On Thursday, October 17th, BAHBL hosted a CFO Breakfast with 40 Senior Finance Executives in attendance. At Biocom’s SSF building, PwC’s Greg Vlahos led a riveting panel discussion on the topic of: “Do You Have What It Takes to Join a Board?” The panel of current/former CFOs and Board Directors (Tim Barabe, Chris Lowe, Bob McNamara, Smital Shah, and Ward Wolff) provided valuable perspective and keen insights, helping the audience to lay the groundwork now to secure Board seats in the coming months and years.
Moderator:
• Greg Vlahos
o Leads PwC’s Northern CA Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences industry group
o Partner with 30 yrs of experience and a CPA; provides services to public and privately-owned biotech and med device companies worldwide
Panelists:
● Tim Barabe
○ Former CFO at Affymetrix, Human Genome Sciences, Molnlycke Health Care Limited, Sandoz, CIBA Vision
○ Current Boards: Selecta Biosciences, Veeva Systems, ArQule, Vigilant Bios, and Project Open Hand
● Chris Lowe
○ CFO at Cortexyme, Managing Partner for FLG Partners, Board Member at EpiBiome
○ Former Board Member for Hansen Medical, Pacific Pharmaceuticals, Asante Solutions, and Inspyr Therapeutics
● Bob McNamara
○ Former CFO at LDR (now Zimmer Biomet), Accuray, Somnus Medical Tech, Target Therapeutics)
○ Current Board Member at Axonics Modulation Technologies and Xtant Medical.
○ Former Board Member for Northstar Neurosciences
● Smital Shah
○ CFO & CBO for ProQR Therapeutics
○ Current Board Member for Pliant Therapeutics
● Ward Wolff
○ Former CFO for Abgenix (Amgen), Nuvelo, Sangamo Therapeutics
○ Current Board Member for Calithera Biosciences, Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Portola Pharmaceuticals
○ Former Board Member for MAP Pharmaceuticals and Sangamo Therapeutics