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Thomas R. Tritton

Thomas R. Tritton is the second president of CHF, succeeding Arnold Thackray, who founded the organization in Philadelphia in 1982. Tritton served as the twelfth president of Haverford College from 1997 to 2007. He is a cancer chemotherapy research expert with over 150 publications and whose work was continuously funded by the American Cancer Society and the National Institutes of Health. Before Haverford he was a professor of pharmacology for twelve years each at Yale University and the University of Vermont. At UVM he also served as deputy director of the Vermont Comprehensive Cancer Center—a Designated Center of the National Cancer Institute—and as vice provost of the university. In 2007, before assuming the CHF presidency, Tritton was at Harvard University, where he held the title of "president in residence" at the Graduate School of Education. He worked with graduate students in higher education, wrote and taught about leadership and the college presidency, and also designed a new course on "Social Justice." Tom earned a bachelor of arts degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. from Boston University.

Nigel Greig

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Nigel Greig was trained as a pharmacologist with a background in medicinal chemistry and physiology. He gained his Ph.D. from the University of London, specifically from the pharmacology department of the Royal College of Surgeons, England. Leaving the cancer chemotherapy department of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London, he joined NIA in 1982. His initial studies focused on optimizing the delivery to and action of drugs within the brain. Leaving NIA in 1989, Greig was involved in the initiation of the successful California biotechnology company, Athena Neurosciences, now Elan Pharmaceuticals. The company was launched on technology from Greig’s program. Returning to NIA as a tenured scientist in 1991, his research has evolved into his present interest, the design and development of drugs and diagnostics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, with particular emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease, and of type 2 diabetes. He heads the Drug Design and Development Section of the Laboratory of Neurosciences that extensively collaborates within NIA, academia, and industry. This collaboration has resulted in the development of several agents from concept in the laboratory, through the required U.S. Government regulatory requirements, to the bedside. Patents covering a variety of novel compounds of clinical interest have now been licensed from the NIA to industry and are in preclinical and clinical development, and new research within his program is providing both publications and patent applications to support potential drugs of the future.

William Wong

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William Wong is a twenty-five-year veteran of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. At TREVENTIS and at his previous position at Neuro-Hitech, Inc., he was responsible for discovery research and clinical development of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease. Over his career he has served as a senior manager at Becton-Dickinson Corporation, E. I. DuPont Company, Zynaxis, Inc., Intracel Corporation, Nexell Therapeutics, Inc., and Lynx Therapeutics, Inc. Wong received his Ph.D. under Frank E. Young, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

Maria L. Maccecchini

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Maria Maccecchini received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Rockefeller University and spent two years at the California Institute of Technology as a postdoc in molecular biology. She took her first job at Mallinckrodt as a research scientist and her second job as general manager of Bachem Bioscience, a U.S. subsidiary of a Swiss company. In the early 1990s she started her own biotech company—Symphony Pharmaceuticals. After acquiring a Scottish and a Japanese company, Symphony later changed its name to Annovis. The company develops, manufactures, and markets a variety of nucleic acid–based products and services for businesses in the life-sciences sector. In 2001 Annovis was acquired by Transgenomic, Inc.

After the sale of her company Maccecchini joined two angel groups—Robin Hood Ventures and Mid-Atlantic Angel Group. She mainly invests in the life-sciences sector: biotechnology, diagnostics, and medical devices. She serves on boards of several biotechnology companies; organizations that promote entrepreneurship, international trade, and women; charitable organizations; and Robin Hood Ventures. Maccecchini does not only invest dollars in early-stage companies; she also mentors them in start-up, strategy, management, and finance. In May 2008 Maccecchini started her second company, QR Pharma, with clinical-stage technology licensed from NIH/Torrey Pines. The company is developing two therapeutics for Alzheimer’s disease: both may stop the progression of the disease, while one targets early-stage Alzheimer’s and the second one targets late-stage disease.

Jennifer Hartt

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Jennifer Hartt is director of Investments, Life Sciences, at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA (BFTP). Jenn joined BFTP in late 2005 after nearly five years working in technology commercialization and equity portfolio management at the University of Pennsylvania, in Treasury and the Center for Technology Transfer, where she was associate director of business development and equity. BFTP was established in 1982 to stimulate economic growth through innovation, entrepreneurship, and the development and adoption of new technologies. BFTP provides capital and expertise in technology, finance, and business to help entrepreneurs and established businesses overcome challenges and plan for growth. Jenn directs all the BFTP life-sciences investments in those early-stage companies, with technologies ranging from medical devices and diagnostics to therapeutics. Earlier life-sciences BFTP investments included Immunicon, Adolor, and ViroPharma. Younger portfolio companies representing more recent investments include such companies as NuPathe, Protez, Topaz, LumenVu, and BioNanomatrix. Jenn holds or has held a nonvoting board-observer position on many portfolio company boards, including for the twenty-one companies in which she has closed twenty-eight investments since coming to BFTP.

Jenn holds a bachelor’s degree, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, as well as a master’s degree in biology, both from the University of Pennsylvania. She has previous experience in lab research, business consulting, licensing, and equity management. She has been active as a member in the Licensing Executive Society and has been an invited conference speaker nationally and internationally—for example, at Association of University Technology Managers events and at BIO—on the subjects of financial modeling of partnerships and licensing, valuation, and start-ups. Jenn is involved in many regional activities in technology education and commercialization: for example, being on a science curriculum audit committee, evaluating business plans such as in certain M.B.A. courses, judging entrants in the Eastern Technology Council Enterprise Awards, mentoring students, and representing her organization on the oversight committee for Coulter funding of translational research at Drexel University.