Immunoids, and friends of Immunoids, listen up. Come December, it will be 10 years since Immunex agreed to be acquired by Amgen. I figure it’s the perfect time to reunite the people who lived through the exhilarating, and sometimes terrifying, experience of building Seattle’s first major biotech company.
So I’m super-psyched to say that we are bringing together a dream team of Immunex alumni for Xconomy’s next big event in Seattle, called “The Immunex Impact” on December 1.
Here are the confirmed speakers who will be there to tell a few war stories from their Immunex days, and to connect with lots of friends old and new:
—Steve Gillis, Immunex co-founder, now managing director, Arch Venture Partners
—Christopher Henney, Immunex co-founder, now chairman and interim CEO, Oncothyreon
—Doug Williams, Immunex chief technology officer, now executive vice president of R&D, Biogen Idec
—Stewart Parker, Immunex’s first employee, now CEO, Infectious Disease Research Institute
—Steve Graham, Immunex’s longtime corporate attorney, now co-chair of life sciences, Fenwick & West
—Janis Wignall, Immunex scientist and science education leader, now a consultant
—Dave Urdal, Immunex president of manufacturing, now chief scientific officer, Dendreon
I plan to make sure the speeches are short and sweet, leaving plenty of time for what this event is really about. It’s a chance to connect and re-connect with the Immunex network that continues to make a big impact on Seattle biotech every day.
This event will be from 6 pm to 8:30 pm on December 1 at the Institute for Systems Biology’s new headquarters in South Lake Union. ISB president Lee Hood (not a co-founder of Immunex, but a biotech industry godfather nonetheless) is planning to provide some opening remarks. I’m going to encourage him to reminisce a bit about what he was doing in 1981 when this whole biotech business started really taking off.
As if you couldn’t already tell, I’m chomping at the bit to get this event started. To get your tickets, check out the new “Immunex Impact” registration page here. See you there at the ISB on December 1.
