BioHaven Presents: Alternative Funding Sources & Insights

A Yale & BioCT Programing Partnership

Please join us and our diverse panel of advisors and investors for a discussion exploring the array of alternative funding sources available to bioscience start-ups; including federal and state funding, angel investors and angel groups, venture funding and venture philanthropy. Co-hosted by Shipman & Goodwin.

Moderator:

Dormer Stephen, Co-Chair of Shipman & Goodwin‘s Business and Finance Practice Group.

Dormer handles venture capital and private equity and debt transactions, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters. His practice involves the representation of Fortune 500 companies, private equity funds, emerging growth companies and investment banks in structuring, negotiating and documenting seed through later stage equity and debt investments, mezzanine financings, syndicated credit facilities, mergers and acquisitions, buyouts, rollup strategies, joint ventures, intellectual property transactions, work-outs and financial restructurings and general corporate matters.

Constituent companies are in a broad range of industries including financial services, insurance, life sciences, media, software and telecommunications. He also represents public and private clients in an “outside general counsel” capacity. Roles include counseling on strategic initiatives (such as joint ventures, joint development projects and intellectual property licensing and collaboration), commercial contract matters (such as distribution and supply agreements, license agreements and employment agreements) and other general corporate matters (such as employment and severance matters, equity incentive plans, corporate governance, real estate matters and insurance matters).

Prior to joining Shipman & Goodwin, Dormer was a Partner in the Corporate Department of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP.

Panelist confirmed to date:

David Wurzer, Executive Vice President & Chief Investment Officer, Connecticut Innovations

Dave is responsible for managing the investment function at CI, which includes staffing, portfolio and risk management, outreach, budget planning and performance measurement. He also is responsible for oversight of the Connecticut Bioscience Innovation Fund (CBIF) and the Regenerative Medicine Research Fund (RMRF).

When he joined CI in 2009 as senior managing director of investments, Dave had extensive senior-level experience in operations and finance, including more than 10 years as executive vice president, treasurer and CFO of CuraGen Corporation, a former CI portfolio company. Dave guided the biotech company through its initial public offering and helped raise more than $700 million. Dave was also involved in negotiating strategic and business development alliances with several pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Roche, Bayer and Amgen-Freemont (Abgenix). He helped to grow CuraGen and its technology development subsidiary into an operation with more than 500 employees and a market capitalization as high as $5.3 billion.

Dave began his professional career with Coopers & Lybrand in Hartford, Connecticut (now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers), where he held various accounting and managerial positions.

Liz Powell, Esq., MPH, Founder, G2G Consulting

Liz has over two decades of experience from working on health, Defense and economic development issues in Congress and as an attorney and lobbyist. She started G2G in 2007 and manages government relationships and operations in our Washington, D.C. She has secured government funding for organizations by working with numerous elected officials on both sides of the aisle.

Previously, Liz served as the Legislative Director for Congressman Jim Langevin (RI) and Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald (CA) in Washington, D.C., campaign staff for Congressional and presidential campaigns, Public Affairs Manager and lobbyist for a national association called NAADAC, the President of a women’s networking organization called WIN, and the Policy Analyst for the UK Parliament on the Health Committee. As a Capitol Hill Legislative Director, Liz managed all funding requests, prioritizing which ones were submitted to the Committee and performing all the necessary tasks to secure the funding. She also managed the House Armed Services Committee and Small Business Committee and ran the Congressional Women’s Caucus and launched the Congressional Disabilities Caucus. She has crafted legislation and campaigns to move bills through the process to enactment; built coalitions; ran a PAC (political action committee); and organized media events with public officials.

Mary Anne Rooke, Executive Director, Crossroads Venture Group

Mary Anne has over 30 years of experience in management consulting, strategic planning, accounting, finance, risk & health management, business operations and startup ventures. She has been an active leader in Connecticut’s investment and entrepreneurial community as chairman, president and managing director of Angel Investor Forum, executive director of the University of Connecticut Technology Incubation Programs in Storrs, Groton and Farmington and as executive-in-residence for Connecticut Innovations.

Mary Anne has expertise across many industries including service, manufacturing, life science, transportation, distribution and retail that she gained while working at Browning Ferris Industries (BFI), Quantum Corp., Syntex, Crowley Maritime, Inc., Vasocor Corp., Morgan Equipment Co., M. D. Oppenheim and TJX Companies and several startup ventures.

Mary Anne is also a mentor and adviser for tech startups at Yale and UConn.