MENLO PARK, Calif., April 7, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- InterWest Partners
announced today the appointment of three internationally renowned
scientists to the venture capital firm's Advisory Committee: Caltech
president Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau, biotechnology pioneer Dr. Leroy Hood, and
former FDA commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan. The three will join InterWest's
roster of experienced professional advisors, providing strategic guidance
to the firm and its portfolio companies.
"Drs. Chameau, Hood and McClellan each bring a wealth of experience and
knowledge to our business and will be instrumental in the continued
development of our portfolio as well as the innovators we serve," said Dr.
Arnold L. Oronsky, general partner at InterWest. "We are excited to welcome
these three luminaries to the InterWest team."
Dr. Jean-Lou Chameau leads one of the world's preeminent centers of
instruction and research in engineering and science, the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech). Prior to becoming president of Caltech,
Dr. Chameau served as professor, research scholar and provost of Georgia
Tech in Atlanta; he also served as dean of Georgia Tech's College of
Engineering, the largest engineering school in the country. His
undergraduate education took place in France and he received his graduate
degree in civil engineering from Stanford University. He is the former
president of Golder Associates, an international geotechnical consulting
company, and currently serves on the boards of directors for MTS Systems
Corporation, the Academic Research Council of Singapore, the Council on
Competitiveness, and l'Ecole Polytechnique. Dr. Chameau was the recipient
of a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the
ASCE Arthur Casagrande Award, the Rodney Chipp Memorial Award from the
Society of Women Engineers, and the Prix Nessim Habif from the Ecole
Nationale Superieure des Arts-et-Metiers.
Leroy Hood, M.D., Ph.D., has been a member of the InterWest Life
Sciences Advisory Committee and will be expanding his relationship with
InterWest by joining InterWest's Advisory Committee. He is the president
and co-founder of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, a pioneer
in systems approaches to biology and medicine. Dr. Hood's research has
focused on the study of molecular immunology, biotechnology and genomics.
His professional career began at Caltech, where he and his colleagues
developed the DNA gene sequencer and synthesizer and the protein
synthesizer and sequencer -- four instruments that paved the way for the
successful mapping of the human genome. A pillar in the biotechnology
field, Dr. Hood has played a role in founding more than 14 biotechnology
companies, including Amgen, Applied Biosystems, Systemix, Darwin and
Rosetta. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National
Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. Of the 6,000+
scientists elected to one or more of these academies, Dr. Hood is one of
only seven scientists elected to all three of them. He is also a member of
the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. His work has been widely published and he has coauthored numerous
textbooks in biochemistry, immunology, molecular biology and genetics, as
well as a popular book on the human genome project, The Code of Codes. He
is the recipient of numerous awards, including the prestigious 2004
Biotechnology Heritage Award.
Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., is currently the director of the Engleberg
Center for Health Reform, senior fellow in Economic Studies and Leonard D.
Schaeffer Director's Chair in Health Policy Studies at the Brookings
Institution in Washington, D.C., where he is actively involved in
healthcare technology, policy and economics. From 2004 to 2006, Dr.
McClellan was the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this
position, he was responsible for administering the Medicare and Medicaid
programs, including Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit program
engendered by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and
Modernization Act. From 2002 to 2004, Dr. McClellan was the commissioner of
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), following unanimous Senate
confirmation. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. McClellan served on the
President's Council of Economic Advisors and was associate professor of
economics at Stanford University, associate professor of medicine at
Stanford Medical School, a practicing internist and director of the Program
on Health Outcomes Research at Stanford University. He was also a research
associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and a visiting
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Dr. McClellan has twice
received the Arrow Award for Outstanding Research in Health Economics. He
received an M.D. from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and
Technology, a Ph.D. in economics from MIT, and an MPA from the Harvard
University Kennedy School of Government; he is board certified in internal
medicine.
Drs. Chameau, Hood and McClellan will be joining current Advisory
Committee members Frank Marshall and Professor John G. McDonald:
Frank Marshall is a consultant and investor in early-stage technology
companies. Mr. Marshall is a former director of Juniper Networks (Nasdaq:
JNPR) and PMC-Sierra Inc. (Nasdaq: PMCS) and the former chairman of
Netscreen Technologies Inc. (acquired by Juniper Networks). He served as
vice chairman and interim CEO at Covad Communications during the company's
turnaround and restructuring in 2000 and 2001. Mr. Marshall is the former
vice president and general manager of Cisco Systems' Core Business Unit,
the founding vice president of engineering at Convex Computer, and the vice
president and general manager of computer products at Mostek. He received
his M.S.E.E. at the University of California at Irvine.
Professor John G. (Jack) McDonald is the Stanford Investors Professor
in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is a
recognized expert in private and public equity investing and has served as
the vice chairman of the Board of Governors for the National Association of
Securities Dealers (NASD), which operated the NASDAQ Stock Market.
Professor McDonald currently serves on the boards of mutual funds managed
by Capital Research and Management Company and a number of other companies.
He has been a member of the InterWest Advisory Committee since its
inception in 1979. 2008 marks Professor McDonald's 41st year at Stanford
GSB teaching Investment Management and Entrepreneurial Finance, a course on
fundamental investing in public and private equity markets for second-year
MBA students at Stanford. He also teaches Private Equity Investing and
Venture Capital, as well as an investment seminar that he first introduced
in the late 1960s at Stanford.
About InterWest Partners
Investing since 1979, InterWest Partners is a leading diversified
venture capital firm currently investing InterWest IX, a $600 million fund.
With more than $2B in capital under management, InterWest takes a long-term
collaborative approach to venture funding, providing early-stage and
ongoing capital, management development and access to a broad network of
resources in the life sciences and information technology industries. More
information can be found at http://www.interwest.com
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Eliot Dobris
Feinstein Kean Healthcare
Tel: 415 902-1241
eliot.dobris@fkhealth.com
SOURCE InterWest Partners
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Related links:
http://www.interwest.com
CONTACT:
Eliot Dobris, Feinstein Kean Healthcare,
+1-415-902-1241 eliot.dobris@fkhealth.com, for InterWest Partners
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