State charges board with growing life science industry
New York State has created a Life Science Advisory Board—which includes a member from Rochester— charged with furthering a thriving life science industry.
The board will consist of 15 leading experts in academia, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and venture capital. It will advise the State’s $620 million Life Science Initiative announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in December 2016 to fuel the growth of a world- class life science cluster in New York.
“New York’s life science industry is expanding like never before – creating jobs, spurring new advancements and research, and growing our economy,” Cuomo said. “The Life Science Advisory Board will provide invaluable input as New York State continues to build a world-leading hub for this emerging sector.”
The New York State Life Science Advisory Board will provide guidance and recommendations on the state’s efforts to grow a vibrant and sustainable life science ecosystem. The group will accomplish that through enhanced tax incentives, grants for wet-lab and innovation space, investment capital for early stage companies, and matching funds for private sector partnerships.
The list of members includes Rochester-based Carestream Health CEO Kevin Hobert. The others are:
- David Carmel, Head of Immunotherapy, Atara Biotherapeutics Inc.
- Russell Carson, Co-Founder and General Partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe
- Dr. Anthony Coles, Chairman & CEO of Yumanity Therapeutics
- Dr. Michael Foley, Director of the Tri-Institutional Therapeutics Discovery Institute
- William Ford, CEO of General Atlantic LLC
- Maria Gotsch, President and CEO at the Partnership Fund for New York City
- Rudolph Leibel, Christopher J. Murphy Memorial Professor of Diabetes Research at Columbia University
- Seymour Liebman, Executive Vice President of Canon USA Inc.
- Freda Lewis-Hall, Chief Medical Officer at Pfizer
- Richard Lifton, President of Rockefeller University
- Norma Nowak, Executive Director of University at Buffalo’s New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences
- Robert Press, Senior Vice President and Vice Dean, Chief of Hospital Operations and Chief Medical Officer at NYU Langone
- Amy Schulman, Entrepreneur Partner at Polaris Partners
- Craig Thompson, President and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Robert Urban, Global Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation