of the founding team of Cytel; as Director of Product Development, he was responsible for the company's early growth, which culminated in a successful IPO. Before this he was Scientist and Project Team Leader at Syntex Research. Mike had the honor of being the first scientist from the biotechnology industry to be elected a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. He was also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas, an Editorial Board member of J. Pharm. Sci., and a Scientific Advisor to the Controlled Release Society.
He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1981, and completed his post-doctorate work in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of California, where he was subsequently a faculty member (1981�84).
Scott M. Iyama, Corporate Senior Associate, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Scott Iyama, a corporate managing associate in Orrick's Silicon Valley office, is a member of the Emerging Companies Group, which advises emerging companies and venture capital firms. Mr. Iyama's practice focuses on the representation of emerging growth life science and high tech companies, as well as public offerings, private venture financings and technology transactions.
Some of Mr. Iyama�s current and former clients include:
� AcroMetrix (funded by Telegraph Hill Partners).
� CELLective Dx (funded by Mohr Davidow Ventures and others).
� Facebook (funded by Accel Partners, Greylock, Meritech, Peter Thiel and others).
� Google (NASDAQ: GOOG).
� Greenplum (funded by Meritech, Sierra, Mission and others).
� Halcyon Molecular (funded by Founders' Fund).
� Laserscope (acquired by American Medical Systems Holdings).
� LS9 (funded by Flagship Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners).
� Meebo (funded by Sequoia Capital).
� Medsphere (funded by Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, Azure Capital, and Wasatch Venture Fund).
� Micrus Endovascular (NASDAQ: MEND).
� PathoLase (funded by Nexus Medical Partners).
� Sharpcast (funded by Sigma, Selby and Draper Fisher Jurvetson).
� SquareOne (funded by Three Arch Partners, ONSET and others).
� Vendavo (funded by Sigma Partners, Doll Capital Management, InterWest Partners and others).
� VideoEgg (funded by August Capital and others).
Mr. Iyama has also represented Benchmark Capital, De Novo Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Maveron, Montreux Equity Partners, Telegraph Hill Partners and other venture funds in various investments.
Prior to receiving his juris doctor from Stanford Law School, Mr. Iyama performed extensive biochemical research at the University of California, San Diego and Genentech, Inc.
Mr. Iyama frequently lectures on topics related to emerging growth companies at various forums and has given guest lectures at Stanford Law School and Stanford University.
