Providing You With Top Execs

By Rob Wright

The past few days have been a whirlwind for me. I just got back from the 2011 R&D Leadership Summit in Miami, where Life Science Leader was the only magazine invited to attend the event. The first day’s keynote was given by Ken Getz, Ph.D., senior research fellow from Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. Getz discussed new directions in achieving regulatory efficiencies with an overview on changes we can expect in the next 18 to 24 months. The next day I listened to Fred Hassan, former CEO of Schering-Plough and current chairman of the board for Bausch & Lomb, discuss strategies that will drive successful drug development in the future. Of particular interest were his insights on the growing role of translational medicine in drug development.

The R&D Leadership Summit was teeming with the type of top executives who constantly grace our cover. I’m sure I’ll be able to leverage some of the connections I made at the event to secure some future interviews. In the meantime, though, this month we are proud to present you with an exclusive interview with a man whom you may have seen recently on 60 Minutes.

Craig Venter, founder of Celera Genomics, is an American biologist and entrepreneur who is most famous for being one of the first to sequence the human genome. The British magazine New Statesman listed Venter at 14th on its list of “The World’s 50 Most Influential Figures” in 2010. See what he had to say in his Life Science Leader exclusive interview with Cliff Mintz on page 8.

And don’t forget, aside from the top life science executives in our feature articles, we have now added some of the most respected names on the topic of business leadership in our “Leadership Lessons” section (p. 66). Last month we launched this new section with a column from John Baldoni, an internationally recognized leadership development consultant. If we used your question for this month’s “Ask the Board” section (p. 7), you should soon receive your copy of Baldoni’s book, 12 Steps to Power Presence: How to Assert Your Authority. Keep those questions coming, as we will be giving away other leadership books in the future. Send your questions to our editorial board at atb@lifescienceconnect.com.