The Scripps Research Institute Announces New Board Members and Chairman of the Board

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), one of the world's largest, private, non-profit research organizations, today announced the appointment of nine new members to its Board of Directors, including John D. Diekman, who will serve as chairman of the board. Diekman replaces Richard A. Gephardt, who is retiring from the board after seven years of service.

“I am pleased to welcome such an esteemed, world-renowned group of education, business and scientific leaders to TSRI's Board of Directors,” said Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., President of TSRI and the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr). “The unique and extensive expertise of our existing and newly appointed board members will be critical to the advancement of our vision of a self-sustaining, 'bench-to-bedside,' non-profit model that not only advances science through basic research but also rapidly translates new discoveries into life-saving medicines for the public benefit.

“On behalf of the entire Institute, I would also like to thank Richard Gephardt for his insightful leadership and steadfast support over the past seven years. His wide-ranging experience and commitment to advancing our mission is greatly appreciated, and we wish Richard all the best.”

TSRI Board of Director Appointees

Chairman John D. Diekman, Ph.D.
Diekman is a Founding Partner of 5AM Ventures, a life science venture capital firm in San Francisco. Prior to founding 5AM in 2002, Diekman was a Founder and Managing Director of Bay City Capital. Previously, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Affymetrix, and Chairman and Managing Director of Affymax.

Diekman currently serves as chairman of the board of IDEAYA Biosciences and as a board member of Wildcat Discovery Technologies. He is a Charter Trustee of Princeton University and a former Trustee of The California Institute of Technology and of The Scripps Research Institute. Diekman serves on the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics Advisory Board at the University of Southern California and is an Honorary Officer of the Order of Australia.

He received his doctoral degree from Stanford University and holds an honorary doctoral degree from Australia’s Monash University.

Herb Boyer, Ph.D.
Boyer is internationally recognized for his pioneering discovery of recombinant DNA, which has led to numerous life-saving medicines. He co-founded Genentech in 1976 with the late venture capitalist Robert Swanson, breaking new ground for both life science technology and new business models. He is now retired and is Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco.

In 2004, Business Week magazine named Boyer one of the "Greatest Innovators of the Past 75 Years," and he was featured on the cover of TIME magazine in 1981 with a story titled, "Shaping Life in the Lab: The Boom in Genetic Engineering, Genentech's Herb Boyer."

Boyer has received numerous prestigious awards for his work including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the National Medal of Science, the Lemelson-MIT Prize and the Albany Medical Prize. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Gerald Chan, Ph.D.
Chan co-founded Morningside, a private equity and venture capital firm, in 1986.

In life science, Morningside has been the founding or major investor in many biotechnology companies. In oncology, the investments include oncolytic viruses (Biovex, DNATrix), immuno-oncology (Aduro), modified cytotoxic agents (Nucana) and novel therapeutic targets (CellCentric, K-Gen, Vigeo). Investments in infectious diseases include antibiotics (MicuRx, Artugen), prophylactic vaccines (Matrivax) and antivirals (Atea). Investments in other therapeutic areas include metabolic diseases (CVI), autoimmune diseases (Kezar), CNS disorders (Orthogonal, Pinteon, Cognoa, Cognito) and rare orphan diseases (Stealth, Apellis).

Chan received his doctoral degree from Harvard University and conducted his post-doctoral fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Mark Edwards
As Founder and Managing Director of Recombinant Capital (Recap) from 1988 until its sale to Deloitte in 2008, Edwards supervised the creation and maintenance of several databases relating to the development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products, including the Recap Corporate Alliances Database. Over this period, Edwards and Recap were retained by more than 50 companies to assist in the negotiation of biopharma alliances. In 2011, Edwards founded Bioscience Advisors, Inc. (Biosci), a consulting and database firm focused on biopharma alliances.

Edwards serves on the boards of directors of AcelRx and Calibr. In 2008, Edwards was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Liver Foundation for "two decades of leadership, thoughtful insights and detailed analysis of the biotechnology industry." He holds a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.

Isy Goldwasser
Goldwasser is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Thync, Inc. Prior to founding Thync, Goldwasser was Chief Executive Officer of Symyx Technologies, where he was the company's first employee. In addition to his 16 years at Symyx, Goldwasser was Khosla Ventures' Entrepreneur-in-Residence in 2010. He is a named inventor on more than 30 U.S., European and Canadian patents.

Goldwasser has served on Calibr’s board since its inception and brings two decades of experience in managing corporate operations and business development. He holds a Master of Science degree from Stanford University. 

William R. Hearst III
Hearst is Chairman of the Board of Hearst Corporation, one of the nation's largest diversified media and information companies, and he has been a Director of Hearst Corporation for more than 30 years. He is also President of the charitable William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and he has been actively engaged in the charitable activities and programs of the Hearst Foundation for the last 20 years.

Hearst joined the venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in 1995 as a Managing Partner and has continued his work with KPCB as an Affiliated Partner since 2006.

He currently serves on the boards of numerous organizations, including the Carnegie Institution for Science, FORA.tv, the San Francisco Film Society and The Center for Investigative Reporting. Hearst is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was recently appointed an associate in mathematics by the Department of Mathematics at Harvard University. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

Ge Li, Ph.D.
Li is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WuXi AppTec, a leading research and development capability and technology platform company serving the global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. Prior to founding WuXi in 2000, Li was a founding scientist at Pharmacopeia Inc., a leading combinatorial chemistry platform company.

Li has received numerous prestigious awards and honors and was named one of Forbes 25 Notable Chinese-Americans and one of the 25 Most Influential People in Biopharma by FierceBiotech. He received his doctoral degree from Columbia University.

Christopher T. Walsh, Ph.D.
Walsh is a Consulting Professor to the Stanford University Department of Chemistry and was previously the Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School for 26 years when he took emeritus status. He has had extensive academic leadership experience, including Chairmanship of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Chemistry Department and of the Harvard Medical School Department of Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology, as well as serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Walsh has been involved in a variety of venture-based biotechnology companies since 1981 and currently serves on the boards of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Proteostasis Therapeutics and Calibr, and on the scientific advisory boards of Hua Medicine, Abide Therapeutics, Cidara Therapeutics and Flex Pharma, Inc. He serves as an advisor to HealthCare Ventures and is a limited investor in HealthCare Ventures, MPM Capital, Clarus Financial Technology and the Longwood Fund.

Walsh is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and is a co-recipient of the 2010 Welch Award in Chemistry. He earned a doctoral degree from Rockefeller University.

Faculty Board Appointee Paul Schimmel, Ph.D
Schimmel is Hahn Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine and Chemistry at TSRI. He was formerly MacArthur Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Author or co-author of several hundred scientific publications, he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine (Institute of Medicine), the National Academy of Inventors and the American Philosophical Society. He is the co-founder/founding director of seven biopharmaceutical corporations that went on to be NASDAQ-listed and publicly traded, and of a number of private corporations. Schimmel earned his doctoral degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Current TSRI Board Members

Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., Vice Chair of the Board and President, The Scripps Research Institute; President, Calibr

Peter C. Farrell, Ph.D., D.Sc., Founder and Chairman, ResMed

Claudia S. Luttrell, President, The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology

Mark Pearson, Co-Founder, Vice Chairman of the Board, Drawbridge Realty Trust

Bernard Saint-Donat, President, Saint-Donat & Co.

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