Judges

The following industry experts will comprise the judging panel for the SEED Final Competition.

Tom Carey, MBA - Vice President of Commercial Operations, BioCentury

Tom joined BioCentury in July 2008 as Vice President of Commercial Operations. He has over 20 years of commercial experience in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry serving in a variety of leadership roles in sales, marketing, product planning and business development. Prior to joining BioCentury, Tom was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Connetics Corporation, a specialty dermatology company that is now part of GlaxoSmithKline. He was also Vice President of Professional Sales as well as Vice President of Business Development at the OrthoNeutrogena division of Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson company. Tom has also held senior management positions at Roche Laboratories and Syntex Corporation, which was acquired by Roche in 1994. He holds bachelors degree and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Nancy T. Chang, PhD - Chairman & Senior Managing Director, OrbiMed Asia

Nancy T. Chang, PhD is currently Chairman and Sr. Managing Director for Asia at OrbiMed Advisors, a health care Investment firm since 2007. Previously, Dr. Chang served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Tanox, Inc., until it was sold in 2007. Dr. Chang co-founded Tanox, a public company created to address asthma, allergy, inflammation and diseases affecting the human immune system. From 1986 to 1992, Dr. Chang was an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the Division of Molecular Virology. Between 1981 and 1986, Dr. Chang was employed by Centocor, Inc., serving as the Director of Research, Molecular Biology Group. Dr. Chang serves on the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank in Houston and BioHouston, Project Hope and the Board of Visitors of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Chang also serves on the Boards of Charles River Laboratories and a number of private biotechnology companies. Dr. Chang received a PhD in biological chemistry from Harvard University.

Yuwen Liu, MBA - General Manager, BioBay

Yuwen Liu graduated from China Pharmaceutical University with an MS in Pharmaceutics and MBA at Fudan University, China and Norwegian Management School, and is a licensed pharmacist. She started her career with Capsugel®, a division of Pfizer in Suzhou, China as a quality engineer in 1997 and was promoted to be QA manager in April 1998. In May 2000, following strategic expansion of Capsugel China, she transferred to New Business Development department managing new product market opportunity exploration in great China region. In May 2003, she moved to Shanghai as General Manager to set up the representative office for Perrigo Company (the world's largest manufacturer of OTC pharmaceutical and nutritional products for the store brand market) and is taking charge of all related market development activities including JV's in China as well as supply management in other Asia Pacific regions such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan etc. In Dec. 2005, she moved back to Suzhou as executive vice president for BioBay, a bio science park funded by Suzhou Industrial Park, whose mission is to build an integrated comprehensive platform for biotech, pharmaceutical and nanotech research and development in China. August, 2007, she became the general manager of BioBay, vice president of Suzhou Ventures Group, assistance director of Suzhou Industrial Park Science & Technology Bureau.

Carole Nuechterlein, JD - Head, Roche Venture Fund

Carole Nuechterlein has headed the Roche Venture Fund since 2001. Prior to her current position, she worked in the pharmaceutical/biotech as an attorney for ten years. She joined Roche from SangStat in Fremont California where she was General Counsel. Carole began her career working at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in the M&A group. From there, she worked at Syntex/Roche in Palo Alto, California focusing on M&A, research collaborations and licensing deals. Due to her background in M&A, Carole led the negotiation team for the Roche acquisitions of GlycArt and Therapeutic Human Polyclonals. She currently serves as a board observer at Aileron, Alios, Ambit, Ambrx, Conatus, Envoy, Idaho Technology and Nereus. She has a BA from Valparaiso University and a JD from University of Michigan.

Rajesh Parekh, PhD - Director, Head of Asia Healthcare Practice, McKinsey & Company

Dr. Rajesh (Raj) Parekh, a Director in the Shanghai Office of McKinsey & Company is the leader of McKinsey’s Asia healthcare practice. Since moving to Shanghai in 2005, he has focused his efforts primarily on serving pharmaceutical and medical device clients across Asia on growth strategy, R&D strategy, M&A, and business unit strategy related issues. Some of his recent experiences in include:

• Help a leading global pharmaceutical company develop strategy and plans for significant expansion of clinical development activities in Asia
• Helped a global top 3 Pharmaceutical company develop perspective on healthcare provider and financing system evolution in China, and implement innovative financing related ideas to turbo charge growth
• Developed a growth strategy for a global hospital equipment company across China/Korea/India, including assessment of R&D off shoring opportunity and strategy for partnerships with hospitals
• Helped define the 5-year China growth strategy for a global leader in medical devices – with particular focus on expansion of product portfolio and physician education initiatives.  

Dr. Parekh holds a doctorate in chemical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with focus on biochemical engineering (research thesis on production of biopharmaceuticals in genetically engineered yeast) and a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from University of California at San Diego. 

Michael J. Wise, JD - Partner, Perkins Coie LLP

Michael J. Wise is a partner in the firm's Intellectual Property Group. He has extensive experience in litigating patents, trademarks, and trade secrets in federal and state court. Michael has also handled numerous patent interferences before the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences. He has litigated a wide variety of technologies including antibodies, immunoassays, recombinant genes and proteins, medical devices, software, electronics, and laser bar code scanners. Last year, he was recognized by the Daily Journal as one of the top 25 patent portfolio managers in California. Michael Wise also leads the firm's expansion into the China market with the Shanghai and Beijing offices. He represents both US and Chinese clients in patent litigation, patent due diligence and patent portfolio management. Michael received his BS in Biology from University of California, Los Angeles, and his JD from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.