The Life Science Committee of the French American Chamber of Commerce San Francisco, organizes one conference per quarter to discuss important topic of this industry. It also promotes other organizations' events fitted to our Membership and Calendar.

On this calendar of events, you will find all the Life Science activities organized and supported by the French American Chamber of Commerce San Francisco.
 

To receive any information or for sponsoring, please do not hesitate to contact us

Through its Biotech committee, the FACCSF organizes events on various subject related to the Biotechnology field.

2008 Life Science Calendar events

Tuesday, May 13th, Reimbursement, San Francisco

Tuesday, February 12th,  "Bioinformatics", San Francisco
 

2007 Life Science Calendar events

Thursday, January 11th,  “Corporate Venture Financing: a creative alternative to traditional Venture Capital”

Monday, April 23rd,  "Globalization of Clinical trials", San Francisco

Tuesday September 25th,  “From Market to Discovery and Back, the Value of Early Commercialization"  , San Francisco

Thursday, October 18th, "Global Health, Biotech Innovation and International Education" at The Institute of International Education, San Francisco

Tuesday, December 4th,  "Personalized medicines", San Francisco
 

2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 events

Life Science Committee Members

Chair

Marie Alice Dibon - Alice Communications Inc, Principal
Didier Perez - Inoventures Inc, Managing Partner

Other Members

Elie Asmar - Interpro
Roland Barakett FFMRE
Pierre Cassigneul - XDX, President and CEO
Thomas Celerier - Cap Gemini
Georges-Igor Chagvardieff - Embassy of France / Economic Department,
Deputy Attache, Pharmacy & Biotechnologies
Nadine Defranoux
Toby Freedman - Life Science Consultant
Cecile Gouffrant
Robert Krebs - Thelen Reid and Associates
Charlotte Rogers - Business Development and Marketing Consultant

 

Dr. Dibon is currently President of Alice Communications Inc. a scientific communications and business development company she created in 2000.
ACI clients include French and American biotechs,  leading US skin care treatment companies, French regional development agencies as well as American government agencies.
Prior to starting Alice Communications, Dr. Dibon worked in France and the US for 15 years. In France, she worked as a Pharmacist, in hospital settings (biology labs and clinical services) and private practices and later as an Advertising Manager for a French recruitment magazine.  Her wide work experience in the US  includes managing  technical operations in the field of skin care, OTC topicals and medical devices  for several private label manufacturers on the West Coast, where she  was in charge of R&D and quality control laboratories as well as production facilities for 8 years . In addition, Dr. Dibon has spent several years providing coverage of the US biotechnology industry for the French business press (Les Echos, Groupe Pearson, L'Expansion, Groupe Vivendi Universal, Cosmedias). 
She holds a doctorate in Industrial Pharmacy as well as a Post Graduate Degree of Upper Specialized Studies from the Lyon Institute of Industrial Pharmacy.

Didier Perez
Inoventures Inc, Managing Partner

Innovation Ventures LLC, Founding Partner since 1999 - During the last six years, Didier Perez was involved with the following portfolio companies: COO and CFO of Investigen Inc, a molecular diagnostics company, Director of MarketNews International, a financial news network that specializes in fixed income news, CEO of AuthentiSure, a security and authentication company, and Chief Financial Officer of MagnetPoint, a software telecommunication company. Prior to that, Didier Perez was Managing Director at Plantagenet Capital Management, an investment banking firm specialized in turnaround and M&A situations. Prior to that, he was an international financial consultant with Merrill Lynch.  Mr. Perez has over twenty- five years of experience in working with small to medium size companies.
Mr. Perez serves as Director on the Boards of Investigen Molecular Diagnostics, UCSF Mont Zion Hospital Healthcare Fund, AuthentiSure Inc and of the French American Chamber of Commerce as Co-Chair of the Biotech Committee. 49 years old, married with two daughters Hannah 17, and Melanie 15.

Elie W. Asmar
Interpro

Elie Asmar is co-founder and CEO of Interpro, a project knowledge management corporation. Interpro specializes in developing and implementing strategic initiatives for global organizations in the semiconductor, information technology and biotechnology industries.
Elie is also an instructor at UC Berkeley Extension and at the University of San Francisco. His courses include Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility and Project Leadership.
 

Cecile Gouffrant
LEDA Consulting LLC

Cécile Gouffrant, President and Founder of LEDA Consulting LLC, offers dynamic business solutions to the Life Science industry worldwide. The services provided range from business development activities such as licensing or strategic alliance deals, to business education such as worldwide negotiations, and business coaching including for management or project teams.
Cécile’s background spans Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology & Diagnostics industries, and includes expertise in business development, partner management, clinical research and project management. Her career comprises of leadership positions with Bayer HealthCare, Pharmacia, parexel International and OXO Chemie. Cécile holds a B.S. in Marketing and a M.S. in Psychology, Université of Bordeaux, France. She is fluent in French and Spanish. In addition to the SF-FACC (San Francisco French American Chamber of Commerce), she is a member of LES (Licensing Executives Society), WITI (Women In Technology International) and ISPSO (International Society of Psycho-analytical Studies of Organizations).

Pierre Cassigneul
XDX, President and CEO

Pierre Cassigneul is the president and chief executive officer of XDx Inc. Mr. Cassigneul has more than 20 years of senior management experience in the healthcare and medical device industries, both in Europe and the United States, including the global launch of several successful high-tech products. He joined XDx from the consulting firm, Stone Bridge Management LLC, where he was an operating partner. Formerly, as the vice president of diabetes management at Becton Dickinson & Co, he oversaw completion of the product, clinical trials and regulatory submissions. 
Mr. Cassigneul has held top management positions at Bayer in the diabetes self-testing business unit, where he developed and launched a new patient-monitoring system; Ortho Diagnostic Systems (J&J) in the AIDS and hepatitis business unit, where he launched a complete line of blood screening products; and Abbott Laboratories in the diagnostic division, where he launched the first HIV test for screening the European blood supply. 
Mr. Cassigneul holds a management degree from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Reims, France. He is fluent in English, French and German.

Toby Beth Freedman, Ph.D.
Author, Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development
Executive Search Consultant
Toby has been a scientist who has transitioned into business as a writer, recruiter and entrepreneur. She is currently working full-time on her book about careers in biotechnology and drug development, which is scheduled to be published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Toby previously worked at BioQuest, an executive retained search firm with an exclusive life science focus. At BioQuest she assisted biotechnology companies by recruiting and placing VP to CEO-level executives. Prior to that she served as Director of Business Development at SLIL Biomedical, an emerging drug discovery company developing polymer therapeutics for cancer and other diseases. Toby received a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and as an undergraduate studied molecular evolution and gene regulation at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. As an NIH Fellow, she conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University and at the University of Texas-Austin.
Toby serves as a Board member of the BioScience Forum, www.biosf.org, a non-profit educational organization serving the Bay Area life science community.

Charlotte Rogers
Business Development and Marketing Consultant

Charlotte Rogers is a seasoned executive with more than 15 years of business development, and marketing experience in pre-IPO, mid-sized and large multi-national corporations specializing in therapeutics, diagnostics and genomic technologies.  She provides business development and marketing consulting services to clients ranging from pre-Series A to publicly traded companies. Charlotte has an outstanding record of creative deal-making to generate cash, accelerate product development, maximize product commercialization, and leverage relationships to increase post-deal success.  She has numerous closed in- and out-licensing licensing transactions valued at over $240 million.   Charlotte has spearheaded portfolio prioritization, life-cycle planning, and directed commercial strategy for products with projected revenues exceeding $2 billion. She is an expert at forecasting emerging markets, and accurately projected the value of the erectile dysfunction market several years prior to the launch of Viagra®.  Most recently, she was Vice President, Business Development at NuGEN, a genomics company.  She successfully built the company with the founders by transitioning the company from an incubator, completing two rounds of financing, and bringing  two genomic products to market in three years. Charlotte has held management positions at Syntex, Roche, Neurex, Elan and IntraBiotics.  She holds an M.B.A, and B.S. from Santa Clara University.

Previous events and activities ...

In 2006 we were delighted to organize 3 great events:

Monday, February 28th, Life Science Breakfast: "A look at obesity-related diseases, a 21st century crisis"
May 11th , Life Science Breakfast
October 3rd, life science breakfast

In 2005  we had a chance to have conferences such as:
- "Start-up in Biotech"
- "Personalized Medicine: Changing the Face of Healthcare?"
- "Drug Safety: Is the role of FDA and  consumer safety agencies going to change?"

In 2004, we had a chance to have conferences such as:
- French Life Science Awards reception
- "Global Life Science Partnering Reception" as an opening to Bio2004
- "Exit Strategies for Mature Biotech Firms"
- "Growing the Bioscience industry through Bio Entrepreneurship"
- "How Incubators can help Biotech Firms?"
- "Drug Pricing, do we need limits?"
The Biotech committee was one of the founding members of Bioswap a biotech networking initiative to help companies develop through Bio2004

In 2003, we had a chance to organize conferences such as:
- Industrial and Environmental Biotechnology, the other side of Biotech
- GMOs, the new deal