Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States
The NC Biotechnology Center is a private, non-profit corporation supported by the NC General Assembly. Its mission is to provide long-term economic and societal benefits to North Carolina by supporting biotechnology research, business, education and strategic policy statewide including the Piedmont Triad. In support of the “New Jobs across North Carolina: A Strategic Plan for Growing the Economy Statewide through Biotechnology”, the Advisory Committee for Biotechnology in the Piedmont Triad held its first official meeting on April 16, 2004 with inaugural Chairperson, Rosemary Wander, PhD as then Associate Provost for Research and Public / Private Sector Partnerships at UNC Greensboro and Gwyn Riddick, Founding Director of the first statewide office of the NC Biotech in the region. Currently, Michael Kelly, COO and CFO at Piedmont Pharmaceuticals serves as Chair and Nancy Johnston as the Executive Director for the NC Biotech Piedmont Triad Office. Biotech Friends is intended to be a network of Piedmont Triad leaders and NC Biotech working collaboratively to support connections, innovation and job growth. For over a decade volunteer committee members have worked closely with the NC Biotech’s Piedmont Triad Office, advocating for and enabling life science employment growth throughout the region. Initiatives have included the Wet Lab LaunchPad located in the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter; the NanoBioLab at Gateway University Research Park, which both provide lab space to early stage companies; Triad BioNight, the marquee event for the Triad’s biotechnology community; and strategic work plans such the “21 Strategic Recommendations Plan” and “BioIgnite”, focused on innovation, infrastructure, and investment to help grow jobs. BioIgnite is being led by Randy Pool, PE, Managing Partner of Stantec. In 2013, the Executive Council of the Advisory Committee was established. The Council is being led by Bill Dean, President of billdeanStrategies, LLC.